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Diamond base station antennas

Turbo T

Turbo T

Certified CB Rambo
Feb 2, 2011
963
142
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I'm in the market for a dual band base station antenna to work with my Yaesu FT7900R. For now I am going to stick with a vertical antenna.

I've been told Diamond makes good base station antennas. Which one should I go with?

I see they make several types....X200A (8.3 ft. tall), X300A (10 ft. tall), X50A (5.6 ft. tall)....as of right now I have a pole in my backyard that would put the feed point of the antenna at 15 ft. off the ground, it's the best I can do.

Also not sure what wave of antenna to go with.

Also if there's any better vertical antennas than Diamond I'd like to hear about them.

Thanks in advance.
 

I use a Diamond X50A @ 20 ft up. Cost was $100 and it was recommended to me by a friend of mine that ran one too. He told me to get one, and I would be more than satisfied for the performance vs the bucks spent. He was right.
 
It just depends on what you want to do. Multi-band vertical antennas have 'gain' by being vertical arrays (more than one 'element' stacked vertically). Typically, that means the longer the thing, the more gain it can have. That 'gain' and the resulting performance is affected by how high they are mounted. The higher the better, within what's practical. They will work ground mounted, but not as well as at height, naturally. So, if you arent too far away from repeaters, almost any of those antennas should work. Fter that, it's up to you and your wallet...
- 'Doc

(and just for grins, a 2 meter 'J'-pole does work better than you might think on 70 Cm. :))
 
Thanks Doc. I was about to ask about the J poles. There's a guy on eBay selling them swearing up and down they're all that and then some.

Sitting in my drive with a 3 ft tall Tram dual band mag mount on top of my car (that sits less than 5 ft. tall) and my FT7900 on hi power (50 watts) I can hit a 2 meter repeater at 50 miles.
 
Since you mentioned both Tram and ebay, there are quite a few dual band Tram base antennas sold on ebay for very reasonable prices. I've seen some of them in person and wouldn't hesitate to put one up over a more expensive Diamond or Comet:

dual band base antenna | eBay
 
If you know me at all, you know I read reviews until my eyeballs bleed. Especially before I make any purchase. I have always chose carefully before I buy. Some call it being cheap; I consider it being extra careful so that I only need to purchase an item once. After I read the reviews and my friends recommendation, is when I bought the Diamond.

Some eHam reviewers said they had problems with the Comet. It seemed apparent that many of the fiberglass antenna mfrs had water ingress problems. Seems they would leak in a bit of moisture after a storm and it would cause problems and even failures. The Diamond was the only one that seemed to be without this problem. It is a bit more costly than the others, and this is true. But I haven't any problem with this antenna whatsoever.

Another important consideration when setting up a 2m/440mhz station is the coax. You can't go cheap here. I run a 35 ft line to the antenna with LMR-400 coax, and this wasn't cheap - but necessary. 440mhz needs the BEST cable that you can get IF the run will be long. So, I keep my coax run short and use the proper coax.
 
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Thanks...as for coax, I do have 50 feet of Browning BR400 hard line I picked up from Sparkys CB shack to run my CB base station antenna to my (now sold) Uniden Washington.

I'm thinking this should be ok to run with a 2 M/70 CM antenna?
 
As far as the antenna goes..
best with the Diamond..then Comet
(if you can do so get he 17 or even 24 ft versions )

As far as your coax goes..
for VHF-UHF i would use at the very least LMR-400
( the coax you mentioned is basically a knock off of LMR 400 )

in regards to the coax..Get some of the LMR or Andrews Heliax
( what you are willing or prepared to spend will determine what you get ..Myself i use LDF7-50a )
 
I use a Workman UVS-300, which is a knockoff of the Diamond/Comet dual band collinears. Excellent antenna, been up at 30 feet for 8 years now, works very well. It sells for about $90. Gain is claimed to be 7dbi for 2M, 11 dbi for 440. It is about 17 feet tall.
 
Turbo T said:
Thanks...as for coax, I do have 50 feet of Browning BR400 hard line I picked up from Sparkys CB shack to run my CB base station antenna to my (now sold) Uniden Washington.

I'm thinking this should be ok to run with a 2 M/70 CM antenna?
Click to expand...


Don't ever confuse that cable with hardline. It is as much hardline as my shoe lace. No disrespect meant BTW it's just that it is NOT hardline nor is it what most people mistakenly call hardline which is heliax cable. That BR400 simply has a solid centre conductor as a lot of coaxial cables have but that does not make it hardline.Real hardline is simply copper tubing both inside and out that uses special fittings to connect pieces and make bends. A lot of peoploe call heliax cable hardline too but it's not. Heliax cable has a corrugated outer sheath that allows it to bend some but it is still quite stiff and easy to kink and ruin. When dealing with 2m and especially 70cm you want the very best cable you can afford and if the specs on that Browning cable are true you are probably OK with it on 2m up to 50 feetbut 70cm is going to have extra losses. If you have good signals from repeaters in youir area you should be good however.For anything over 50 feet on 70cm I recommend Andrew LDF4-50 as a good starting point. You don't need the LDF7-50 as King Cobra uses. He is just plain nuts and has more money than common sense. :love: :D LDF-7 is used in commercial FM broadcasting and cellular carriers with many kilowatts of power.
 
milkman21218 said:
I would recommend the Jetstream JTB-1 it is the very same antenna (made in the same plant) as the Diamond X-510. It's 17 ft tall 8.3 DB on 2m/11.7 DB on 440. But cost $85.

R&L Electronics 800-221-7735
Click to expand...


JTB-1 is a Very good antenna another antenna but not cheap is the G7-144 hustler ..
 

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