| KC0VDN |
Rating:      |
2005-10-23 | |
| Great All around Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased this antenna for general 2M/440 work and it works awesome! I have it about 30 feet up on top of the roof and I can hit anywhere on 5watts, and with 20 it's full quieting almost everywhere. It is also nice to be able to expand to 6M with the antenna already up, though i'm sure it's not as good as a single band 6M as some of the reviews said. All around a great antenna, would recommend it to anyone.
Pete
St. Paul, MN
KC0VDN |
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| 2E0DBD |
Rating:      |
2005-10-23 | |
| Very Impressed |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Had a W2000 installed about 35' on the chimney before.
Changed it for the Diamond V2000 about 2 years ago when we rebuilt the chimney.
Using Andrews 450 Heliax fed direct to it.
VERY IMPRESSED with performance.
Good VSWR on all bands
1.5:1 on 6 Metres
1.3:1 on 2 Metres
1.3:1 on 70 CM
Recommended to anybody considering purchasing one.
Very well made, and good instructions.
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| EA3WR |
Rating:   |
2005-09-13 | |
| 6m performance |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I fully agree with EA4EOZ, I own the single fiberglass / no tune model and 6m performance was negative until I installed three quarter wavelength radials that totally changed my V2000. As EA4EOZ described SWR is now correct, with maximum 1,3:1 at 50 and 52 and a minimum 1:1 at 51. A station 50 km north from my QTH was S4 with unmodified V2000 and now is S9+, wich clearly demonstrates that original V2000 was not ressonant. Now it performs as a regular quarter wave vertical, although the manufacturer claims V2000 is a C Load half wave!
Best 73 de Joan EH3WR |
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| S56OA |
Rating:     |
2005-08-08 | |
| Works fine on apartment balcony too |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this antena as a replacement of old Diamond X-50 dual bander antena on the 2nd floor apartment balcony.
Antenna works better than X-50 on 2m and 70cm bands even though it has PL connector instead of N type one. I am able to copy few additional APRS digis and stations compared to an X-50 antenna.
On 6m band SWR is OK on 51 MHz and higher frequencies. On lower part of 50 MHz band (around 50.100 MHz where SSB DX portion is located) SWR is a bit higher, 1 : 2, but my Yaesu FT-857 still works OK and does not fire HiSWR alert even with 100 W of transmitting power, so situation is acceptable. I managed to work 20 stations in just an hour of time, during one of the openings on magic band, working stations from England, Scotland, Netherlands, Sweden and other parts of Europe here from South West of Slovenia, so the performance on 6m seems to be fine.
I give it 4 instead of 5 due to higher SWR on SSB part of 6m band. |
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| EA4EOZ |
Rating:     |
2005-01-11 | |
| A little mod will improve 6m performance |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I owned this antenna for two years until now. It's performance on 2m and 70cm it's okay, as well as many other collinear antennas. 6m is a diferent history. I've never use the antenna in transmission (band restrictions because TV transmitters), but I use it extensivelly in reception. All seemed to be rigth, except the antenna analyzer, that shown a chaotic SWR curve with sharp minimun(s) at some frecuencies between 48 and 56 MHz.
Looking in Internet about this antenna, it seems there are various versions of this antenna: Some with two pieces fiberglass, others with single piece, some with tuneable radial and others without tuneable radial. My antenna is single piece fiberglass and fixed length radial, so no tunning was posible without cutting physically the radial itself. I did it and nothing good was obatined except another chaotic swr curve.
Some months later, playing with MMANA, I realized it can´t be a vertical antenna with only one radial, in fact, the antena in 6m is a vertically rotated V dipole!. This is the reason because its radiation pattern is directive, and polarization is erratic: Vertical at the radial's direction, combiantion of vertical/horizontal at any other direction, with significant radiation just straigth up and just straigth down!
Another problem is because it has not a real balum, the mast and mounting hardware (and coaxial feed) acts as the 3th dipole arm, giving very diferent results in diferent instalations.
Just as a experiment, I replaced the 3 radials with full size 6m quarter wave radials (145 cm long 8mm diam. aluminium) and I tested it. Now I have a totally new antenna. SWR is 1:1 at 51080, with 1.4 at 50.000 and 52.000, very flat indeed! Because now it is a true ground plane, polarization is exclusively vertical, so TV noise is greatly reduced (from S9+ to S2: very nice for me!) so now I can heard even meteor reflections from european hams.
