Hey y'all I bought a Motorola XTS5000 Wideband VHF antenna and I have reason to believe that it is a counterfeit antenna due to the font of the Motorola logo. Whats the danger of using a possible counterfeit antenna? I tested it a bit and it seams to work pretty darn good.
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Fake antenna?
- Thread starter beaker7
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Post a picture of the connector on the antenna. That would really help us figure out if it's legitimate motorola or not
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RFI-EMI-GUY
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You might have answered your own question. The problem might be with transmission, a high VSWR could overheat the PA. Can you obtain the genuine article and compare field strength while transmitting using an FSM or spectrum analyser? Years ago Motorola changed the design of the analog Saber helical antenna . It radiated poor at 462 MHZ where I needed it and better in the 440 MHZ ham band. They changed the part number and insisted it was same antenna.
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Well heres a pic of the logo, Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet as for the connector itself its a red band with the standard connector. I know about red band counterfeits but this p/n of antenna was supposed to have a red band.
KM4WLV
Member
Definitely looks suspect........ That's not the standard logo/font used on the wideband antennas. At least not looking at the 2 laying on the table beside me, and the one attached to my XTS5000.........
If Moto says the real part has a red band and yours doesn't...end of story, it is counterfeit. Moto and many other OEMs color code their antennas because "they all look alike" and the color code makes ongoing maintenance simpler, since all antennas wear out and putting the wrong one on can blow a radio.
A counterfeit CAN be perfectly good, the art of designing an h/t antenna is about as complicated as a grade schooler "macaroni poster". Problem is that counterfeit usually means they will be cheaping out any way they can, so the connections internally may not hold up. The "rubber" may be a cheaper compound that will become brittle and break apart sooner...you just don't know.
But since you already have it, and you say it performs well (presumably tested for SWR?) then I'd say to just keep using it, unless you have recourse against the seller.
Counterfeit "everything" is big business today. The only way to know you are getting the real deal, is to know your seller, which often means paying full pop directly from the manufacturer. (Ouch.)
A counterfeit CAN be perfectly good, the art of designing an h/t antenna is about as complicated as a grade schooler "macaroni poster". Problem is that counterfeit usually means they will be cheaping out any way they can, so the connections internally may not hold up. The "rubber" may be a cheaper compound that will become brittle and break apart sooner...you just don't know.
But since you already have it, and you say it performs well (presumably tested for SWR?) then I'd say to just keep using it, unless you have recourse against the seller.
Counterfeit "everything" is big business today. The only way to know you are getting the real deal, is to know your seller, which often means paying full pop directly from the manufacturer. (Ouch.)
Fake FAKE Fake..
RFI-EMI-GUY
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I would be curious if anyone had Motorola 12M manufacturing test specs for various portable antennas including the MX thread types used on analog Saber. Then one could build a test rig and compare stock and aftermarket antennas. The last time I had to deal with some UHF 450-470 helical Saber antennas, Motorola had substituted a new PN and claimed it was equivalent with the old antenna frequency range. They worked terribly at 462 MHZ. I was actually put on the phone with the vendor in Ft Lauderdale who insisted they met Motorola 12M specs. Then he tells me that these 450-470 antennas were tested at 414 MHZ,!. That made absolutely no sense to me.
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trooper890
Member
Believe it or not, those are Motorola provided.
I ended up with one thru a Motorola partner not too long back (came in an antenna kit) I immediately suspected it was a counterfeit. Ordered one from Moto parts, SAME thing came.
Disappointing how poor quality is getting. The original wideband XTS duck of 3-4 years ago was WAY better.
Order one of the real things, see what you get. Probably same thing I did.
I ended up with one thru a Motorola partner not too long back (came in an antenna kit) I immediately suspected it was a counterfeit. Ordered one from Moto parts, SAME thing came.
Disappointing how poor quality is getting. The original wideband XTS duck of 3-4 years ago was WAY better.
Order one of the real things, see what you get. Probably same thing I did.
