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Reviews For: diamond hfv5

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : diamond hfv5
Reviews: 5MSRP: £189.00
Description:
Frequency/Band:
7/14/21/28/50MHz (40m/20m/15m/10m/6m)
Max. power rating: 150W(SSB)(7/14MHz), 220W(SSB)(21/28/50MHz)
Impedance: 50ohms
VSWR: Less than 1.5:1 (Within Resonant frequency band)
Length: 4.0m
Weight: 1.95kg
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.diamondantenna.net/HFV-5.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
1454.2
ZL1MJL Rating: 2024-11-07
My favourite antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I used to have a clone of the TWA2010 and liked it a lot.
Every time I wanted to change bands I'd to go to the antenna to manually change it. It got a bit tiring after a while.

I'm now using a HFV5 in L shape where the horizontal part is pointing 30 degrees down from horizontal (60 degrees from vertical) to give me a pattern that is not to the side of the 'horizontal' part. I got this idea from KK40BI, tried a more vertical angle (30 degrees from vertical) but then the antenna mast had an impact on performance.

The relative narrow bandwidth is not a problem since I prefer to work either CW or QRP and those frequencies normally are close together. Sensitivity may not be up to a full size antenna but the transceivers are these days sensitive enough. And signals get out ok too, I'm not taking part in contests so that's not a problem either.

The TWA2010 clone is a better performer with capacitance hats and wider bandwidth, you cannot eat your cake and have it too.

I'm now trying to find a vendor who is willing to sell me the HFVC18 coils for the 18Mhz band. These appear to be available in Japan but sofar I've not found anyone in the western world supplying them.

73
ZL1MJL
2E0OKC Rating: 2021-11-12
good antenna for a very small space Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had a two of these over the years one back in 2007, being I was new to ham radio I chopped and changed a lot with antennas ...
my last antenna was a long wire, but I was sick of the wire hanging over my garden heading to my home, so I gave this diamond hfv5 a try again,
now I have used it for a week or too I can not see why I sold it last time, its working great, yeah ok its not a beam or a mega amount of wire in the air, but with my limited power im hitting 2000 miles or so,
this is an easy antenna to tune, only a few walks from my radio room to my antenna to get the job done. I tunes the antenna at 8ft from the ground then lifted it to 24ft and the swr only move a little on 40m .. rx I see this little 13ft wide antenna is doing better than my 50ft long wire .

like I said its not the very best of antenna as every one would have one, but mine is well away from my home and in the open my noise floor s3 give or take on 40m. and lower on higher bands.
I get plenty of stations well in the clear and so much better even as a swl .
I mainly use digi modes and nothing has burnt out,

in all for a small antenna yes its ok
2E0VDS Rating: 2020-04-21
Good antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just purchased this antenna been using for 2 days, so here are the results so far.Up about 15ft north south.
All contacts on ft4 or ft8 and from jo02

10m spot on. France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia
15m spot on. Germany, Spain, Austria, Finland, Slovenia, Poland,
20m ummm. Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Slovenia, Ukraine
40m spot on. Germany

Also tunes up on 12m, 17m and 30m with low s.w.r but not tried transmitting on theses bands at present.

6m. No good. However I have a beam for 6m and didn’t buy it for 6m anyway.

Easy to put together when you follow the instructions off a YouTube video. The printed instructions have plans that are pretty self explanatory but all the text is Chinese.

For such a small antenna it’s pretty good so,far.
I shall update my review in a couple of months time.

Update. (21/4/2020)

I have changed the length of the 6m whip and it now works a lot better.

I have also changed from a 'v'configuration to a 'L' configuration as I wasnt happy with 20m. Testing using wspr it appears that this has made some big improvement to 20m but also to the other bands.
Still early days but thats the fun of antennas. Always trying to get that extra out of them.
KF9MP Rating: 2019-03-15
narrow banded, versatile Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ive owned and used the Diamond HFV5 for a few years now. It is easy to install and use. It has survived some pretty good wind gusts just fine and has a low eyeball profile. This is now my primary back-up ant.
Complaints:
1.I primarily use this on 20m. The usable bandwidth is very narrow, aprox 60khz wide. Compare 60khz to the freqs you would expect to use this, before purchasing. 60khz on 20m is not much space.
2.Soon after I got it one of the mounting u-bolts had a failure and that nut is frozen in place (no, it is not cross threaded or rusted). I am trying to get a replacement U-bolt.
3.It is somewhat directional, so use with a TV ant rotor is better.
4.Adjusting the element lengths is time consuming but not difficult, you loosen the large nut near the center of the antenna and remove the entire element and measure and adjust the length of the tuning whip. Make sure both sides are the same length.
5.If space and antenna restrictions are your reason for looking into this antenna maybe you should consider the MFJ 1788 loop instead - they are always on backorder.
6.You cant use this antenna in the rain, the SWR raises when it's wet.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by KF9MP on 2016-06-16

I live in an antenna restricted community, this antenna was readily allowed. I use it in the upward-V position just a few inches above the top of my roof. It would probably do better up higher.
I've used tuned dipoles and HF verticals in the past with the same radio. This antenna does not hear or talk as well as a longer antenna (which is an unavoidable fact of life). But usually if I can hear them with an S-6 or higher they can hear me.
It does not tune on the WARC bands of 10, 18, or 24mhz.
The antenna is very narrow banded on 40m only tunable to about a 60khz slice which generally means you work either digital or voice but not both. It's a bit wider on the higher bands.
Tuning is simple with a tape measure and an allen wrench and an adjustable wrench.
Ideally, you should install this with a TV antenna rotator but fixed position is fine as long as you consider aiming the ends towards directions you want minimal performance.
I gave this a 4 for ease of use, reliability, light weight, ease of tuning, and versatility in different installation positions. This antenna comes with minimal instructions.
VA2DV Rating: 2018-05-25
Well kept secret Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This my first non-vertical antenna since a long time. The noise level from nearby powerlines and DSL subscriber drops was just crazy in my tiny backyard and the vertical I had there was almost useless most of the time. The only other possible location was my second floor balcony in the front of the townhouse.

I wanted something small and maybe directional to be able to null out some noise sources.

After much research, I found the Diamond HFV5 and it's cousin, the Comet CHV-5X. They are identical but the Diamond is a little less expensive. Randl (good dealer BTW) had the best price and shipping quote.

When the antenna arrived, the box was so small I asked myself if I just bought an expensive dummy load.

The thing went together in about 15 minutes.
Up on the rail of the balcony on a short mast.
Hooked up the coax and down I go to the rig to check it out. Weak signals...almost nothing. I then remember that this thing are very narrow banded ; so I took the measures in the manual and ajusted it. A little better but still weak.
Next step was to turn the antenna perpendiculary to the wall (aluminium siding).
Much better ! Now I see the light !

Next day, I put the antenna on a 10 foot mast that rise it just about 3-4 feet above the roofline. Even better results ! And now I can see some directivity.

I have been able to have several SSB QSO's with europe, south america and asia. Even on 40m when the small size may suggest poor results.

I like it so much that I ordered the optional 17m coils that I will install in place of the 10m ones. Anyway, 10m is close for a few years.

So, I am very happy with my purchase. Very well made with quality material, decents results and not really much larger than a TV antenna. I dont know why there is so few reviews...