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Reviews For: DIAMOND X-50 2m/440 ANTENNA

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Omnidirectional: verticals, mobile, etc

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Review Summary For : DIAMOND X-50 2m/440 ANTENNA
Reviews: 122MSRP: 99.99
Description:
Gain: 2m:4.5dB 70cm:7.2dB
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/x50.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
131224.6
K3DLB Rating: 2008-09-14
Excellent Antenna...works great!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought it yesterday at HRO Delaware. I attached it to a roof vent pipe. I used a Radio Shack vent pipe mount. It's about 30 feet above ground. It replaced an old Cushcraft AR-270. Wow...what a difference. I'm hearing repeaters I never knew existed. I got great reports on simplex and on repeaters 80 miles away.

Very good quality. Easy to install.
K7JGB Rating: 2008-08-27
X-50NA (N-connector) Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my fourth Diamond X-50, but this time I got the N-connector version. I installed the X-50NA in the attic and tested it with a Diamond SX40C SWR meter. SWR on VHF was about 1.3:1. SWR on UHF was off the chart. I change the coax, and I achieved the same results. I tested out my spare X-50 with PL-259 connector and I was able to achieve 1.2:1 on UHF.

I took the antenna back to HRO and swapped it out with a new X-50NA. I re-installed the X-50NA back in the attack and was able to achieve 1.2:1 to 1.3:1 on UHF and 1.4:1 to 1.6:1 on VHF. I am pleased with the antenna and the performance is great considering the location in the attic due to HOA restrictions.

-Joshua K7JGB
GI4SJQ Rating: 2008-07-23
The best vertical I ever had. Its indestructible Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the X50 for about 20 years now. It been put up and down many times and always work very well.

About 12 years ago it was on top of my mast when the mast came down very fast. The top 6” were shredded as it rattled and bounced its way down the fence it hit. The chrome tip was still intact and after taking it of the mast and checking it out I rapped the tip of it in some self amalgamating tape and put some heat shrink tubing over it.

I just put it up last night after it lying in the garage for a few years. Put the bird metre on it and its spot on 2 and 70. Hope to have it at the top of the mast again soon. Its just a great antenna.
K4JAR Rating: 2008-07-01
Great little antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Our radio club has transceivers in 10 firehouses in the county and all of them use the Diamond X-50 on the towers at each firehouse. They have not failed us in 5+ years and we are 1/2 mile from the Atlantic ocean. Metal takes a beating with salt and wind and rain but we have never had a problem with any of the antennas at Kitty Hawk to Nags Head to Hatteras. You can spend more but you don't need to.

I had a X-50 that I donated to the club and I replaced it with a X-200 but the extra gain was never noticed by me. Save your $$$ and just get a X-50 -- it will even fit in your attic.
N9HQ Rating: 2008-05-22
Excellent Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just a quick review, because if you are like me, long reviews bore me and I end up not reading them!
This antenna is fantastic and worth every penny I paid for it. Up 20 ft or so and I can hit repeaters 35 miles away with 25 watts! No complaints.
KG1F Rating: 2008-03-31
Happy after 5 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had an X-50N on a 10 foot mast on my roof (about 45 ft elevation) for about 5 years. Great antenna, pulls in distant signals. I'm North of Boston, and it gives me a clear signal to Plymouth, MA South of Boston down near Cape Cod.

Well built, easy to put up. Works great.
KD8GGY Rating: 2008-03-24
Not Impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this becuse of the good reviews, anyone want it? i paid 99.00 for it not sure if AES will take a trade in on a used antenna, i only have had it up for a few days and i am not inpressed, it works thats about all i can say good about it. I lost my MFJ 1740 MFJ 2M 1/4 WV GROUND PLANE ANT (29.99)to a Ice Storm last week so I thought I was putting a better antenna up. I put the X50 about 7 feet higher then the MFJ 30.00 cheepy I had Up. The MFJ out performed this Dimond by far, I can not hit the repeters i use to be able to hit with the MFJ. The only plus with this antenna is I can run 440 off of it when i get a 440 rig. I take is as a lession learned sometimes the more $$$$ ones are not better. KD8GGY
PD0STP Rating: 2008-03-19
perfect Time Owned: more than 12 months.
little strong antenna!
for his size good db,s im living on the west coast of the netherlands! lots of wind! som antennas did not survive! ques what: the x50 is still working perfect!low price/short antenna/lots of db for his size! greetings pd0stp
KJ6EF Rating: 2008-01-31
Good Performer, SWR on 70cm A Bit Odd Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I live, as the old song says, "In a canyon, in a cavern." Well, take out the cavern part…but it's like trying to transmit out of a well on UHF around here in three directions, East, South, and a bit to the West. I had tried building all sorts of homebrew 2M/440 vertical omnidirectional antennas, but none seemed to be making the 440 trip out of this area very well.

