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Reviews For: Diamond CPVU8 8 band vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Diamond CPVU8 8 band vertical
Reviews: 1MSRP: GBP 449
Description:
Vertical antenna for shortwave and V/UHF. A small antenna for radio amateurs with space restrictions. Allows operation on 80, 40, 20, 15 und 10m, plus VHF 2m and UHF 70cm! Gain on 2m is 2.1dBi, on 70cm 5.5dBi. Max. power 200W SSB (3.5 - 50 MHz), 150W FM (50 - 440MHz). Total length 2.7m, length of five lower radials approx. 1.5m, weight 2.4kg, max. wind speed 125km/h. For operation on HF no further radials are required! The center frequency can be adjusted for each band. Due to the shortened design of the antenna the usable bandwith can be limited, a tuner might be required.
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.diamond-ant.co.jp/english/amateur/antenna/ante_2base/ante_base2.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0013
M0NYW Rating: 2024-04-28
First review regarding build and tuning. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
When Maldol antennas where about I had a identical antenna "maldol hvu-8". I recently picked up the Diamond version second hand but brand new unopened. The build contruction of this antenna is excellent and is really well made, typical Diamond quality you would expect.

Reading through the manual, everything is easy to understand no short falls and assembly went smoothly.

Mounting the CPVU8 on a 1.5m mast in the garden I had pre set the whips as per manual and started to check the SWR on my AA-600 analyzer start at UHF working downwards to 80M. I will say without an graphical analyzer it will take you a double/triple amount of time to fine tune.

70cms was ok probably abit too low and 2M was more set for USA but still usable between 144-147MHz. There are not adjustments for these two bands. Too me, 2M & 70cms are just a added bonus/extra.

With the 6M you only have a radial to adjust. You get two whips, one for the low edge of the band (CW/SSB) and one for the higher end (FM section). I used the longer one to get the low end of the band but best reading was 51MHz.

Same with 10M two whips are supplied for CW/SSB & FM, so again used the longer one. Having it set at the factory starting length the longer whip was at 28.9MHz. I extended to 6cms longer than specified and the lowest part of the band I could get was 28.4MHz.

15M/20M/7M & 80M were alot better and I was able to tune anywhere across the whole bands and set to where I prefered operating into the CW sections of the bands.

The bandwidth is very narrow as you would expect and the manual states using a tuner but if you have a internal tuner you could set every element for mid band and the tuner should cope.

Due to the British weather I haven't tried it on the bands of yet as I want to test at 1.5m in the garden and then mount on the side of the house. Will no doubt need to adjust elements once moved to its final position.

My thoughts so far:

- I think the price is high at nearly 450GBP
- Tuning is very time consuming (took 30-40mins to tune all the bands)
- Think it would of been better if they changed this to
20M/17M/15M/12M/10M/6M/2M & 70cms or made this as a mix and match antenna you buy coils/elements for the bands you want to use.

I will post an update on performance once I get time to test at current position and mounting higher.