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| Reviews Summary for Diamond V2000 Antenna |
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Reviews: 41
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Average rating: 4.4/5
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MSRP: $150 - $175 Average (2/2003)
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Description: Tri band (6m/2m/70cm) omnidirectional base station antenna.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://
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write your own review of the Diamond V2000 Antenna.
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M0MCX
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 22, 2011 05:41
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5 Years, 5 stars
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Many of my club members "make do" with various random white stick co-linears for VHF, not realising the V2000 is a real beefy antenna which blows most others away. I have not had any of the issues or bad experiences that a small number of other people have spotted. I have low SWR across all of my 6, 2 and 70cms bands and fabulous gain. The feedpont of the antenna itself is about 10m (30+ feet) above ground, well away from anything other than the 20 foot aluminium pole that it's bolted to on the gable end of my house. I'm feeding with 25m of Westflex (UK low loss coax) and regularly open repeaters 100 miles away.
I rarely work 6m band but I have used it on both FM and SSB and even scored some DX however it's not a yagi so I only use it with similarly polarised, locally based hams.
I am considering upgrading to an X-510N not because I'm dissapointed in the V-2000, on the contrary. I'm upgrading to the higher gain BECAUSE I've been so impressed with the V2000.
I will absolutely keep my V2000 and may even re-install it alongside my X-510N. I'll be interested in observing any side-by-side differences in the long term.
73, Callum.
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WB4LCN
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 24, 2011 16:17
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70cm, High SWR - CURED!!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I mounted the antenna on a short drain air pipe on the roof. One of the radials was only about a foot off the roof. The SWR in the 70cm band was high (+4:1). 6m (after tuning) and 2m were great. I bought a 6 foot extension and raised the antenna up and that extra height cured my SWR issue.
Full steam ahead!! :)
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ZL3AG
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 6, 2010 17:40
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Does the Job for me!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have mine at 45' fed with RG213 and it performs just great. With 100W from an IC746 I can lift a 2Mx repeater that is 200km to my south. Good gain and no rotator required. Would recommend.
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KC7LFB
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 4, 2010 21:28
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After further modifications...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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>>The bad news is that the antenna is really only usable in the topmost section of the band. SWR goes up as frequency goes down; we hit 3:1 at 53MHz and it climbs rapidly below that.<<
After posting this review, I realized I had improperly converted metric to inches and thus the radials were slightly short.
After adjusting the radials to more than 1/4 wavelength at 6M, the usable portion of the band shifted down somewhat. 3:1 VSWR now occurs at ~51.6 MHz and drops smoothly above that, reaching around 1.2:1 at 54 MHz.
We also removed the factory 6M radial and reinstalled the third homemade radial, lengthened to match the others. No change was noted.
With these mods, I consider this antenna to be adequate on 6M. It is advertised as a 52-54 MHz antenna and it does cover that bandwidth, albeit with a bit more VSWR mismatch than I'd like at the low end. 144 and 440 both work very well. I'd almost describe it as a 2.5 band antenna, since it's really only suitable for the upper portion of 6M.
I'm thus bumping up the rating a notch to 4. Technically it should get a "2" since it definitely "needs help", but the mods aren't difficult once you know what to do.
The remaining question is whether there are any other tribanders out there that perform better in stock configuration than this one does. Anytime you ask a single antenna to cover multiple bands there will be compromise, but sometimes one product is better at that compromise than another.
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KC7LFB
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 3, 2010 15:25
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Update after modification...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My son and I made three replacement radials for the V2000. (Note: The base uses 10-32 threads in case anyone else wants to experiment.) The radials have adjustable length that can be extended to at least 60 inches, well beyond 1/4 wave at 6 meters.
We installed the radials and then used our AIM analyzer to plot the antenna's response on 2M and 6M (the analyzer tops out at 170MHz).
According to theory, the only band that should be affected by longer-than-factory radials should be 6M, and that's exactly what we found. 2M still has excellent SWR and resonance across the entire band. A rough idea of 440's SWR, based on our 857D's external meter, also maintained good results across the entire band.
6 meters was where we saw the problems, and where we saw the greatest change using the new radials. The good news is that the "wild swings of peaks and nulls for both impedance and SWR across the whole band" we saw previously have been cleaned up a lot. The bad news is that the antenna is really only usable in the topmost section of the band. SWR goes up as frequency goes down; we hit 3:1 at 53MHz and it climbs rapidly below that. I've told my son not to use frequencies below 53MHz to protect the radio.
Above 53MHz it works pretty well. It hits a 6M FM repeater close to 100 miles away with good reports, something most folks around here claim they cannot do. So the potential is there.
We've tried adjusting the radial lengths by quite a bit but the peaks and valleys only shift a few kiloherts. Our most recent experiment was to replace one of the new radials with Diamond's 6M tunable radial; that widened the usable spectrum a little bit so we've left it that way for now. Basically, though, it's a 53 through 54 MHz vertical. Considering that a lot of the 6M repeaters around here use a -1.7MHz transmit offset, that narrow bandwidth really limits the machines we can work.