The new radials do not seem to affect the 2m and 70cm performance, giving the same signals on air and swr curve as before the modification.
My recomendation: If you are not happy with the 6m performance, try to replace the radials with 3 full size 6m quarter wavelength radials and test it. You will be surprised!
Diamond V-2000 unmodified: 4
Diamond V-2000 modified: 6 ;-)
73 de Miguel Angel, EA4EOZ |
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| KA3SEI |
Rating:      |
2004-12-12 | |
| Awsome |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I just moved to a house in a bad spot, and my original J-pole in the attic that worked so well for me in the past has failed miserably. That's why I bought the Diamond. I put it in the attic and BAM, I'm back in business! With the J-pole, I could barely get into my club 2M repeater about 18-20 miles away - and I was quite noisy. With the V2000A, I'm getting in crystal clear with an S9+60! I'm also hitting repeaters at much greater distances. SWR is less than 1.5 on all three bands right out of the box. In the spring, I'd like to get this thing up with some LMR-400 cable into a pine tree at about 50 feet, and it should really make my rig sing! |
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| G8GXP |
Rating:    |
2004-10-18 | |
| VSWR Problems anyone ? |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just erected the v2000 in place of my 20yr old maldol wx4 and quite disappointed! The vswr on 6m is acceptable for the portion of band I’m interested in, same with 70cms………but two metres is just unacceptable.
With the bird 43 in-line 100w up and 13w back……..not good for a supposed pre-tuned antenna.
The antenna it replaced has far superior performance, I realised it has not got quite the same gain figures due to the collinear configuration ( 2x 5/8th’s with the v2000 to the 4x5/8th’s of the wx4) but one distant signal to me 80 odd miles away was 20 over 9 now S7 !.....MMMmmm.
So far I’ve chopped out a 1/4 wave of co-ax, made a RF bauln, I have now replaced the whole co-ax run with belden 9913 and still poor performance.
Any idea’s guy’s ????
Tnx in anticipation
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| KG4LHQ |
Rating:      |
2004-08-25 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I got this antenna brand new at Indianapolis Hamfest 2003 from a ham for $10 bucks ( great deal ) I know. I bought a 2720 From him and a power supply so he cut me deal on it. Anyway its about 15 feet up and I must say that it absolutely does great with the V8000. I am able to talk just about anywhere I want to ( Not all the full quieting ) but good enough with no problem. I love the antenna and I will be raising it to 60 feet within a few weeks. I would recommend that you purchase this antenna and try it out. I also use it for Crossbanding and it does very well. Just like a repeater. GET ONE YOU'LL LIKE IT |
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| N4LI |
Rating:     |
2004-07-19 | |
| OK, but 6m could be better. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I am fairly pleased with my V2000.
I have the antenna mounted in my attic, connected to a Yaesu 8900; being tri-band, the antenna was a natural choice.
2m and 440 seem to work quite well. SWR is well within the acceptable range, and I can appreciate the gain over the ¼ GP the antenna replaced. 6m, though, is just barely adequate. While the ‘2000 will work there – in the FM portion of the band – it is very narrow, indeed. The antenna is tuned with an adjustable 6m radial. In my situation, I am concerned with 2 6m FM frequencies, 52.01, the input for our local 6m machine, and 52.525, the 6m simplex call channel. The 500 Kilohertz between these frequencies is a stretch for the V2000. Ultimately, I tuned the antenna for the midpoint between the two, and got the SWR acceptable, but not great, for both frequencies.
As far as 6m performance, the antenna is also adequate. The specs show it having roughly the same gain as a dipole (2.15 dbi), and that sounds about right. While I haven’t spent tremendous amounts of time working 6m simplex on it, I have worked a handful of sporadic E contacts on 6m FM. It all seemed to work fine.
I like my V2000; I just wish it were a bit more broadbanded on the Magic Band.
Peter, N4LI
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| G4IJE |
Rating:      |
2003-08-10 | |
| Good performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| My V2000 shows about 1.9:1 at the SSB/CW end of 6 metres but my IC706mkIIG seems happy enough (no tuner). I've worked some good DX this summer including PY (over 9000 Km), JY, OD, 4Z4, CN, TF and ZA. That's all with the antenna just 18 feet above the ground and 30 feet above sea level. It also does all I need for FM QSOs on 2 metres and 70 cms. As the Americans say, "It's a keeper"! 73. |
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