Jinx,

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:25:45 +1300, Jinx wrote:

> I'm probably looking for a supplier of dirt-cheap telescopic aerials,
> either 17cm or 34cm. Most likely 200+, hopefully 1000+. If price
> can be down around $1, $2 that's fine, but I appreciate that the
> quantities are small on the transistor radio scale of things. Would
> be just dandy if there was a box sitting in a Chinese warehouse...
> 
> But it all maat depend on the anwer to this question
> 
> Is a solid going to give significantly better reception than tube at
> 433.92MHz ? Is that too open-ended a question ?

No & no!  By "solid", do you mean springy wire?  Generally, the narrower the antenna the tighter it is in tuning - you may not want that anyway, so a 
tube is more forgiving than a thin "solid" wire.

> I have a couple of prototype Rx-Tx pairs that are just fine with a
> 34cm length of 1.2mm enamelled copper wire. If it were just me
> using it I'd leave it like that, but as this is to be commercialised it
> has to look more "professional", so I'm being told. Harumph.
> There's the packaging to consider too I suppose. A collapsible
> aerial is smaller after all
> 
> If there's no significant difference between solid / tube, then I'll
> be looking for the telescopic. I've made some enquiries (Taiwan)
> but come up empty so far. Mostly they just don't answer, others
> have said nothing suitable

I'm a bit surprised by this - but it may be that you're a couple of orders of magnitude below their MOQ.
 
> If there is a difference in solid's favour, then I would like to think
> of a solution. Maybe two pieces, pool-cue style, make it a bit
> pretty
> 
> Any suggestions on the telescopic aerial supplier front would be
> gratefully received, just in case aesthetics wins out over performance

Since you're in the 70cms amateur band, there must be a load of antennae out there for that - the "rubber ducky" type are shorter than you say (a 
tad less efficient, but I imagine you aren't on the edge there) and are very packaging friendly!  Probably more than $2 though...

You may want to have a look at these people:  http://www.antennaworld.com  who do a portable dipole that telescopes,  covering 136 to 450MHz.  I 
know because I have one - it's not what you're after, but they may have other more suitable stuff.  Unfortunately their web site seems to have some 
problems, so I haven't been able to search for the sort of thing you're after.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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