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Reviews For: Diamond CP6 multi-band trap-vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Diamond CP6 multi-band trap-vertical
Reviews: 43MSRP: 320
Description:
The CP6 is a multi-band trap-vertical antenna for HF bands, covering the 80*, 40, 20, 15, 10 & 6m amateur bands. Made from heavy-duty aluminum, the CP6 is easily assembled, yielding excellent performance and reliability from a compact base station.
*80m CW only. SSB requires a tuner.
antenna.

This product has been discontinued.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/multi2.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00433.8
DL1BEQ Rating: 2004-10-26
runs perfect Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi
I was looking for an antenna w/o wires. I owned a GPA50 from Fritzel, which worked ok for me. But it has radials which have to be fixed somewhere. So I read abt CP-6 here and bought it next day.
The mounting was easy going except the radials.
those radials already mounted to the antenna made it difficulty to get the antenna on the roof... but we made it.

Facts:
1. easy to build
2. very good quality
(all screws are now in V2A steel)
3. narrow bandwidth because of the traps (80m)
4. resonance irt the manual is ok
5. fabulous signal at receiving site

disadvantage:
1. narrow bandwidth, that hurts w/o a tuner
2. I feel it a bit insensitive on my site.

all over resume:
I feel pretty fine with this antenna even with the narrow bandwidth.
(read a comment abt LDG AT-100 PRO from me)
But this antenna keeps me away from discussions with the neigbours abt wireradials and mounting point for them
Even the new rules in Germany abt poweroutput and disturbance of neigbours are solved with this, because I can stay away from the borders of my areal.... that was the major topic for me.
Thanks for reading
Greetings
Frank
DL1BEQ
IW9CTR Rating: 2004-08-12
++ great ++ Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
even if it is of small dimensions, l'antenna works in all the bands except in the 80 meters well where it is active single in the part cw, much sturdy and easy one to syntonize, must be mounted at least 2 meters hight.
73 Luciano
VE3XYD Rating: 2004-03-04
Great Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What a great antenna. I put it up my self, no extra help need it. It doesn't take too long to put this antenna together. Tunning is very simple as well. Mine is sitting about 40 feet above the ground level. If you live in a windy spot like me, I recomend to install extra guy wires to keep the antenna in place. Unless you keep the antenna low to the ground.

before you setup the antenna, I recommend to replace all the screws with Stainless Steel. Mine went bad after few months. For a diamond class I was suprised that they even used just a regural metal screws! Once you change the screws the antenna looks $1000 MORE EXPENSIVE! HI HI...

First QSO on 20m my signal landed on Brazil, I got great singal report with only 25w. With ATU the antenna can be tuned without any problems almost on any band.

80m is a little tricky but you must spend some time at the antenna and properly tune the 80m trap. Once you do that it works like a charm. But on 80m the antenna is limited and it is not a real DX blaster! It does the job for local chats.

Other then that it works great on any other band. Great DXing on 40/20/15/10m band. I cannot comment about 6m band becuase due to conditions it lacks any activity. I had no chance to try it out on 6m yet.


Noise levels are low on this antenna.
I would definetly recomnd to anyone, not too tall, easy to setup, great performer on 40/20/10!

ciao
73
IK0YGJ Rating: 2004-03-01
Great length/performance ratio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was only 45 DXCC countries with this antenna, now I made my 100th countries doing only the activity on limited days and few hours. it is a fairly compact antenna (only 4.6 mts) bu performs really good. Other antennas are more sensitive but also much longer, even during tough pileups I am heared very soon. A strong plus is its resistance to wind: very strong.
PE1OID Rating: 2004-01-25
perfect but not on 80 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
i have put it up 5 monds ago and worked on diferend bands verry nice dx but only on 80 meters it seems not to work fine aal the time i get a high swr from my trx (FT 920)
but thats not my faforite band.
but i would recomand it to other ham's who would like to start on HF..
KC2IVZ Rating: 2003-11-09
Not bad at all... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I put it up 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately WB0W sent me the cp6 instead of the cp6a. I was a little anoyed but it happens. I contacted Diamond and they expressed me the needed 75mtr radial and 20 inch 40mtr capacity hat radials with explicite instructions. Their customer service manager Jim was a gentleman. No charge and an appology for a problem that wasn't the manufacturers fault. I just made the conversions with shortening the upper mast section to 18 inches. Then installing 3 20 inch radials on 40mtr hat. Next followed with the change to the 75 mtr radial at 17.5 inches. Now it works flawlessly. Althought the MK V field has an auto tuner, I use an MFJ 969 and am able to get a better match. Mine is installed on the roof of my high rise condo without calling any attention to itself. I have a Caroliner 80 up there too and this little vertical works almost as good on the resonant bands it was designed for. Maybe some day they will make available radials for 17mtr rag chewing. I would seem to be a very easy conversion. I have it on a 5 ft mast which is clamped to a 3 inch cast iron vent stack. That is one hell of a ground. That might be the reason for great performance. Hope this review is helpfull. 73's to all....
S57MHA Rating: 2002-12-30
Woking fine for its size... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have this antenna for about 2 month now and it is placed on top of 10 story building (about 50m off the ground). I was expecting more from this antenna but it works fine. It is easy to build and I think it would be great for portable operation. But I miss 30m band. And I have problems with tuning on 3.7MHz. Well, I have CP-6 without A.