"Disappointing how poor quality is getting. "
Most manufacturers don't actually manufacture their own goods these days, they job it out. Like iPhone's being built by Foxconn, not Apple. And the jobbers sometimes cheat, and get away with it until customers let the "manufacturer" know there's a real qc problem.
I had ordered some in-line fuse holders from Littelfuse, a top name. They were supposed to be 10AWG wire, the clearly arrived with 12AWG wire. My email complaint was acknowledged within one business day, and two days later followed up with a statement that their supplier had apparently changed the product without telling anyone. (In this case Mexico, not China.)
This stuff happens all the time. You have to let them know there's something wrong with the product, then take it from there.
Most manufacturers don't actually manufacture their own goods these days, they job it out. Like iPhone's being built by Foxconn, not Apple. And the jobbers sometimes cheat, and get away with it until customers let the "manufacturer" know there's a real qc problem.
I had ordered some in-line fuse holders from Littelfuse, a top name. They were supposed to be 10AWG wire, the clearly arrived with 12AWG wire. My email complaint was acknowledged within one business day, and two days later followed up with a statement that their supplier had apparently changed the product without telling anyone. (In this case Mexico, not China.)
This stuff happens all the time. You have to let them know there's something wrong with the product, then take it from there.
WISCOMM
Member
I can confirm we have been recieving these 8505518V01 antennas from Motorola directly with the craptastic logo for the last few years now. They are confirmed Original Motorola but we agree the logo stamped on them looks very suspect.
We have tried for years to get a good answer out of Motorola corporate, with just crickets.
8505518V01 NAD6563 - Motorola OEM Heliflex Antenna, VHF Band, Helical 136-174 MHz - ShopWiscomm
Craig
We have tried for years to get a good answer out of Motorola corporate, with just crickets.
8505518V01 NAD6563 - Motorola OEM Heliflex Antenna, VHF Band, Helical 136-174 MHz - ShopWiscomm
Craig
Intreasting, when i bought my antenna it appeared to come in a bag with motorola numbers on it, the seller insisted it cane from motorola.
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It's real, you should see some of the APX antennas shipping these days. They have the same iffy stamp on them. I bought two uhf antennas to replace my old whips on my 2500s. When I got them they had the same looking stamp on on them. And these were uhf/GPS antennas as they don't seem to sell the standard uhf wide band whip they used to. Long story short I thought the same thing but they were shipped to me directly from the moto warehouse in Elgin Il.
We had got a pallet of xts 2500s before they quit shipping fleet orders and they all had those antennas, brand new radios in box everything sealed. Some time later as mentioned the APX antennas even seemed questionable by looks that came in. Tuning and such they were fine but had me pondering for minute. Sign of times sums it up without getting into the going down hill thread about them. We been shifting to other p25 capable vendors past year when we can and one doesn't need a APX for whatever reason.
I wish i had the money to get an antenna analyzer. You know of any affordable ones?
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Not for VHF much less UHF.
Rigexpert seems to be about best choice for "Screens" as opposed to needles and text displays. Some of the newer competitors seem to have nice products but postage-stamp sized screens, great if you've got young eyes but not attractive to many of us.
Ananalyzer is, sadly, a major commitment to getting antennas right. The only cheap option is to use an inline SWR meter, and just manually check SWR on your center and edge frequencies. I've seen a number of Moto and Kenwood whips where the seller clearly had no idea there were multiple UHF bands (400 "low" and "high" and 800 as well) and even where the color-coding was simply wrong for the band they were claiming.
Rigexpert seems to be about best choice for "Screens" as opposed to needles and text displays. Some of the newer competitors seem to have nice products but postage-stamp sized screens, great if you've got young eyes but not attractive to many of us.
Ananalyzer is, sadly, a major commitment to getting antennas right. The only cheap option is to use an inline SWR meter, and just manually check SWR on your center and edge frequencies. I've seen a number of Moto and Kenwood whips where the seller clearly had no idea there were multiple UHF bands (400 "low" and "high" and 800 as well) and even where the color-coding was simply wrong for the band they were claiming.
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