“Hi, I’m Vincent and I’m addicted to ordering from China”. For over a decade I have a kind of hobby scrolling all night the sites like eBay, AliExpress and Banggood, in search for little things related to our field of work for about no money at all. Sometimes only the free shipping is reason enough to try something out. In the beginning there was eBay, and it was always a bit sketchy to see if the stuff arrived at all and if it’s of any use, still working durable etc. But since the later years, I’m primarily focussing on AliExpress and BangGood, because they have at least some sort of costumer service.
Over the years I found some very good deals and little gems, So here are a couple I recommend.

Soshine 9v rechargeable batteries

Granted, I don’t use them every day anymore, since I slowly are moving away from 9V battery-depended gear, but these Soshine 9v rechargeable batteries really perform as advertised. At the time when I purchased the lot of them (2012) The only reputable alternative out there was from iPower, but they where about 2 times the price, and they performed a bit less than the ones i got from Soshine.  I got the 2 bay chargers, but now they also provide a 4 bay variant.

• Link to 9v Battery: Soshine 9V Rechargeable Battery with Storage Case $8.99
• Link to charger: Soshine 9V Rechargeable Battery Charger $19.99

SMA connector/Antennae/mount

Here at WavReport we are very much into modding the Sennheiser G3 antennae, by replacing the flimsy stock antenna with a proper SMA connector. For that you obviously need some SMA connectors. Buying them in bulk from China is proven to be way more economical than finding them locally. I linked to a SMA to iPEX cable, because they come with a tiny wire so you don’t have to solder the wire yourself. Just strip it to length and off you go.
Also, for the antennae themselves, if you want to make a quick and good functional antenna, it is easier to grab an antenna jumper cable (which you can use unaltered for your antenna distro system by the way), cut them to the appropriate length for your band, strip the shield and wrap it with some shrink tube. I find ‘China’ unbeatable for the price of anything related SMA.

• Link to SMA mount: 5x SMA to IPEX RF Female $3.99
• Link to Cable: 10x 120mm Low Loss Antenna

 

Cases and Pouches

Cases for your SD/CF cards, pouches for accessories, I don’t have to explain the obvious, these come in handy for a various of applications. I have listed a couple I used over the last couple of years. I never tested the ones who claim to be waterproof though, but to be honest I’m not intending to dump them in water anyways.

• Link: Memory card storage box $7.79
• Link: Dust-proof box with foam $3.65
• Link: Bag for cables and accessories $10.99

Headphones

I see IFB headphones as disposable. they break so often, are not taken care of by the producers, directors, AD’s etc. So for that reason I never buy any name brand headphones for this purpose. I don’t really care about the sound quality, as long as they provide enough for our purpose.

For myself, I am a Sennheiser HD 25-1-II user, and if you are too, you know the cables kinda give just up after a while. ‘China’ offers some knock of replacement cables, they are not as good as the original, but I always carry one or two in each bag just in case.

• Link to headphones: Universal 3.5mm Game Headphones $10.99
• Link to Cable: Sennheiser HD25-1-II replacement cable $13.99

So this is a selection of handy bits and pieces for us location soundies. Please share some of your finds in the comments!

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