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I would like to build a Yagi antenna for my Baofeng UV-5R, but I'm a total newbie when it comes to amateur radios. The antenna will be for UHF and shouldn't be too long (like 1.5 meters max).

So my questions are: how many elements should I use? I'm little bit worried about Baofeng getting overloaded, I don't want to build an antenna that won't be usable with the Baofeng.

How exactly do you connect it to the Baofeng?

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    $\begingroup$ the larger elements of your yagi will be roughly half a wavelength – at UHF, that'll be in the order of half a meter. You'd connect that antenna with a coax cable to the antenna port of your radio. $\endgroup$
    – Marcus Müller
    Sep 29, 2019 at 11:11
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    $\begingroup$ There's a lot of yagi online calculators (example), and your dimensional requirements indicate you'd have at most 5 element yagi at 145 MHz. $\endgroup$
    – Marcus Müller
    Sep 29, 2019 at 11:18
  • $\begingroup$ Related question and answers here. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Waters ♦
    Oct 4, 2019 at 1:38
  • $\begingroup$ I slightly edited the title of your question. If what I did is not acceptable to you, feel free to change it. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Waters ♦
    Oct 4, 2019 at 1:45

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From personal experience UV-5R doesn't work well with external antennas. I'm not sure what is the reason, but from what I know it has something to do with the fact that most of RF part of this radio is implemented in one chip.

I have an experience of using a 3 element yagi with another 5W radio, Kenwood TH-D72A. 3 elements for 2m band and 5 elements for 70cm band is enough for making SAT QSOs. Kenwood TH-D72A is a little difficult to find these days, also this is not the cheapest radio. Something like Yaesu FT-60R or Yaesu FT-65R should work well with a yagi antenna, are not too expensive an are easy to find.

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  • $\begingroup$ This sounds like the outer shell of the antenna connector is not grounded. If so, then hand capacitance must be the "ground". Rats, I was looking forward to using an external antenna myself. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Waters ♦
    Oct 4, 2019 at 1:25
  • $\begingroup$ The output of a friend's UV-5R into a 50$\Omega$ dummy load met specifications. Why would a 50$\Omega$ antenna not behave the same? $\endgroup$
    – Brian K1LI
    Oct 22, 2019 at 16:16
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The yagi will not hurt your radio if it is made for the right frequency. I would recommend making a small 3 element yagi that you hold in your hand.

You remove the antenna that comes with the radio and then plug a cable in. The other end of the cable goes to the Yagi.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is likely a good answer, provided that Aleksander is mistaken. Unless someone else comes along with a different personal experience, I tend to believe that he is right. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Waters ♦
    Oct 4, 2019 at 1:32
  • $\begingroup$ Some baofengs have been reported to have poor front end filters. Those radios might be helped by a narrow band antenna, but will be hurt by a wideband antenna with high gain. So it could go either way, depending on how you build the antenna. Rumor is that their filters are getting better. $\endgroup$
    – user10489
    Oct 4, 2019 at 4:15
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The antenna on this page seems doable and does not appear to require soldering.

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    $\begingroup$ Please add enough information in your answer to answer the question. Links are good, but an answer should remain useful even if the links break. $\endgroup$
    – Kevin Reid AG6YO ♦
    Nov 6, 2019 at 22:14
  • $\begingroup$ OK, will do. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – BM2NHC
    Nov 6, 2019 at 22:18

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