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Excellent, just picked 2 up right now! Any chance you guys will be selling any or having any up for grabs for those interested?

 

Also, any kind of compatibility or any future projects to make one for the TS MBITR radio?

Edited by pforcerecon
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I would think so. I believe the F21, F3 and F4 all use the same antenna. There are some other models that may use other antenna's.

 

We're going to start on another batch as soon as we can; we're going to meet up tomorrow to see what raw materials we're short on so we can start ordering them and hopefully be done with the next batch before I leave for some travel on the 14th.

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What model Icoms were you guys using?

We're using Icom F21. But That's mostly because we did a bulk buy of them off ebay and got them for cheap. We probably would have gone for either Icom F21 or F4 models.

 

usmcCorps, you mentioned in some of the other threads you might possibly be selling these, how much would the price point be?

Under $100. We build them to last and they take a lot of work and time to make.

 

Excellent, just picked 2 up right now! Any chance you guys will be selling any or having any up for grabs for those interested?

Also, any kind of compatibility or any future projects to make one for the TS MBITR radio?

We're planning on seeing if we can get another quick batch done within the next couple of weeks. They'll be a first come first serve basis. There's currently a list of people who want to be notified as to when they're available.

Haven't thought about that yet. We're just making them available for people who have the more common commercial radios.

 

Is it safe to say that the Icom version of said item covers all Icom models?

It's hard to say as the Icom radios have been around for so long with so many different models over the years. Do a little research into the radio you're interested in and see what kind of antenna it uses. As TheFlash pointed out, our setup will work with any radio that uses either MX or BNC type antenna connections.

Edited by uscmCorps
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That will not work on very many Icom handhelds or Sabers...

Looking around I've seen a lot of different BNC adapters including BNC to Saber adapters. Most of which cost a mere $5. Would those not work? Our cables terminate with a BNC connector and with the correct BNC adapter I'm not seeing many radios this would not work for. Most handheld Icoms I've come across seem like they'd be compatible including the following models:

F11/F14/F3G/F3S/F30G/F3021/F3061 F33G/F70/F70D

F21/F24/F4G/F4TR/F40G/F4021/F4061/F43G/F43G/F43TR/F80/F80D/F4061

That's a pretty good selection of radios to choose from I think. :blink:

 

 

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Uhh yes, and the one you linked to is not an MX connector - its an SMA. Therefore it wont work with most Icoms and Sabers.

I'm not sure if you read through the thread correctly (and if you did, and I am in error, you have my appologies). pforcerecon asked how he'd make our setup compatible with his Motorola HT1000 radio. To which TheFlash answered that this SMA to BNC adapter would work instead of the MX to BNC adapter we include with the package. Roecar then asked if "Is it safe to say that the Icom version of said item covers all Icom models?". Assuming Roecar was talking about the MX to BNC Adapter that we include with our setup, then yes, our setup will work with many, if not most, commercially available handheld Icoms like in the list in my previous post.

 

I may be totally off base here, but I'm getting the sense that you're trying to discredit what we've made, and I'm not entirely sure what the incentive/purpose behind doing that would be. We made these for ourselves and our own team. The benefits of the setup were immediately apparent and IMHO the setup looks cool, it's functional, and not commonly available to the civilian market. To this day, I have never seen anyone on the field or at any major event using a functional blade antenna. Toy non-functional blade antenna? Yes, but I'd rather have something on my rig that does something if it's available in that form. Everyone on the team (12 people) using them swears by them, and it was a big deal to TheFlash and I that we didn't produce some POS that didn't work, as these are our friends. After that, people approached us to buy them. We weren't making efforts to sell them, just proud of what we accomplished. If you don't like them, that's totally your prerogative, but I'm just not sure I understand this impression I'm getting that you're trying to dissuade others from buying something they themselves see worth their while. :huh:

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lol.

 

Roecar quoted ThaFlash link to an eBay auction containing SMA plugs, and asked if they would work. I responded that they would not work with most Icoms or Sabers because they use an MX style plug, not the SMA one in the link (the threads are slightly different, and the connector is different entirely). How was any of that an attack on you guys? I was just telling someone that the link above was in fact, not helpful for him.