As a dual band antenna I'd give it a "5". But I'm sticking with my rating of "3" for now unless and until we figure out a way to improve this antenna's 6M performance. We bought it to be a tribander, and if I'd known it would really only deliver two bands I could have saved some money (or purchased a different product).
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KC7LFB
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Rating: 3/5
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Oct 26, 2010 14:39
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144/440 is good, 6M is marginal...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Our V2000A is mounted at the top of a metal mast such that the antenna's base is ~18-20 feet above ground. It is fed with ~30 feet of LMR400 coax and currently connected to an Yaesu FT-857D.
We checked its performance with our AIM 4170B antenna analyzer, so we have excellent plots of its performance on 50MHz and 144MHz. The analyzer tops out at 170MHz so we can't do detailed analysis of the 440 band, but we get a rough idea watching the external meter on our 857D.
On 144 and 440 this antenna does fine. However, as noted by many other reviewers here, its 50MHz (6 meter) performance leaves a lot to be desired. The SWR ranges as high as 3:1 within the 6M band, and no amount of fiddling with the adjustable radial makes much difference. There are wild swings of peaks and nulls for both impedance and SWR across the whole band. We are limiting our frequencies within the band until this is resolved.
Some online articles suggest that the radials can be replaced with three that are tuned specifically for the 6M band alone. The claim is that this dramatically improves the 6M performance with surprisingly little impact on 144 and 440. That's probably our next step.
Until then, I can't go above a 3 on this antenna. We have other Diamond products and they work well, but this one needs some work.
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G7MIW
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 19, 2010 17:04
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Great Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought my V-2000 four years ago when I moved to my current address. Initially I was disappointed with the antenna as the rx was poor. Although tx was fine on 2 and 70 no amount of altering the length of the 6m radial would make any changes to an overly high standing wave. After taking it down for the 3rd time I figured that this can't be right, Diamond do not make antenna's that have this kind of fault so I placed the swr meter at the antenna and checked it with a portable trx. No problem on any band! So it was time to check the coax and more importantly the connections. Despite my best effort (solder, flux cleaning etc.) the centre core of the RG-213 at the antenna end was loose in the pin. A reheat and some more solder and flux had that sorted and up the whole assembly went with a single turn coil of 6" (150mm) as a choke. This time the performance was far greater than I ever expected. Nowhere in the tx bands was the swr greater that 1.2:1 So to say I was delighted would be an understatement.
Still after 4 years it is on top of the same mast, untouched and performing just as it did the day I finally figured out the problem, even with a 746-Pro running full power in to it.
Definitely a keeper.
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W2XAD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 24, 2009 13:27
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Works Great for me! Erected 1995 and still there!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I put up my V 2000 in January of 1995. It is attached to some 9913. When it was put up the Top of the antenna sits at 50ft. I have never taken the antenna down since erecting it! Its now July, 2009 and it still works great. I have no problems working repeaters on all the bands it is made for. Working simplex is fun also. This antenna exceeded
all of my expectations. Even though the gain on 6 meters is small, 2.15 dbi the antenna still works well. I have worked FM mobiles in Ga. on six. If the antenna died tomorrow I would get another one in a heartbeat. It cost me $149.00 in 94. About $10.00 or so a year. You can't beat that!
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W3LZK
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2009 20:32
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One of the best for 2, 70, or 6!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Well, here we are almost 2.5 years since my last post. Then I was AI4HO, I must say, every year I take this antenna down clean up is relatively easy, and its about time for me to bring it down this year. I'm still hitting repeater well over 50+ miles away. From ground level to the very top, the antenna stands about the 40' mark. I have several guys on it, just to make sure that if we do get one of these strong summer showers that we here in south central Florida are famous for, that the antenna doesn't come crashing down on the neighbors house. No great loss, the neighbors house I mean not the antenna.
Still hard to believe that I've had this antenna up for this long, other than yearly maintainence this is pretty much a put it up and forget it antenna. Once I got the 6 meter stub adjusted for my preference I haven't touched it. I take care when I am doing the yearly clean up, to make sure that I do not alter in any way shape or form the 6 meter stub.
When asked what I'm using for an antenna, I tell them its a 5 year old Diamond V2000A, for 2/70cm/6 meters. Its still one of the best for 2/70/or 6 meters!
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N4CR
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 2, 2009 22:12
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Get one!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Someone gave me one of these that didn't work. I disassembled the antenna radome and found that the coupling capacitor in the middle was burned in two, probably from a nearby lightning strike. I called Diamond and asked them for the value of the cap and the guy in parts didn't know, but said he'd just send me the right one at no charge. I got the replacement cap installed and swept the anteenna with my MFJ-269. The antenna checked out fine on all three bands. This means there was no damage to the matching network in the base.
I've now had the antenna up for 4 years and it's an excellent performer. I'd recommend it to anyone who needs a quality tri-bander.
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