Good Transmission, Poor Reception

[OregonLC]

Buddy of mine has a similar radio (he a FTM-350, me a FTM-400). We have similar transmitting range but he has far superior reception. He can hear others way before I can pull them in. And he can her my transmission even on low power when I can't hear him on high power. If you look at our aprs trails on aprs.fi we're identical in range and location.

Hi antenna is mounted up high on his 4Runner baja rack while mine is on a front fender bracket on my 100. I've tried a couple of antennas and same result. I've even turned my squelch to zero and I can't hear the things he can hear.

Is there anything else going on that I should consider other than antenna placement? I would have thought that if the hood location was poor that I would be equally poor in transmitting as well as receiving. Anything else I should try before I pull the cable and relo the antenna?

 

[k9lestat]

What about the size of his antenna verses yours? Is hard mounted or magnetic mount?

Sent from my QMV7A using Tapatalk

 

[Frdmskr]

The ideal installation for any antenna is using an NMO mount in the center of the roof of a vehicle. There was a graphic from Motorola or Larsen (?) that showed the loss on installs when installing anyplace on a vehicle.

By putting the antenna down low and maybe shadowed (if have to see the exact mount location) in many directions by the vehicle you really aren't going to do well compared to your buddy.

Now I know the roof isn't always practical. 2 other mounting spots:

- tailgate clamp up high on side. This gets it high and clear but it's a clamp mount which can break loose if hit with a heavy branch.

- hood mount on the opposite side from your AM/FM antenna. This can be bolted or clamped on and is modestly high but still shadowed by the vehicle a bit.

Another item:

Check all connections and settings. Ensure they are tight and clean. Ensure you have accidentally muted him (done that).

Good luck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[4x4junkie]

... I would have thought that if the hood location was poor that I would be equally poor in transmitting as well as receiving.

That is generally how it works, yes.

Do you have another radio unit you can temporarily swap it out with? This should be able to rule out or confirm whether yours has a problem with it's receiver.

Another possibility is something generating RF interference in the vicinity of the antenna causing your receive to not hear signals as well (USB chargers can be one potential source, as can inverters and some lighting products such as HID or LED). If you still can't receive signals well after swapping to another radio (or if the radio is showing signal bars on the S-meter with it unsquelched), I'd start looking around for an interference source.

 

[Frdmskr]

Hood location would be better than a bumper. Obviously the roof is ideal as I noted, however not always practical. What antennas are you both using and what kind of mounts/cables?

 

[mm58]

Make sure that your radio, and especially your antenna, are properly grounded to your vehicle frame/body

 

[n1as]

Antennas are usually reciprocal. One that transmits well receives well and vise versa. Usually. If you're seeing a marked difference between TX and RX I'd suspect the radio or something messing with the radio.

As 4x4junkie says, do you have a different one to try?

 

[wirenut]

Obviously different radios, vehicles, and antenna mounting location. How about the antennas and mounts; also different? Essential you're comparing to completely different installation so I would expect them to be different. Antenna makes a huge difference as does the mounting location.
Have you checked the SWR on your radio? Maybe use an antenna analyzer on the antenna.
I'm not that familiar with those particular radios. Does yours have a pre-amp that could be turned off or do you have an attenuator turned on?