[Hackrf-dev] How to tell if antenna is faulty

[Gavin Jacobs]

Cliff,
I have a hackrf and an Ant500. With the antenna fully extended, you should measure a very low resistance between the tip of the antenna and the center pin of the connector. Mine was about 2 ohms. If you have 75 ohms, then there is a problem. Try again between the center pin and the elbow (where the extensions start) - it should be very low < 1 ohm.

You should be able to use GQRX to receive an FM radio station, with almost any antenna. Most common rookie mistake is forgetting to turn up the IF gain.

Tell us more about your setup and we can help you get started.

Jake

________________________________
From: HackRF-dev <hackrf-dev-bounces at greatscottgadgets.com> on behalf of cliff palmer <palmercliff at gmail.com>
Sent: January 30, 2019 3:15 PM
To: hackrf-dev at greatscottgadgets.com
Subject: [Hackrf-dev] How to tell if antenna is faulty

I have a Hackrf One with an Ant500 Antenna and I am having no luck with multiple tutorials found on YouTube, including the ones at Great Scott Gadgets.  I measured the resistance on the (disconnected but fully extended) Ant500 Antenna using a multimeter (one lead on the metal part of the antenna and the other on the male lead in the connector.  The multi-meter measured up to 75 Ohm resistance.
I'm really new to SDR and so I don't know if resistance should concern me, but it seems like an antenna should not have resistance.
I would appreciate some advice about how to determine if this is really a problem (and the antenna is faulty) or if I am making a typical new-to-SDR mistake.
Thanks
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist9.pair.net/pipermail/hackrf-dev/attachments/20190131/f1696744/attachment.html>