Antenna FAKES - Beware of your antenna purchases online ! ! ! | Radio Frequency (RF) & Wireless Design

Antenna FAKES - Beware of your antenna purchases online ! ! !

13 Feb, 2021 06:15 PM

It's well known now that there are an incredible amount of FAKE Chinese rechargeable lithium ion batteries on ebay, amazon, and other places on the web. These batteries make outrageous claims of capacities in milliAmpere * hours (mAh). I have tried to spread the word via many models and showcasing videos of actual tests.

What you may not be aware of is that this is also happening in the antenna marketplace as well ! Many antennas being sold on ebay, amazon, and other places like alibabi show antennas with incredible gains with no test reports and no websites backing these claims. Furthermore you will not find any serious test reports either since the people who got burned are probably embarrassed enough or don't have enough knowledge to showcase the fakery.

I want to show you a particular antenna that is claiming 12 dBi (~ 15.84x) gain and also makes a ridiculous claim of windows and USB compatibility since the only connector is an SMA RF coaxial connector.

Please watch this video as it compares a big old rusty nail to this FAKE antenna. Hopefully you will be enlightened and avoid being flim-flamed into this trickery :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uObC2VHCFKU

This is part of a thread that I came across on Hackaday and if you would like to read more, please check it out here : https://hackaday.com/2021/01/24/what-makes-a-good-antenna/#more-457381

Steven Minichiello

Feb 13, 2021

Here's another one where the person was scammed by a FAKE antenna : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ-iPHrBUKI

Steven Minichiello

Feb 13, 2021

Here's another more expensive FAKE bi-quad antenna :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyAoouKsSE4

Steven Minichiello

Feb 15, 2021

Here's a video of FAKE Nagoya antennas which are cheap copies of real Comet antennas :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b387JzHHI4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvdcJD9SBjg

These are common on the cheap chinese Baogfeng handheld amateur radios.

Steven Minichiello

Feb 15, 2021

This is a much better test of the FAKE Nagoya antennas being testing with a VNA showing the SHOCKINGLY BAD results ! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGlHKfFlbvY

These are common on the cheap chinese Baogfeng handheld amateur radios.

If you are wondering what's inside, take a look : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9DhnFd4h20

Steven Minichiello

Feb 15, 2021

It's a good idea to stay away from ALL Nagoya antennas as there are way too many FAKE antennas out there and they can destroy your transceiver with a bad match and fold back all the energy into your transmitter and burn it up !! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oPAAMaru7c

Steven Minichiello

Feb 28, 2021

How to spot a FAKE Abbree VHF / UHF folding tactical antenna used for paintball and other outdoor activities that are 'flooded' from China :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2-ApIOcL8g

Steven Minichiello

Feb 28, 2021

Diamond Antennas come from Japan and are some of the best in the world, so its really important on how to spot a FAKE Diamond Antenna :

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/how-to-spot-a-fake-diamond-antenna.243550/

Here's another :

https://www.amateurradio.com/yet-another-fake-diamond-antenna/

and another :

https://m.facebook.com/485397928248878/posts/how-to-spot-a-fake-diamond-antennahttpdo5gbnblogspotcom201104srh805s-srh805s-or-/517537618368242/