How long do I cut the limbs for PMR 446?

[NorthernRaider]

Cool, Ampifier duly forgotten about,
I will shorten coax as suggested.
The Delboy Dipole is made exactly as described with exactly 160mm limbs into choccy block connector with the coax soldered directly to the limbs/ choccy block. so there is only the one connector adaptor at tother end to connect the coax to the UV5RC, thats the PL259 -SMA male bit, is there a more efficient connector?
Wassa N type connector will it fit to SMA female on the radio??

I'll try and get dipole shifted from loft to outside corner where it will fasten to eaves.

[Lightspeed]

NR, another thought. Are you and boy-wonder using antennas in same polarisation? if he's holding his w/t upright with the antenna vertical, and your loft antenna is mounted horizontally, this will have a big effect on close range signal strength.... If I remember rightly the attenuation of signal with 90 degree out of alignment antennas is in the order of 20db!!!

Bet to rig your dipole with the shield of the coax connecting to the lower element and the centre core to the upper element. Try to ensure the feed line approaches the dipole at 90 degrees to the elements.

This is an N Type to SMA connector, but they are buggers to solder onto coax, so maybe get stuck into your shortening of coax and polarisation and location of dipole first, as the additional gains of this sort of connector may be unnecessary: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/N-Type-Male-Ja...20d58ea1a1

[NorthernRaider]

The brat is using a slightly longer than standard rubber duck on the hand set I bought that is what the Baofengs usually often get, though both are clearly marked as being FM 136-174 /400-520 Mhz.

The dipole is mounted verically exactly as the diagram, with the cable approaching the choccy block horizontally, the inner soldered to the upper pointing vertical limb and the outer shielding soldered to the downward pointing vertical limb .

I just had a look at a N type connector theres no way on earth I could solder something that small , the power connections on my model railway still are so bulky the train often jumps

Your advice is clear, concise and greatly appreciated
NR

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I'm going to see if I can borrow and SWR meter that does that range of Mhz cos my CB one is no where near.

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An NR armed with nothing more than a 4 watt soldering iron can make the street lights flicker and the whole streets house lights dim !! I would probably create a nuclar meltdown trying to solder a N connector

[Lightspeed]

Optical illusion....N type connectors are fractionally larger than PL259s.