eBay Military antenna

[digitalanalog]

WOW...... I think this seller has lost his mind.

Nice Mil antenna but 500.00 plus shipping for a damaged antenna?

Judge for yourself.
http://cgi.ebay.com/DISCONE-MILITAR...=39:1|66:2|65:1|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[Alliance01TX]

Military Antenna

Yep - way over-priced. I bought the exact same antenna on eBay for my Mil-Air scanning about a year ago for less than $100.00 as I recall.... It was not exactly in mint shape (used), but cleaned up and flat-black paint worked fine. It's a great antenna (except for the "H" connector for high power UHF-Air) that you either buy (about $20.each) or get creative and install a PL-259 or BNC..

 

[elk2370bruce]

No Way Jose! No Way Hose B! PT Barnum's adage will probably prevail. After all, it is "military". I've got some used 213 coax that I'll sell the buyer at only five bucks a foot (connectors extra). That's why we call it sleaze bay.

 

[mtindor]

Amazing how people have the gall to sell those things for that price - and even more amazing how there are idiots who buy them.

The only thing that antenna may have going for it is ability to withstand the elements. Other than that, it's the same as a gazillion other antennas you can get for $100 or less (and which also don't have any reasonable gain to them).

Mike

 

[zguy1243]

I bought a new and never used AT-197/GR for around 200 on ebay. The AT197 even with gain figures at -.3 db boldly out performs other common "scanner" discones in the 225-400Mhz range.

Amazing how people have the gall to sell those things for that price - and even more amazing how there are idiots who buy them.

The only thing that antenna may have going for it is ability to withstand the elements. Other than that, it's the same as a gazillion other antennas you can get for $100 or less (and which also don't have any reasonable gain to them).

Mike

 

[donc13]

WOW...... I think this seller has lost his mind.

Nice Mil antenna but 500.00 plus shipping for a damaged antenna?

Judge for yourself.
http://cgi.ebay.com/DISCONE-MILITAR...=39:1|66:2|65:1|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Asking and getting are two different things...way overpriced...but if someone's willing to pay that much, no skin off of my nose.

 

[N9JCQ]

I have one of those sitting in my closet. I bought it at a hamfest for $25. Since I have a regular, wideband Discone I use for ham and scanning, I never felt the need to install it. $500 is just plain insane for that.

 

[LarryMax]

I love the sellers name "JoesCrap". Makes me want to buy from him.

 

[kb2vxa]

Well I must say one thing about military equipment, it's built to survive an atomic bomb. It has to be, if there's any possible way it can be damaged or destroyed a soldier will find it. Heh, don't think I'm kidding, our servicemen know the real meaning of the phrase "combat tested" having observed first hand how equipment is handled.

Why bother with the monkeys on flea-bay when mil surplus vendors are all over the internet? You can find everything from domestic to NATO, even some really neat Russian gear. After checking out some of those Clansman sets I'm impressed.

One last comment on military antennas, a friend came across a VHF Lo Band antenna the likes of which I have never seen. This monster was more than 30' long and so heavy I couldn't even lift the base assembly, several of us couldn't budge the radiator. Someone dropped it off in his yard, how he managed is a bit of a mystery.

 

[Alliance01TX]

At-197 GR (Mil Air)

Your correct (kb2vxa - RCA dude) about Mil-Spec gear......the '197' is really 'cut' for the old SAC & MAC Command Post Freq's (311.0 & 321.0 AM) that we had in my USAF service period days & just not that great (my opinion) outside of the Mil Air ranges, especially with the Horizontal elements vs. Verticals (for the obvious reasons)....

That VHF Low Antenna sounds like either a Navy Mast Antenna (I have one only 6' tall and takes two men to move it 2 feet) or a its a 30' trailer (humor)....

Now with a little home-brew work and Tap-Die Set....that "197" can make an interesting platform for Ham and WxSat (137.Mhz FM) to work.......

Best

 

[JayMojave]

Hello all:

Sounds like kb2vxa has been there and done all that with the military troops. A old Master Chief once told me that if the GI can get his hands on it, he can mess it up. Same true for some vendor guys I know, and there factor reps.

Those Military Discone Antennas work very well, just as the commercial Discone antennas work very well.

Jay in the Mojave


RCA Dude said:
Well I must say one thing about military equipment, it's built to survive an atomic bomb. It has to be, if there's any possible way it can be damaged or destroyed a soldier will find it. Heh, don't think I'm kidding, our servicemen know the real meaning of the phrase "combat tested" having observed first hand how equipment is handled.

 

[kb2vxa]

"just not that great (my opinion) outside of the Mil Air ranges, especially with the Horizontal elements vs. Verticals (for the obvious reasons)...."

Sorry if I just don't get that. Being "cut" to resonance on the mil air frequencies transmitting outside the band wouldn't be an option but it like any discone has very wide band receive capabilities where SWR isn't an issue. It probably like the consumer version has harmonic resonances but there's no point calculating them since nobody outside the military would use one for transmitting. Never mind the horizontal elements, it's polarization is vertical.

Well Jay I was never in the military myself but Army tales told about "the old gunny" are true. R. Lee Ermy may be an actor but like soldiers is pretty hard on watermelons. When I say first hand I'm talking about observing training exercises; I'm glad I wasn't selected to be sent to Vietnam to play bullet baseball, too many catchers and too few pitchers.

