Batboard

I bought some old used Motorola radios off eBay for resale. The ad said they came with mics and power cords. When I opened the box I was extremely surprised to find brand new accessories with these old used radios. When I examined the accessories more carefully I realized they are all counterfeit. I have seen the counterfeit Kendoo power cords before but never a counterfeit mic until now. Here is how you identify if its a counterfeit:

The gauge of wire in the power cords is half the size of the gauge of real Motorola cables but the insulation makes the wires appear to be the same size.
Both real and counterfeit are labeled with the same part number "HKN4137A" and have "Mobile PWR CBL" written on them but counterfeits have it written twice.
The counterfeit cables two prong Ford connector fits much tighter to the radio and is much softer rubber, overall its much more difficult to make a good connection.

Screws on counterfeit mics look blue instead of silver, they are coated metal instead of using real stainless steel.
Mics are lighter, the weight of a counterfeit is 0.426 lbs with the blue warning label, packaging & mic clip included (no box)
Hook switch does not function. Inside the mic is an almost perfect replica of a Motorola circuit board and all the wires are in placed but the idiots who cloned it never noticed that the metal hanging button and the surrounding metal are insulated for the hook switch to work. Once you plug a mic into the radio the hook switch is shorted.

~Andy~

I have found the counterfeit wires use copper wiring, and there's nowhere near the number of strands appropriate. The insulation is too thick. Motorola's OEM wiring uses aluminum strands IIRC

Spewing, was thinking "oh well as long as it works I guess" then saw the bit about the dumb $hits shorting out the hang up switch and was like "oh $hit errr yeah screw that". I rely on the hang up for disabling scan far too much to go without by going cheap or putting up with cheap. I like Motorola's method of hook switch better than the old Philips PRM80 etc using a manget/reed switch method.

Makes me wonder how my MCS2000 control mic backlighting would go with such rubbish wiring *foreseeing a very dim mic or very hot mic cord*.

Not aluminum, but tinned copper.
Howard

escomm wrote:I have found the counterfeit wires use copper wiring, and there's nowhere near the number of strands appropriate. The insulation is too thick. Motorola's OEM wiring uses aluminum strands IIRC

Did you mean to say " tin plated stranded copper wire".

No, I meant to say aluminum strand, that's why I said aluminum. If it was tin plated copper, I'd see some copper when I cut the wire, unless they found a way to tin the inside of the wire, too.

Do you use modern Motorola power cables, Will?

escomm wrote: Do you use modern Motorola power cables, Will?

Probably not. All ours are tin plated copper stranded wire, AND they ARE OEM.....

I would think aluminum would be too brittle to use in a cable that's going to see a lot of vibration/flexing. It's also not nearly as good a conductor as copper.

Motorola cables also made from copper. Just tinned.

you can tell if the Motorola mic is a knockoff by opening it up an there is no component board inside... everything is just hard wired into the mic, PTT and speaker.. very common problem with Impact radio accessories and ebay special.. you'll be surprised how big this market is and most knockoffs don't have the front stickers on it...

More junk from China.....I have disdain for Impact and their "mobile" chargers. The trash they use for the wiring harnesses is just that, utter junk.