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?
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.
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.
