Batboard

I have some MX thread motorola VHF antennas that do not have a center hole on the bottom, what radios do they work for? Instead of guessing I'll just defer to the experts

Do the saber are waris need an antenna with the center hole or the smooth bottom?

Thanks

Most of my saber antenna's have flat bottoms with no hole

Analog Sabers and Waris radios use a 1/4"-7/32 stud. Thus, you can't connect an external antenna or service monitor directly... you need the proper service cable.

Astro Sabers use an SF (derivative of SMA) connector.

Very easy thing to figure out. If there is no center pin in the
radio's antenna connector then there is no hole in the connector
on the antenna.

Original Motorola HTs had no center pin connector and the entire
antenna connection was hot. Later HTs switched to a two-pole
antenna connector with the center pin being hot and the rest of
the connector's area chassis ground.

tvsjr wrote:Analog Sabers and Waris radios use a 1/4"-7/32 stud. Thus, you can't connect an external antenna or service monitor directly... you need the proper service cable.

Fully aware of the saber cable, actually got a few from egay two years ago

Tom in D.C. wrote: Original Motorola HTs had no center pin connector and the entire
antenna connection was hot. Later HTs switched to a two-pole
antenna connector with the center pin being hot and the rest of
the connector's area chassis ground.

Uh, ok...... I better read that when I'm more awake

Tom in D.C. wrote:Very easy thing to figure out. If there is no center pin in the radio's antenna connector then there is no hole in the connector on the antenna.

Ok, does anyone know (offhand) which radios that use that thread have the center pin and which ones don't?


As long as they are the correct thread, is it ok to use an antenna with the hole for the center pin on a radio that does not have one?

Wait a minute, are you asking about an antenna that has a small copper center conductor? Or a solid one piece mx antenna, that just happens to have a divit in the botton?

Radios such as astro saber, mtx/mts, ht1000, visar, xts all use antenna with a center pin, and a separate outside conductor for a ground, looks a lot like a sma female from the bottom.

Radios like ht600, p200, mt1000, gp300, p1225, ht750/1250, ct, etc use the mx antenna's which may or may not have a divit in the bottom. I was told the divit didn't matter, it was on some antenna's to prevent damage if installed on the other kind of radio, where it could bend the center pin, or short it to ground.

Not a jedi antenna, I have a few of those to compare with but as you stated, "a solid one piece mx antenna, that just happens to have a divit in the bottom" I have atleast one like that, and seeing as it's been living on my daily use saber for two years, I was hoping it was ok

I've never even seen a solid bottom MX antenna until I got a bunch of "yellow" bottoms for almost nothing a little while ago.

I'm pretty sure the MX antennas with the hole in the bottom are a newer design. I believe the hold was added due to the SMA style connectors that were being introduced on several models. The hole keeps the antenna from destroying the center pin of an SMA equipped radio if it is accidentally threaded down in to one.

I bought a used astro saber on ebay once and noticed it had no RX sensitivity. I removed the antenna and found that some asshat had screwed one of those MX antennas on it. Thankfully that hole was there and no physical damage was done.

So motorola went to an "idiot-proof" design? Good thing I have a couple


Thanks everyone, now I know, and knowing is half the battle

Hole or no hole...an 'MX' threaded antenna is still an MX threaded antenna, regardless of the hole/no hole debate...same creature, different manufacturers...that's all.

I can't recall the thread diameter or pitch, but if it fits a Genesis radio, Saber or GP300/P110 or P100 Etc...it's ALL the same.

Circle-M doesn't make their own antennas, they are made by many manufacturers, and their own Mfg. processes differe from each other as well.

Centurion, Antenex, Maxrad, Cushcraft, Larsen..Et Al are just a few, with the majority being owned by Laird Technologies.

*Just my two cents in a quarter world*

I wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Grog wrote:So motorola went to an "idiot-proof" design?

Well, design still didn't help a customer here who constantly had antennas being switched between HT1000's and HT600's and could not understand why they didn't work. Then there's the user who insisted that their antenna had to be tightened with Vise-Grips.............

a SMA style Shouldnt fit on an MX thread.. Its close but not going to work. I had one guy try to put an HT1000 antenna on a saber and stripped both the antenna and the nut..

FireCpt809 wrote:a SMA style Shouldnt fit on an MX thread.. Its close but not going to work. I had one guy try to put an HT1000 antenna on a saber and stripped both the antenna and the nut..

Correct, but it happens all the time, it starts to thread enough that some people go ahead and finish it. Sometimes it destroys radio, antenna or both.

It's a simple case of the square peg in a round hole syndrome......People are just plain STUPID!