tcp2525 Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 I purchased this antenna from Amazon July 13th, 2023 since it was highly recommended. I have exclusively used Larsen antennas for the past 30 years and never had any build quality issues. First thing that caught my eye was the the two rusted set screws. Really? Not stainless steel? Oxidizing coating on the whip. Is the whip stainless steel? For comparison, my Larsen NMO2/70B has been on the truck since 2013 and doesn't look this bad. This leads me to wonder if Midland's quality is really this bad or did I get a counterfeit? And no, the antenna isn't mounted there. I just took it off the roof and placed it there for the pic. At the very least, I will buy some stainless steel set screws and ride it out till I get the Larsen replacement. I wish I would have noticed this in the first 30-days so I could have returned it. Quote
OffRoaderX Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 I have had one on my Jeep for 3 or 4 years and after going off-roading virtually every weekend when I wipe off the mud and dust it still looks brand-new with zero rust and zero oxidation. jas 1 Quote
tcp2525 Posted October 30, 2023 Author Report Posted October 30, 2023 Nice! I take it that the set screws on yours are stainless steel? Quote
SteveShannon Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 I ordered mine directly from Midland and the set screws rust. If you look closely in this picture you’ll see the source of moisture. I’ll replace them eventually: WRUU653, tcp2525 and CTarna 3 Quote
WRXB215 Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 @tcp2525 Just curious, which seller did you get it from? Quote
OffRoaderX Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 31 minutes ago, tcp2525 said: Nice! I take it that the set screws on yours are stainless steel? Mine are painted or coated black, so i dunno. Quote
SteveShannon Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 My set screws appear to coated in a black oxide. The base of the antenna appears to be anodized aluminum. Quote
WRUU653 Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 2 hours ago, Sshannon said: If you look closely in this picture you’ll see the source of moisture Quote
WRUU653 Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 Mine seems to be painted black and it looks like Blue Loctite was used. If it rust I'll hit it with some Scotch Brite and give it a blast of paint. SteveShannon 1 Quote
tcp2525 Posted October 30, 2023 Author Report Posted October 30, 2023 2 hours ago, WRXB215 said: @tcp2525 Just curious, which seller did you get it from? Midland and shipped from Amazon. Quote
tcp2525 Posted October 30, 2023 Author Report Posted October 30, 2023 12 minutes ago, WRUU653 said: Mine seems to be painted black and it looks like Blue Loctite was used. If it rust I'll hit it with some Scotch Brite and give it a blast of paint. I don't recall if mine were painted. Seems like they might have ran out of the good black ones and sent an employee to Home Depot to pick up a couple boxes to get them through the day. Quote
PRadio Posted October 30, 2023 Report Posted October 30, 2023 Put a dab of grease on them and all will be well. Quote
tcp2525 Posted November 20, 2023 Author Report Posted November 20, 2023 I did it! Finally made it to Ace Hardware and picked up a couple stainless steel sets crews. This is what should have been done at the factory. WRXB215 and WRUU653 2 Quote
nokones Posted November 23, 2023 Report Posted November 23, 2023 If you bought the antenna from Amazon, you run a great risk that the product is genuine pure chinese junk. In otherwords, it may be counterfeit. Think about it, how can a reseller buy the authentic product from the original manufacturer or distributor at a ridiculous low price and sell it at the prices they do and make a profit when the wholesale price for the authentic product is several times more than the price an Amazon reseller sells the similar product? If you buy cheap you get cheap. Buying cheap is not always a good thing if you want it to perform, last, fit, and not have to throw it away before a reasonable amount of service/use time. I have found that Midland is better than most in producing a great antenna product for GMRS. The Midland mounts and antennae sweep and resonate the best on GMRS freqs than most products used by professionals even in public safety systems. My only complaint about the Midland NMO mounts was the cheap cable connector would fall apart easily but it appears they resolved that issue with a better quality connector. It's my guest that anyone complaining about the quality of a Midland antenna product most likely bought it from Amazon rather than from Midland. I wonder how many people that bought a Midland antenna product directly from Midland has the same issues I read in these postings? I suspect not many if any at all. I have bought many antenna products directly from Midland without those said issues. Also, I have purchased numerous quality products such as, Laird and Larsen, recently and have seen "Less than Perfect" results on GMRS freqs as compared to better results on public safety UHF freqs, and vice-versa with Midland antenna products used on non-GMRS freqs. Midland has an incentive and GMRS is their primary focus rather than the non-GMRS freqs whereas, Laird and Larsen's primary focus is the public safety and Business Radio Services arena. In my opinion regarding Diamond, Browning, and Comet antenna products, they may be OK for the Amateur Radio Services but they don't seem to be suitable for the Public Safety and Business Radio Service freqs. If they were suitable than they would be used by the professionals in those services. The GMRS freqs are smack in the middle of the Business Radio Service allocated freqs so it would seem me that it would be better to use such antenna product for GMRS freqs rather than a HAM radio geared antenna product on GMRS. Also, unless you are not sweeping the antenna along with the cable and mount as a system, to determine where it is center resonating you really don't know if it is performing optimum on GMRS or not. Sweeping and determining the center resonate frequency is the only proof in the pudding. Just because you're able to hit a repeater or two, DMS, but, it will appear that you're at least getting the job done, somewhat. Quote
SteveShannon Posted November 23, 2023 Report Posted November 23, 2023 2 hours ago, nokones said: It's my guest that anyone complaining about the quality of a Midland antenna product most likely bought it from Amazon rather than from Midland. I wonder how many people that bought a Midland antenna product directly from Midland has the same issues I read in these postings? I suspect not many if any at all. I bought two mxta26 antennas directly from Midland earlier this year when they had a sale for $39 each. Both have rusty set screws. WRXB215 1 Quote
WSDD616 Posted November 15 Report Posted November 15 What size are the set screws? Metric or SAE? Quote
BoxCar Posted November 15 Report Posted November 15 9 minutes ago, WSDD616 said: What size are the set screws? Metric or SAE? I go to a local ACE Hardware and they have both SAE and metric set screws in stock. I then see what fits and use blue Loctite when installing. SteveShannon and WRUU653 2 Quote
tcp2525 Posted Monday at 05:32 PM Author Report Posted Monday at 05:32 PM On 11/15/2024 at 3:50 PM, BoxCar said: I go to a local ACE Hardware and they have both SAE and metric set screws in stock. I then see what fits and use blue Loctite when installing. I don't remember the size but they are definitely metric. Quote
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