FWIW, I think you guys are over complicating things. Just say you will custom make them to fit the a radio and then just buy the adaptors yourselves. Just about everything has a BNC adaptor for it.

 

And FWIW, I think what you did was really cool but I think there is a lot of components of antenna design you have ignored. However, I dont know a whole lot about radios and antennas but I do know that stock antennas are notoriously bad - and any upgrade is still an upgrade. That being said - steel is actually a poor material choice for antennas because it is such a poor conductor.

A lot of the advantages you are feeling have to do with just having a bigger antenna period.

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Roecar quoted ThaFlash link to an eBay auction containing SMA plugs, and asked if they would work. I responded that they would not work with most Icoms or Sabers because they use an MX style plug, not the SMA one in the link (the threads are slightly different, and the connector is different entirely).

If you read the posts, you'll see they're not wanting the adapter for Icom or Sabers, but for HT10000.

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lol.

 

Roecar quoted ThaFlash link to an eBay auction containing SMA plugs, and asked if they would work. I responded that they would not work with most Icoms or Sabers because they use an MX style plug, not the SMA one in the link (the threads are slightly different, and the connector is different entirely). How was any of that an attack on you guys? I was just telling someone that the link above was in fact, not helpful for him.

FWIW, I think you guys are over complicating things. Just say you will custom make them to fit the a radio and then just buy the adaptors yourselves. Just about everything has a BNC adaptor for it.

 

And FWIW, I think what you did was really cool but I think there is a lot of components of antenna design you have ignored. However, I dont know a whole lot about radios and antennas but I do know that stock antennas are notoriously bad - and any upgrade is still an upgrade. That being said - steel is actually a poor material choice for antennas because it is such a poor conductor.

A lot of the advantages you are feeling have to do with just having a bigger antenna period.

 

 

1. Roecar asked if the Icom version of that adapter would work for Icom radios. Yes, there is a version made for Icom's, and it's not the one I linked to but there is a link within the link.

 

2. Yes, steel is not the greatest choice for an antenna element. It's a shame that most stock antenna's use a steel element. And our antenna probably doesn't work better than a 1 meter long pure silver rod antenna with coils tuned for a specific frequency band. Instead, our antenna offers better materials and reception compared to stock in a package that looks at home on military gear. We never intended to compete with companies offering antenna's to people who want to bounce their signals off the atmosphere to achieve hundreds or thousands of miles of range.

Edited by ThaFlash
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Nice catch Touchette, but why sell some??

 

I actually bought 7. I chose the two best and sold the rest.

 

I ended up with two MTS2000's, three batteries (2x 7.5v Li-Po, 1x 7.5v Nicd/Nimh?), speaker mic, ear piece, and rapid charger. Hopefully that'll last me for a little bit.

 

I'd like to change over to a headset at some point, but it's not very high on the priority list ATM.

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I see. I pretty much did the same with the HT1000's I bought, sold 3 and kept 2 for myself. I plan on having a Peltor and Sordin setup on each. Got the Peltor down, all that's left is the Sordin now, and its finding one for a lefty that's the problem. Since we're so special ^_^

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2. Yes, steel is not the greatest choice for an antenna element

 

Even though you guys are pretty much done with your setups but you might be able to find better materials from this source, Industrial Metal Supply. A lot of design students myself included go there for purchasing small amounts of industrial materials. They might have exactly what you're looking for. However your solution already has more than enough range on it but hey it could be useful for future projects.

 

Great stuff again.

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IMS has good stuff and I'm going to use them for some other products. Our friend used IMS for aluminum brackets to make some prop PL-9 missiles. I've gone to another place in the Pasadena area for those kind of materials but IMS is a lot closer. But I do have my antenna element locked down, thanks for the help though.

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Like off the rig? Pics of the gear on its own? My antenna and extension cable is buried under a pouch right now and my CIRAS gave me some bloody cuticles when I ran my cables so I'm not too keen on removing them today. I may get around to it after the weekend, but the rest of the week I'm getting my stuff ready for a backpacking trip. My rig is nothing special outside of the antenna though, I just use a TCI 2 wire surveillance headset but I'll probably switch to a Calvalvy or Bowman (rewired) headset sometime in the near future.

Edited by ThaFlash
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