The National Bureau of Standards tests of Public Safety high band and amateur 2-meter antennas indicate that a “rubber duck” has -5db, “negative gain” compared to a quarter wave held at face level. In terms of effective radiated power (ERP), this means that a 5 watt HT with rubber duck, radiates only 1 watt.
- Operating an HT on your belt results in another -20db attenuation, reducing ERP to 50 milliwatts! That’s 1/20 of one watt!
UHF results are no better…
Due to the design of the factory installed HT antenna, you are effectively missing half of the antenna! Now put the operator on the ground between buildings, cars, trees, and other people and you can see why they can’t hear or hold the repeater 😉