Nagoya NA-701 and NA-771 Antennas
Nagoya NA-701 and fake sleeve
Nagoya NA-771 and non-existent sleeve
Prices: £1.27 for NA-701 and £1.78 for NA-771 shipped
Manufacturer: *Nagoya
Model/s: NA-701 and NA-771
Suitable for: Baofeng, Pofung + others with SMA male
Fitting: SMA female
RF Gain: +2.5dBs each
Antenna length:. NA-701 = 8ins NA-771=. 15ins approx
Vendor: Seller via ebay
Shipped From: China
Vendor: Seller via ebay
Shipped From: China
*These antennas are not made by Nagoya
First Impressions
I knew these were going to be fake before I even ordered them. Especially at the price I paid for them there's no way I could get a genuine Nagoya for less than £8 (I could be wrong?) .
So with that already in mind it was easy to set my expectations to low. I just wanted something that works at least as good as the antenna I have now. A couple of cheap replacement antennas.
Both Antennas arrived a week apart in different types of packaging. The first to land was the NA-701 which came in a Nagoya style plastic sleeve, folded in half and stuffed into a bubble air mail pouch.
The NA-771 arrived without Nagoya sleeving. Just folded in half and stuffed into a cardboard envelope thing?
Thankfully both were in good condition despite the dubious packing techniques.
Both the NA-701 and NA-771 are built to a high quality, or so it seems. The antennas are both very flexible and return to shape when you bend them over. No problem with the products so far.
Examining the Nagoya logo and frequency text you wouls know immediately that these are fakes. Not only is the text the wrong colour but the font used is distinctly different from the official one.
Genuine Nagoya products have silver coloured text at the base of their antennas.
Extra information
Fake Nagoya antennas are available on many online retail sites including ebay and Amazon and it's easy to get confused with what is a genuine Nagoya and what isn't. The problem is so big that Nagoya have published a guide on how to spot a fake on their company website. Click below to take a look...
How to spot a fake Nagoya
Nagoya seem to be taking this very seriously. But in truth it will be impossible to stop the flood of bent 701's, 771's and 773's that are everywhere you look. As far as I can tell none of the counterfeiters have hit upon the idea of actually copying these antennas like for like.??? Surely the idea is to make them unrecognisable from the original? Anyway, this perceived laziness makes it much easier for us to spot the fakes.
Testing:
For this test I'm going to be using a Baofeng UV-5RE as the receive radio and later comparing them both to my A-85 stock antenna which has so far stood it's ground against some other after market twigs.
The test is as basic as they come. All three antennas will be assessed on how well they can recieve on 2m and then on 70cm.
Tested against the trusty Baofeng and the A-85 stock antenna
A variety of frequencies were chosen to test both these antennas.
Manchester airport runway and staff channels were used along with local 2m and 70cm amateur repeaters to cover both of the radio bands that these antennas operate on.
Starting with the control antenna, the quite remarkable A-85 each test frequency was selected and signal strength and direction was noted. Nothing too scientific just some crude basic measurements.
The A-85 stock antenna has no problem recieving all the test frequencies with very little loss of signal when changing direction of the antenna. Nothing new with this result.
Left to right: Baofeng A-85, Nagoya Na-701 and NA-771
This antenna is slightly longer than the A-85 by almost 2 inches.
It is quite flexible compared to the A-85 which is semi-flex.
Results
Compared to the stock A-85 the NA-701 is slightly less capable at recieving. It can hear all the test frequencies but the signal strength is a little lower than the A-85. The is very little signal loss when changing antenna direction.
Next we have the NA-771
Well surprise surprise, it turns out that the extra length of the 771 is of no real benefit over either of the other two Antennas.
Yes, the NA-771 can hit all of the frequencies outlined but in much the same way as the NA-701 did. The only difference with this antenna is that the extra length seems to make hitting stations a directional thing. if you turn a few degrees on the spot you can lose the frequency quite easily.
In performance terms both of these antennas are a step behind the A-85 stock. Am I that surprised?
Rating: ✅✅✅✅ 4 out of 5
If you understand from the outset that these are a cheap sub £2 Nagoya knock-off then you will have very little to complain about should you decide to buy one. For me they represent two very cheap antenna replacements should my slightly better performing ones get snapped up or whatever. No they are not as good as the stock antenna (as far as this test goes) For the price you pay though you really can't grumble.
If you want a genuine one, then you got to pay the extra... Why though?
If you want a genuine one, then you got to pay the extra... Why though?