About a week ago, /u/DrRod7 posted on reddit that he’d just purchased a Nagoya NA-771 on aliexpress for ten bucks and wanted to know if he had perhaps purchased a counterfeit. I was interested in this, too, as I have an NA-771 on one of my Baofengs and was told at some point that it was a counterfeit.
That kind of made sense to me as mine never screwed down all the way on the radio. To prevent there from being a gap, I went to the hardware store and purchased a black plastic washer. Since the antenna seems to perform well—certainly better than the stock antenna—I haven’t given it a second thought lately.
One of the commenters posted a link to the page, “How to identify the genuine and fake antenna?” on the Nagoya website. It listed a number ways you could tell if your NA-771 was fake, including:
- the construction of the PVC bag the antenna comes in,
- the lettering on the antenna,
- the presence or absence of a spacer.
I don’t have the bag the antenna came in, but my antenna did not come with a spacer, and the lettering isn’t genuine, so unfortunately, I’d have to say that my NA-771 is a counterfeit antenna. See the images below for an illustration of the authentic and counterfeit lettering.
At least mine seems to work pretty well. Several of the commenters on the reddit post complained about the performance of their antennas.
A 15-inch wire is a 15-inch wire to me. I don’t have a Nagoya, either genuine or fake, but a similar model from ExpertPower. It serves me quite well.
Yeah, I’m certain my “Nagoya” antenna is fake too, as I got two for $5.99. But as others have said, the fake antenna works well so I’m not complaining. It also came with a spacer, so it fits snug on my UV-5R.
It seems brand consciousness is nowhere more prevalent than in amateur radio. As far as antennas go, providing they are produced of similar materials and according to the frequency/wave length requirements, there is little difference between them. Whether it’s brand name or a knock off really is immaterial as long as it works and you didn’t pay extra for the name. This is really a manufacturer’s concern as I see it, trademark infringement and possibly patent infringement law comes into play here, but for the consumer, if it works, is durable and you got it for a good price, that is the name of the game.
There is also the lemon factor. Many brand name products have been put in the market by reputable businesses that were failures because of poor design, quality control, substandard materials or using materials that aren’t capable of being used the way the product is designed – and then there’s the problem of users doing things with the product that were never intended or in a way that was not intended by the engineers and manufacturers.
You could say that the counterfeit products are an indication of the quality of the original, which I think is the case with Nagoya antennas. If the counterfeit is to be successful, they need to emulate as much as possible the quality, construction, function and materials of the original or they won’t be selling, and that is the purpose of the counterfeit industry. The reality is this; by the time the legitimate original manufacturer discovers the counterfeits in the market are competing with their product, their only remedy is the courts, and that takes time during which the counterfeit product is still being sold to consumers. This is the business model of the Chinese today, which is most likely the source of most of these counterfeit amateur radio products, (as well as many other products).
The bad news is we are the driving force behind the counterfeit industry. The consumer who purposely shops for the lowest possible price for everything is providing the niche that the counterfeits are designed to fill. If this matters to you on a personal level, the comic strip Pogo said it best, “We have met the enemy and he is US!”.
If we stop buying bargain priced items from any but the most established names in retail, the supply of the counterfeits will outpace the demand and eventually they will become surplus inventory, which will mean no one will be selling them because they don’t move in relation to sales. Unfortunately, human nature is the main driver of this kind of business, and it would take more discipline on the part of the consumer to eliminate the counterfeit market, than I believe is within the realm of possibilities. This is why we have the problem of counterfeit merchandise in the first place.
I personally have four Nagoya antennas, purchased online, and if you can go by the logo on the antennas they appear to be genuine. This was purely a coincidence as they were each purchased separately, but they work and I got them for a good price but certainly not the rock bottom. I try not to buy counterfeit merchandise, but it is pretty difficult to do that when doing business on the internet, especially on Amazon.
I live in Europe and I had purchased a fake Nagoya NA-771 from Aliexpress. After that I found Btech in US and purchased 2 NA-701 and one NA-771, all genuine, with spacer and green plastic, not orange, like the first fake antenna. The price for the original was greater but you get a quality product.
My question is are the ones btech selling fake or real? Because mine became all flat and flimsy on the end, and the lettering doesn’t look genuine like in the picture.
Did you contact BTech about this? In my experience–and admittedlly they paid me to write stuff for them–they’re a good company to deal with.
I have fake and I have original Nagoya 771 antennas. The originals have an excellent SWR of about 1.2 to 1.3. The fake are a hit and miss with SWRs ranging from about 3 to 10 !!!! (yes I just threw the SWR 10 one away!). In the long run it works out cheaper getting an original Nagoya and knowing that it will be fine, than getting multiple fakes and hoping they will be ok.
bonjour fautil reglé le tos sur mon antenne nagoya 702 je lutilise sur le 446.0935 en uhf
I just dismantled a GOGYA NL550 (fake). It consists of two bits of 5mm brass tubing, a center loading coil and base coil. I’m trying to get lower SWR, but no luck. It’s just a piece of junk. Thanks, AliExpress.