Here is short statistic of worked DXCC with Icom 745 and about 100W:

BAND DXCC
---------------
ALL -> 110
10m -> 90
15m -> 19
20m -> 2
30m -> 5
80m -> 31

Hope to hear you guys on the band!
73 de Alex - S57MHA
PA3HGT Rating: 2002-12-21
good construction but... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I owned the CP6 for almost a year. The construction is good but performance could be much better.The constructionmanual was not easy to read but that is mij own opinion.
The main problem is that the antenna is too short for HF with his 4,6 meters. Results between 10 and 20 meters are poor and on 40/80 bands are very poor. I used when i sold this antenna a Fritzel GPA50 , Hygain AV620 and now a Cushcraft R6000. The last two antenna's are performing very well but not very resistant against stormy weather.The radials of the CP6 have a nice lenght and so the antenna is easily to tune.SWR looks good but the bandwidth could be better between 20 and 10 meters when i look to the other antenna's that i mentioned in this review.
I don't even recommend this antenna for SWL.
M3CVU Rating: 2002-09-18
A great compromise Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my CP6 second hand from a guy who owned it for 2 months. (he was moving house and couldn't put up the new antenna)

The first thing that struck me was the build quality. Far better than my previous cushcraft. For me space is a major problem having only a small garden and the usual hassle from neighbours. I decided to mount the antenna on a versa tower wall mounted on the back of my house. I can raise it to about 35 feet. Not exactly an ideal location but it keeps it away from the neighbours window view. The installation went smoothly, a bit difficult to man handle on your own because of the radials but easily light enough for one person.

Once in the air the antenna looked like it was going to stay there, unlike the cushcraft which used to wave around terribly in the wind. (The CP6 is much smaller in comparison)

The antenna is fed with good quality low loss coax down the garden to the shack. I use the TS870 with auto ATU. The antenna tuned up great with out the ATU and even better with it!

The end result is that with my 10watt allowance I have worked all over Europe and the states on 20 and 15 in just a few weeks. The far east is difficult, I can hear them but 10 watts against the big boys is maybe asking too much. 80 and 40 work well, a little narrow on 80 but the ATU helps to sort that out. I have nothing for 6m so can't comment on any performance there.

I would highly recommend this antenna to anyone where a compromise antenna is needed. Ok its not a quad, but with patience you can still work the world with this antenna. Well done Diamond!
KB3DVS Rating: 2002-07-22
Nice basic antenna - but Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I read about the CP6 for a while before I bit the bullet and bought my own. Explaining to HRO that I wanted it for SSB and I was going to mount it on the fake chimney of my row home (I'm on the end) I got home and had the dickens of a time getting 80 and 40 to tune up.

I called in to Diamond and it turns out I got the CP6 which comes standard with an 80m radial that is wound for the CW portion fo the band. I needed the CP6A... the "A" part offering a differently tuned 80m radial, longer hi-hat radials for 40m and a shorter top piece fo the mast.

Part fo the problem is that it's also a tricky design. The pin of the coax has continuity on both the vertical mast and the radials. The shiled has continuity on the vertical mast and the radials. This made tuning it with my MFJ tuner very hard. I got weird readings, expecially on 40 and 80m. Diamond recommended a Byrd or Diamond meter (naturally) so I got a refurbed Diamond and it worked with the antenna just fine. I'm quite happy with the meter. Very accurate.

Field day 2002 came and I brought it with me to let some more experienced members help me get my CP6 now A up and running. And even with all the new parts, the 40m sweet spot was just _under_ the ham band. A fellow club member suggested taking two of the capacity hat radials off. These were the longer ones that were intended to correct the problems of using the shorter ones.

I took two of the long radials off and "bam" it tuned up right in the middle of the 40m band. I played around with everything at that point- top piece, all the capacity hats and more.

My resultant antenna has the short top piece. Next down it has two long capacity hat radials and two short ones (not four short ones). Next down I have two long capacity hat radials (not four long ones). and then I have the "A" 80m radial so the sweet spot sits natively in the voice portion fo the band.

So be sure when you buy that if you want CW, you want the CP6. If you want SSB, you want the CP6A. Also, be prepared to play around to get it all to tune up where you want. It's relatively preset, and very quick to assemble*** but just be prepared.

*** my CP6 also came with the japanese/english instructions in which the english half left a lot to be desired. There are much better, clearer, more descripting and all english directions on their web site. Use these. :)

Now I've had it up for a few weeks. I love jumping between bands with ease. I have a radio with an internal tuner so while it can work a band without the tuner, it may only be to 70-80w because the SWR approaches 2.5-3 at the end of the bands. Use the tuner and I'm 100%. Sweet. THe CP6 and a basic old radio with internal tuner and you're golden.