[Hackrf-dev] ANT500 shorted

[Rich S]

The whip can be handy, especially when traveling.  Unless you're going 
to transmit, I'd recommend hiding a discone antenna in your attic (this 
wife will not like seeing this every day.)  The wideband freq response 
is great, although there is no gain.  The ST4 costs under $70, 
http://www.antennacraft.net/Antennas/AntennasScanner.html , and does a 
good job.  If you're handy, you can make your own discone using the 
calculator on this page, http://www.changpuak.ch/electronics/calc_11.php 
,  I made a discone antenna that has very good performance from 600 Mhz 
to just under 6 Ghz.  I made this out of sheet metal and it cost me 
under $45.

Wideband amps are really getting cheap too.  QST's July 2014 edition had 
the schematics and parts list for an amp that will work up to 4 Ghz and 
6 Ghz.

Rich


On 9/28/2014 2:38 PM, Matthias Wolf wrote:
> Hi Mike & list,
>
> I just wanted to let you know that I also received a shorted ANT500 
> (got mine from Store4Geeks in Sweden). Until I found out today, my 
> experiences with the tutorials and HackRF were very, very 
> discouraging. I only got a huge DC spike in the center of my spectrum 
> but no usable signals at all.
>
> I got this behaviour across all systems (including Pentoo) and all SDR 
> applications. The FAQ made me think that I had a firmware / library 
> mismatch problem, so I sat down and went through the hassle of 
> manually compiling the newest versions. Ah, my wife says hello. Turns 
> out she's not quite happy having me in the basement all the time.
>
> So, for the sake of other husbands' wellbeing, I would like to 
> encourage you to update the FAQ to include these particular symptoms 
> together with the advice to measure the antenna and replace it with a 
> paperclip.
>
> Unfortunately that's not all. When I tried to repair the ANT500 by 
> myself (effectively voiding the warranty), the spring decided to jump 
> away and to hide somewere beneath my furniture. So now it's useless 
> AND missing a part. Could you help me out somehow? Are you shipping 
> spare parts to Europe by any chance?
>
> Thanks
> Matt
>
>
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