Brutkey

Michael K Johnson
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info

I bought a pair of 25' Intellitron stainless steel whip antennas from GigaParts while they were on sale ("two is one and one is none" and the second one tipped me me into "free shipping" making its marginal cost pretty low). On removing them from the packages, however, loose roll pins fell out, and the bases fell off the antennas. Both of them.

A roll pin is an inappropriate fastener to use to connect two concentric thin-walled tubes, so this is a design failure. And the roll pins are junk.

I'm waiting for GigaParts to approve my 3-star review.

But the more I look into this, the less annoyed I am. Just being able to look inside is cool, and I haven't been able to do that on the other whips I have where the thread stud is swaged in place.

I've learned that 21mm ID, 25mm OD is a standard size of stainless tube, and matches the outside dimensions quite well. The base is about 5mm thick not counting the thread stud. I think that they probably press fit / welded a threaded plug into standard stainless tube, turned it to a taper and milled sides flat for looks, and drilled it for the roll pin.

I really wished I could buy M10x1.5 instead of 3/8-24 for the end to match my other whips, so I've ordered some 25x21mm stainless tube. I think I'll make a brass plug. And I'll probably use a custom staked rivet in place of the roll tube to attach the pieces, though I haven't decided for sure.

Anyway, if someone who doesn't mix up ham radio and machining as hobbies buys these antennas, a few turns of electrical tape around the base will probably work around the design flaw and hole the roll pin in place.

#HamRadio

A view into the bottom end of a whip antenna, showing yellow metal tabs for better electrical connections between the concentric sleeves, stops preventing collapsing the antenna too far, and a set of holes. An out-of-focus roll pin is in the background. close-up view of roll pin. Only one end is tapered, and the pin is not straight. External view of base sleeve that fell off the whip. It has flat sides where the holes for the roll pin go, and is tapered from the base where a 3/8-24 threaded stud is visible towards the open end at the lower left.
Michael K Johnson
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info

The 21mm x 25mm stainless "capillary" tube is indeed a close match. It's a tighter fit than the finished base but it's within lapping range. This plan has legs.

Meanwhile, GigaParts still haven't approved my review (nor told me that they have rejected it), and today spammed me with a CTA email asking me to review it.

I suggested that they integrate their marketing automation with their platform.

Michael K Johnson
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info

Their response was interesting:

Generally, the reviews are processed every couple week or so. Reviews are posted once reviewed/resolved. If the customer has concerns/issues with a product it may take longer as the issue is reviewed and investigated.
As far as I can tell, that means in practice that they won't post negative reviews.

That said, they also said that Intellitron have agreed that there is a quality problem that they are fixing, and that they want to replace them. I didn't ask for a return and they are still asking me to return for replacements with the quality problem fixed. Yay! Responsive customer service. Now I have to decide what to do.

But I now feel that I have to ignore the contents of reviews on their site, because they are explicitly biasing them.

Michael K Johnson
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info

After sleeping on this, I'm very torn here, in two ways.

I enjoy machining projects. On the other hand, machining stainless is less fun than many other metals, and this project would end up actually taking a couple of hours. Probably the smart thing is to take the replacements that GigaParts is offering, and go back to my original plan to machine a ⅜-24 to m10x1.5 adapter.

I am glad GigaParts is taking customer satisfaction seriously. I'll definitely be happy to order from them again. But having learned how they moderate reviews up front, that they aren't just moderating for spam/abuse but also for content, I am a little bit uncomfortable with my name showing up on any review on their site. I don't think this is malicious on their part; I just don't think they are thinking through what it looks like to customers.