 

[nycrich]

These prices on Ebay for shortwave and scanner stuff does not surprise me . In fact I usually have a good loud laugh at prices on Ebay for used/broken stuff that is sold at higher retail prices than the stores, and without a warranty/broken. I bought the above antenna in mint condition with the mounting adapter for $60 this year.
However if you check most of the scanners, especially the shortwave radios, they are sold higher than the store prices, and most radios are on average 10-20 years old that is out of alignment/degraded components (dried caps, dead internal batteries, intermittant displays/switches). Yes I understand that most of them are discontinued, but their are newer models that perform better that is cheaper.
I don't blame the seller, because that is what the trend is on Ebay.

 

[kb0nly]

Ebay is going to be nothing more than a classifieds website in another years time, mark my words.

I used to sell a lot on there, but lately you just get screwed as a seller. Now that they removed the ability for a seller to leave a buyer a negative feedback, and you don't have to verify who you are before bidding, there has been a rash of non paying bidders.

I only used to have 3-4 per year, now i was getting 3-4 per week. A lot of people signing up under false names and addresses. All you need is a valid email address, fill in the registration with a bunch of crap, and when you get the email you click on the link to verify your email account. Well it doesnt take a genius to figure out that you can get an anonymous hotmail or yahoo account and just create an ebay account and mess with people.

Last week me and a couple other guys that sell radio gear were talking about one, this dude created an ebay account with the name Joe Blow, no kidding! He had a hotmail account with the same name. If you have an ebay account you can search for his username, jbjunkbuyer he was booted by ebay so it doesnt matter anymore if i mention his username. Well anyway, he came on and bid on over a dozen different auctions with Maxtrac's in the title, didn't matter what band, what condition, etc.. From what us sellers could put together he just put a $200 bid on every auction, then once he had all the bids placed he cancelled his hotmail account and moved on.

Amazing that ebay lets this happen now. Maybe they will realize something needs to be done after refunding all the final value fees on these non paying bidders.

 

[Paulsan]

Part of the problem was that sellers weren't leaving feedback until the buyer left feedback. If the seller screwed the buyer and the buyer left negative feedback, the seller could leave negative feedback even though the buyer did everything in good faith. The old system left the buyer getting screwed twice by the same seller. Hardly fair.

As far as I'm concerned, the seller shouldn't see a dime from PayPal until he leaves feedback. If the buyer bids and pays, his end of the transaction is finished.

 

[kb0nly]

Part of the problem was that sellers weren't leaving feedback until the buyer left feedback. If the seller screwed the buyer and the buyer left negative feedback, the seller could leave negative feedback even though the buyer did everything in good faith. The old system left the buyer getting screwed twice by the same seller. Hardly fair.

As far as I'm concerned, the seller shouldn't see a dime from PayPal until he leaves feedback. If the buyer bids and pays, his end of the transaction is finished.

But this solution doesn't work either, as now the buyers have full control of the system and now they are causing the problems in spite of it. I had a policy of always leaving a positive feedback after payment was received, just the way i operated, if the guy on the other end tried to screw me and leave a negative well then not much more i can do about it. And i hardly ever get feedback from my buyers even when i do leave them a positive right away, they just dont follow through anymore!

Now the seller is getting screwed twice, once because they can file against us claiming they didnt receive the item and twice when they leave us negative feedback when i provide my shipping proof and end the dispute. Its happened.

The problem with holding back the funds from PayPal is twofold. I'm not shipping something until i have money in hand, which includes you paying me for shipping so i can pay the shipper. I'm not going to trust paypal to decide if and when i get my money.

They have instituted one thing that is like you mentioned, but the circumstances have to be in place. For one you have to be listing in what they consider a high risk category, electronics and computers is two of those, if your customer satisfaction is less than whatever percentage ( i forget what it is ) paypal can hold part of the funds, but they will release the shipping amount to the seller so they can cover their shipping costs.

Anyway, from your post i would guess you have never sold on ebay? No offense, but its just a whole different world once you become a seller on there. And now with the buyers holding us hostage, and all the non-paying bidders, its become worse.

From now on i will list things with a requirement that the bidder have a paypal account, a buy it now price only not an auction, and require immediate payment via paypal at time of purchase. This does a few things, one it keeps the non paying bidders out because they have to have a paypal account before they can bid on my auctions in the first place and most fake accounts don't have that. It means that the auction won't end unless they complete the transaction and pay. And i get my money right away so i can ship and move on!

Enough eBay ranting.. Sorry, had to get it off my mind.

 

[Paulsan]

It sounds like there is no solution that is fair to everyone. I guess you have slimy people on both sides. I am sorry that you have ripped off by unscrupulous buyers. That kind of behavior will ruin eBay for everybody.

 

[kb0nly]

It sounds like there is no solution that is fair to everyone. I guess you have slimy people on both sides. I am sorry that you have ripped off by unscrupulous buyers. That kind of behavior will ruin eBay for everybody.

Nope, no real solution anymore unfortunately. Ebay has had its fifteen minutes of fame now i think, it was a good site back in the day, and i used to find bargains on there all the time. Now its hardly worth looking unless the item you want can't be found elsewhere..

Anyone know of a replacement thats coming up for eBay?? I have heard some rumors of a few sites trying to replace them.

 

[TypeZero]

I hate bumping topics, but I felt that some of you might be amused by the fact that the seller recently ended bidding on that listing, and re-listed the same antenna with a starting bid of $99.95.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DISCONE-MILITAR...14&_trkparms=72:1240|66:4|65:12|39:1|240:1318

 

[kb0nly]

I thought that was the same seller that listed that.. Hilarious!!