Aphoristics World of Radio
Observations....
A Cock-up at the Factory?
Along with many fellow radio operators i buy the cheap NA-701 knock-off dual band walkie-talkie Antennas from China. They work out at roughly £1.70 each and tend to work quite well.
Cheapo sub-£2 Antennas
It's no secret that these 'Nagoyas' are obvious fakes and i don't have a problem with that. Some quick research will reveal that the real NA-701 looks nothing like these ones. They share no similarities whatsoever, even the lettering on the side is wrong but that's not why i buy these. I don't care what they claim to be as much as how well they work. To this end they are great value.
However, my latest so called 701 is something else. I hadn't ordered it myself, it came with a Wouxun radio i bought on eBay. The original antenna had gone missing and this was the replacement.
When i first saw it i burst out laughing and thought the counterfeiters were really taking the piss with this one!
Enter my latest so called NA-701....
Woh! What's going on there!?
Here on the fake Nagoya criminal line up its easy to pick out the tall one from the rest.
Why the hell is it longer?
Is it cut to an irregular length and not suitable for both 70cm and 2m bands?
Would the S.W.R. reading hit the roof and i run the risk of frying the radio?
Answer Yes. probably
Would the S.W.R. reading hit the roof and i run the risk of frying the radio?
Answer Yes. probably
Should be 22cm - whatever!
Unfortunately I don't have an S.W.R. meter to see how badly this antenna performs. So on that basis I don't think it is wise to use the antenna for transmitting. I have tested it on recieve and found it pretty diabolical. Much worse than the other fakes.
145/435MHz ?! What!
Talk about attention to detail. What the hell were these guys thinking when they tried to copy the logo and frequency ranges? Why on earth would this Nagoya range from 145 on VHF and 435 on UHF and not 144 and 430 like on every other fake nagoya twanger? Bizarre.
The photo above highlights another issue with this antenna.
Check out the off center connector. It's out of line with the rest of the antenna. Subsequently it's very wonky when being screwed on to a radio. It doesn't quite sit right. It's bloody awful!
Conclusion
I suspect this 'NA-701' is actually a cut down NA-771 antenna for the simple reason that it doesn't move in the same way as the other 701's. It's much stiffer and doesn't take as long to regain it's shaped if you twang it. All other NA-701's are softer by comparison. So this antenna is a hybrid length if you will. Totally pointless when all said and done.
It's a pile of shit which is more likely to poke your eye out than pluck a decent signal out of the ether!
It's the wheelie bin for you shit-whip!
It's a pile of shit which is more likely to poke your eye out than pluck a decent signal out of the ether!
It's the wheelie bin for you shit-whip!
