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TerraWave - 450-470 Portable Antenna BNC, 6.5"

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KampingAnthony1AolCo

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TerraWave - 450-470 Portable Antenna BNC, 6.5" Reviews

I could not find any reviews on this antenna so could anybody from the RR community give me some feed back please.
 
mmckenna

mmckenna

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KampingAnthony1AolCo said:
I could not find any reviews on this antenna so could anybody from the RR community give me some feed back please.
Click to expand...

Not sure you will find many reviews.

Keep in mind that there isn't anything magical about how antennas work. They are bound by the laws of physics, and so far no company has found a way around that. Since it's a 1/4 wave antenna on a portable radio, it's should work just as well as any other 1/4 wave antenna on a portable.

Really, there are only two variables here:
1. build quality. Is it a well designed antenna, good connector quality, not going to break first time it flexes?
2. is it actually resonate where it claims to be? Not uncommon to find cheap/off brand Chinese made antennas that are nowhere near resonate on the frequencies they claim to be.

Tessco is usually pretty good, although I've got a few crappy products from them when I've tried to go cheap.
Terra-Wave has been around for a while, so unlikely it would be a real piece of excrement.

Based on the price, it's kind of hard to go wrong. The big issue you'll have is Tessco has a $50 minimum order, so unless you are planning on buying a bunch of these, or need other supplies, you'll need to fish around.
 
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KampingAnthony1AolCo

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mmckenna said:
Not sure you will find many reviews.

Keep in mind that there isn't anything magical about how antennas work. They are bound by the laws of physics, and so far no company has found a way around that. Since it's a 1/4 wave antenna on a portable radio, it's should work just as well as any other 1/4 wave antenna on a portable.

Really, there are only two variables here:
1. build quality. Is it a well designed antenna, good connector quality, not going to break first time it flexes?
2. is it actually resonate where it claims to be? Not uncommon to find cheap/off brand Chinese made antennas that are nowhere near resonate on the frequencies they claim to be.

Tessco is usually pretty good, although I've got a few crappy products from them when I've tried to go cheap.
Terra-Wave has been around for a while, so unlikely it would be a real piece of excrement.

Based on the price, it's kind of hard to go wrong. The big issue you'll have is Tessco has a $50 minimum order, so unless you are planning on buying a bunch of these, or need other supplies, you'll need to fish around.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help and explaining the variables. What do you mean by real piece of excrement? Has this antenna been one of the crappy ones from them or no?
 
mmckenna

mmckenna

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KampingAnthony1AolCo said:
Thank you for your help and explaining the variables. What do you mean by real piece of excrement? Has this antenna been one of the crappy ones from them or no?
Click to expand...

No, Terra Wave is a reputable company, and so is Tessco. The crappy antennas I was talking about are sold on e-Bay. They are usually lacking any brand name, sold in large quantities and at low prices. People that have purchased them have had issues. Putting them on an antenna analyzer shows them to rarely be tuned to the frequency they are claimed to be on.

You should be OK with this one. If it has the right connector and says it covers the frequency you need, there shouldn't be any issues.
 
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