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Reviews For: Diamond D-130J discone

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

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Review Summary For : Diamond D-130J discone
Reviews: 39MSRP: 79
Description:
25-1300 MHz Continuous Coverage Super wideband antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
14394.7
K6MTS Rating: 2014-07-07
Pretty good cover all antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Works great. My only issue is the design is a bit silly. The way it was designed (use and placement of tiny screws, washers, and set screws, along with their relationship to the radial position, makes it tedious to put together and take apart to move.

Also could easily have been designed to be more mechanically sound as far as how it mounts to mast.

5 for performance, 3 for user/installer friendliness, = 4.
K5AHH Rating: 2012-06-06
Good Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
--I owned one of these antennas for five years. It's just about comparable to a quarter wave. A 2 meter signal that was S7 on a quarter wave was an S6 on the discone. Virtually the same results on 70cM. When used on 6 meters, the SWR on my antenna was 1.7-2.5. Not great, but acceptable. My Cushcraft AR-6 works much better (as it should). On both 2 meters and 70cM, SWR ranged anywhere from 1.2:1 on up to an acceptable 1.9:1

--Easy to put together. I've read several places that the lower elements, or the "cone" are solid, but mine were hollow. This was not an issue, though, in my opinion. Some of the hex nuts had rusted that hold the "cone" elements after a few years.

--While this antenna, at least in my experience, doesn't seem to "hear" as well as a quarter or half wave antenna, I would recommended it to a scanner user. It works fairly good for RX from 44Mhz to 467Mhz, such as low band Highway Patrol (44Mhz in this area), 6 meter amateur band, 118-136Mhz aircraft, 2 meter and 70cM. No other frequencies were tried. It sure beats having individual antennas for all the bands this antenna covers! I ended up giving the antenna away to a friend and I put up a beam. I've been thinking of buying another and putting it up at work.
K9MHM Rating: 2011-12-30
Works Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been useing this antenna for some time on a tripod in the spare room inside my apartment on 2 meters. I hit repeaters 20 miles away on 4 watts! Iam now tunning it for 6 meters its a little work but Iam getting the SWR down slowly. The SWR on 2 meters is about 1.1to1 with 4 watts. It works better in front of a window. I use the RG58 coax. RX great inside. On a tripod it fits in a corner if not in use (little space needed to store). I have tried 25 watts talked about 35 miles on simplex for short time the SWR was about 2to1 But maybe RG8X coax might help that.
NI6S Rating: 2011-08-28
Reliable Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had mine up for some time. I use a cross brace on my tower, 4 feet off the third section, putting it at 55'. I feed it with LMR600 and use N Connectors. This antenna consistently gets great reports on 2m simplex and hears well on other bands too. The key is in the height and the feedline. These two factors will allow you to realize its full potential. No issues and SWR is flat across the whole spectrum. Buy one of these! You won't be sorry.
AE6ZW Rating: 2011-06-18
at least 10 years old, still good. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got my D-130 discone from my old works, several years ago. I have used it for a while until I got ARX-2. I think this antenna was up on the roof used more than 10 years before it come to me. it is still is good shape. no rust, aluminum looks oxidized a bit, but that is normal.
SV1EEX Rating: 2011-05-15
Better than the competition Time Owned: more than 12 months.

I've used this antenna for the last 2 years. I have attached a 1/2" heliax line on it because I operate mostly on 1296 Mhz band. The antenna works in TX as declared on 6m/2m/70cm/23cm. It has lasted without corrosion and rust heavy winters while similar product got rusty after the first rain. I have also managed to make 10m contacts with tuner. Wx leo sats were piece of cake and so did most leo sat beacons. It is not a yagi but it is a highly recommended antenna.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by SV1EEX on 2009-12-16

I have had this antenna for few time. Already tested it. As previous friends mentioned it has a poor performance in 10m. My internal rig's tunner had a rough time tuning it but the performance even so is terrible. Also on 6m at the beggining of the band where most stations operate the SWR readings are rather high.Couldn't test yet with real qso performance for the 6m because the Es period is not yet here.
The above are the reasons why I didn't give the antenna a 5/5.
On the other hand the antenna is a ufb performer for the size at 2m/70cm/23cm. Also hears very well on the air and marine band compared to my homemade dipoles.
The material seems to be corrosion free and with solid making as far as the parts are concerned.
A friend of mine who uses it for more than a year has never had any problems and yet there is no rust or anything on it.
KC9MLA Rating: 2010-03-02
Same as the Icom Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This antenna is excellent for receiving. The radials do not fall off. They are not properly tightened by the installer. I live in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. Snow, winds, and ice, yes we get it all. This antenna has never failed me. There is nothing better in this price range. Our government use these. For the facts, I am using a Icom IC-R7000 with some LMR-400 cable. It is mounted on a 10 foot pole on my roof. I recommend this antenna to all.
N6HPO Rating: 2010-02-01
Excellent 'Cone For The Price! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought a R/S discone and the first 50 MPG gust that hit, it took me two days to find the radials! I then bought a Diamond Discone. All stainless and in 2007, it took 85MPH gusts and was still standing tall the next day. It receives and transmits extremely well, particularly over the hilly terrain I have surrounding me.

The 800 Meg band comes in great. The addition of the whip helps greatly in pulling in the CHP from anywhere within 140 mile radius from my QTH. Freq's from the low band CHP to the CalFire 800 Meg band are all received Q-5 and S-8 or better. Up here, reception is more than a hobby, it's a fundamental necessity!

I'm sorry to hear that others have found the antenna to be less than advertised. I live in wildfire country and hearing the CalFire/USFS comms has always kept me way ahead of the curve during emergency situations here in SoCal. The D-130J has never let me down. Mine is fed with Belden 9913.

BTW, the Diamond Discone [D-130J] will receive and transmit on 220 MHz also; something that they don't list in the advert. I used it that way for several years with great success until I put up my 5 element Yagi. The discone's available with a PL-259 or "N" connector.

If you do buy one, be v-e-r-y careful with those small Allen head s/s screws when you mount the radials for the disk & cone. The supplied wrench is small and if you drop one of those little screws, it's a long way down that ladder, hi!

73
WA7SRZ Rating: 2009-05-18
DISAPPOINTED Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading The reviews on Discone Antennas I decided on this one. It works great on 2m /440 but I bought it for the Police and Fire bands. This is where it fails. It is up at 35ft, you would think that would be great. The indoor telescoping antenna works much better. Go Figure.
Very disappointed!!!!
WA7SRZ
VA3ZXN Rating: 2009-04-21
Great option Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have mine in the attic of a condo and have had great reults with it on all bands for scanning and better than I expected on 2 M and 70 CM,