I decided on the X50 because:

1. I live in a crowded neighborhood: within 300 feet of me are one 4-residence condo building, 5 "twinhomes", and three single-family detached.
2. Putting up something that looks like an 8' Ringo Ranger mated with a barbed wire octopus just wouldn't pass.
3. The X50 reputation was pretty good.
4. I'm stuck using one feedline. (Lots of reasons for this.)
5. I needed _some_ gain.

I mounted it on tripod atop a 15' mast, 6' above the roofline, and the results are very good indeed. A 440 machine I used to need 30 watts to get 70% quieting with the old antenna I could now get 100% quieting with just 9 watts. So the radiation pattern and the gain is very acceptable.

On 2M it's just about what you'd expect from a 5/8, but it does it well; the angle of the radiation pattern seems pretty good for all-round work.

One minor problem: the SWR is a bit odd on 440. While I realize that any dual or tri-band antenna is going to be a bit of a compromise, I was a bit surprised to see an SWR "bump" of 1.4 to 1 right in the middle of the published data's SWR curve, where it should be the lowest!

Here are the figures I got using a Diamond SWR SX-40 meter:

432 Mhz: 1.5
434 Mhz: 1.3
436 Mhz: 1.2
438 Mhz: 1.1
440 Mhz: 1.2
442 Mhz: 1.3
444 Mhz: 1.4
446 Mhz: 1.2
448 Mhz: 1.1
450 Mhz: 1.1

So, as you can see, there's a "bump" in the middle, where there should be a trough. (!)

On 2M, the SWR curve is _really_ flat, with no odd bumps.

The coax lines and SWR meter, mast, all were the same from previous antennas, and the coax line was SWR checked pretty recently, so it's pretty much got to be the antenna itself.

I called the local "candy store" where I bought it for some info, and was told that I could exchange it, but that mfr SWR charts are ideal cases, and I "might get one perfect one on 440 out of fifty antennas, but the curve would probably never be perfect on the other 49." Hmmm. I'm a newbie to UHF, and never built anything in this range before 2007 ( with aforementioned results), so perhaps they're right.

I did call Diamond about it, and they said they'd tweak it in for me if I wanted, but, hey, 1.4 to 1 is a very small loss indeed, and since it's making the trip for me, well, I may and I may not; the approx. .5 watt loss at 28 watts from SWR is not going to make for much; I'm losing more than that from the coax!

Still, the German in me likes to see a product make published specs and curves; I may have it tweaked. ("Es ist entweder richtig oder falsch!")

But it _does_ work very well.

(And homebrew multiband VHF-UHF antennas are hard to homebrew and get ideal results from; it's not like making HF or even VHF antennas.)

-Lin/KJ6EF
KB3ONA Rating: 2008-01-19
Outstanding Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The X-50 was part of my first amateur radio gear purchase. Being a new ham, I was not entirely sure which antenna I wanted to erect, but I believed I wanted something tall since VHF is line of sight - the higher the better. The fellows at HRO in Deleware were very helpful in explaining my options and recommended the X-50 if I wanted to go with a commercial antenna. I'm glad they recommended it because I've been very pleased with the X-50's performance. I mounted the X-50 on a 20' mast above my chimney, and I was able to reach repeaters over 100 miles away. I've since moved to a new location with a HOA, and now the X-50 is only about 15' in the air, but to my surprise it still works about as well as it did at my old QTH. The X-50 is an outstanding antenna for the price. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase one again.