📡 Elevate Your Signal Game!
The TWAYRDIO TW-YG05 Outdoor Yagi Antenna is a high-performance UHF antenna designed for mobile transceivers and repeaters, featuring a gain of 9dBi, lightweight aluminum alloy construction, and easy installation for optimal outdoor use.
T**Y
It actually works.
Got this Yagi antenna to use with my HT to do a fox hunt of some local repeaters jammers. Based on the photos I was this antenna is a decent size antenna. But when it came in a small box I was wow it's tiny.Assembly is super easy. Each elements are labeled and it comes with all the necessary hardware. Everything is helping in with sheet metal screw so I advise not to over torque the screws.Once everything was assembled. I hooked this up to my HT and pointed in the direction where a known repeater is at about 44 miles away. No more static noise and audio was loud and clear. Point the antenna away and I can't even activate the repeater so it functions like how it was design to do so. Reception is like hooking up to a base antenna with a 6dbi gain. You literally can be full quieting on the repeater.The antenna is made from thin wall aluminum and I would consider fragile. Since I'm not going to permanently mount this to a mast. And more going to use it while holding it in my hand. I'm going to reinforce the the main beam so it's not 2 pieces that is held together by a screw.It functions like a typical Yagi antenna and I hooked this up to my Comet SW meter and the reading super low. From 440Mhz all the way up to 478Mhz, SWR is around 1.2 to 1.4 which is very good in my book.Overall this is a great budget Yagi antenna that will perform like a big Omni directional antenna. The only downside is that it's on the fragile side.
C**G
Exceeds expectations
Works great, lots of compliments from those on the other end. Easy to assemble. Product was packaged well and came as described. Very low SWR's on repeater channels. Would buy again
W**.
Good antenna, but might not fair well in permanent outdoor applications.
I bought this antenna, to use with my Software Defined Radio (SDR) equipment, to track down an interfering radio signal. This antenna is VERY directional and has a great ‘front to back’ ratio. This allowed me to quickly and easily locate the interference. It turned out to be a malfunctioning weather station, which belonged to a neighbor. I was not only able to locate it, I also repaired it and installed a fresh battery. My interference is gone, and my neighbor is happy that her weather station is operating again. It was a ‘win’ for both of us!It was very simple to assemble. However, I wouldn’t advise putting too much torque on any of the screws. What really amazed me, was how wide-banded it was. After assembly, I attached the antenna to my Vector Network Analyzer. (VNA) The SWR ranged between 1.2:1 and 1.5:1 across the entire 400-470MHz specification, without ANY adjustments. It has a U-bolt for affixing it to a permanent mast, but I’m using it for a portable application. I purchased an inexpensive bicycle handgrip, which fit perfectly on the antenna beam, making it easier and more comfortable to hold. The whole antenna is very light, which makes it great for radio ‘fox-hunting’.Now, to be fair, this is only a $50 antenna, so I’m keeping that in mind, while listing anything I didn’t like. First, the elements are thin. Not horribly thin, but thin enough, that you don’t want to torque the screws very tight, or assemble/disassemble it too many times. If I were to place this antenna outside, for a permanent installation, I would add anti-seize to all threaded connections. (Except the coax connection.) All other electrical connections (gamma match, coax connection and element to boom connections) should be coated with dielectric grease and maintained at proper intervals. There are a few rivets that I would replace with stainless steel hardware, though, to prevent any possible future problems. Again, keeping in mind that this is a $50 antenna, so I wasn’t expecting it to be a long-lasting piece of gear.Would I recommend it? Absolutely! Would I recommend it for permanent, outdoor applications? Probably not, but it would probably work, if prepared and maintained properly. I don’t regret buying it. If it only lasted long enough to find the interference that I was Trying to locate, it was still worth the money. I may even use this antenna, combined with a similar144-148MHz (2 meter) antenna, for portable amateur radio satellite operation.
W**D
Bought Two. One was great, the other one not so much. But the replacement worked fine.
Quick Update on 12/28/2024 - I received the replacement antenna and it worked just fine. Both of these TW-YG05 Yagi antennas have been in use for months now and are working well. Upgraded review to 4 stars. I just ordered another one for mounting in a different location.Original Review: I bought two of these TW-YG05 Yagi antennas on two separate orders. The first one was delivered, all of the parts were there, the SWR checked good with my nanoVNA after just a slight amount of adjustment to the sliding block position. All good. Then I ordered another TW-YG05 which was delivered minus one of the tiny set screws for the sliding block. I was lucky enough to find a suitable set screw in my spare hardware. But then I checked the SWR of that antenna and it was over 15. I tried adjusting the slide block and no amount of adjustment would make the SWR come down. I rechecked my cables and connectors with an ohm meter, swapped cables and connectors, and still no luck. Then I decided to check the SWR with a Surecom SW-102 power/SWR meter. That was a bad idea, because with that meter, you have to transmit thru the meter to the antenna. Doing that promptly wrecked a brand new TD-H3 radio. That radio now has no output power, so I probably burned out the finals by transmitting for about 1 second to that antenna. I know - dumb move. Lesson learned. I'm not sure what was wrong with this antenna that caused the high SWR. Everything on the antenna looked exactly like the first one which worked fine. Maybe something was shorted inside the connector on the antenna. I returned the bad antenna and ordered a replacement TW-YG05. Hopefully the new one will be good. The main take-away from all of this is to check the SWR on these antennas before using them, and don't transmit into an antenna with a high SWR. Not even for a second. Especially not with a TD-H3 HT radio.
A**R
Tuned Perfectly for GMRS Frequencies (needs work for Ham)
Assembly was really easy. It’s meant to go on a pole but I put a bracket on mine to hold my radio so I could test it out. SWR was 1.01 at the GMRS repeater frequencies. Around 2 for the UHF frequencies of Ham, but I would need to remove the heat wrap to tune it better for Ham. Pretty pleased and just holding it in my hand was able to hit more repeaters than normal.
