Radio Corner

As a few of you know i recently fell in love with my NanoVNA, now after much tinkering i think i have my PMR antenna to a very happy place for my home base setup.  So i thought i do a lil run down of what i am using :)

My Radio is a Yaesu FTM-3207D

pmrAT.jpg

My antenna is a home made 1/4 wave Vertical "sputnik"
(connected to radio with RG8 cable 11m in length to the loft of the house. giving it a mere 37m above sea level)

pmrAT1.jpg

and this is the VNA sweep form 446Mhz to 446.3Mhz.

pmrVNA.jpg

Before the new cable and Antenna i was barely getting Nigel (the camper-van man) from his home base at S2/R4  Now its an easy S5-6/R5. looking forward to the nett kicking off again so i can have a good listern of some people in different areas.

I think there is still a few tiny adjustments i could make but for now i am very happy.
 Matt :)

Nice looking radio Matt, I haven't heard of it before. Does it do 446 out of the box or did it need modding. I wish I could find a mod for my FT991a as the only way at present to have TX on 446 is to set the frequency/power/squelch etc., turn off then hold 3 buttons in & switch on. ::)

Sputnik in the loft worked well before, I wonder if the 'tinkering' will allow me to hear you in Brighton. :-\

The vna screenshot is beyond me, but well done for all your efforts. :)

Tony
ps. Lets hope Johnny 5's does as well.

Yeh its lovely lil radio, but no it doesn't do 446 out the box it was wide banded before i brought it :) apparently its an easy mod but still beyond me  :)
The VNA i am still learning it but the yellow line shows the swr curve and value top left

it was definitely a shock on the net when voices started popping up i had never heard before :) 

Quote from: Matt on Jan 21, 2026, 12:52 AMYeh its lovely lil radio, but no it doesn't do 446 out the box it was wide banded before i brought it :) apparently its an easy mod but still beyond me  :)
The VNA i am still learning it but the yellow line shows the swr curve and value top left

it was definitely a shock on the net when voices started popping up i had never heard before :) 

Thanks Matt for the radio & VNA info.
Let's hope you have some more good shocks, I look forward to hearing about any more.