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Reviews For: Diamond NR-2C

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

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Review Summary For : Diamond NR-2C
Reviews: 2MSRP: $39.99
Description:
2-meter mobile antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
W7VL Rating: 2003-07-24
no problems, good 2m mobile Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had one in use for over 3 years of Montana weather on several vehicles, and from off-road use at speed to highway use at well past 85mph i have only once experienced the "fold-over" problem. When i turned the fold-over so it could only fold left to right and pushed down on it to seat it firmly it never again popped out at any speed or any weather or vibration. It works flawlessly for me.
KB1HOL Rating: 2002-11-22
Good performance, poor design Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I only use a 2-meter mobile radio in my car and wanted a high-gain monoband vertical antenna to mount to it. After comparing performance and pricing, I opted to get the Diamond NR-2C. Its a thin, lightweight 55 inch long stainless steel antenna with a reported 4.1dBi gain on 2 meters. I was attracted to it initially because it had no exposed coils which would cause wind noise and bend the antenna at highway speeds. There's a single, closed phasing junction in the middle of the antenna, and the whole antenna appeared slender.

I mounted it to a trunk lip-mount UHF connector. The antenna performs very well with an excellent max SWR of 1.2 "out of the box" on the edge of the 2 meter amateur band limits (although this antenna is supposingly cut for a slightly different center frequency). The antenna makes virtually no noise when driving, and I was equally pleased to notice the whip doesn't bend or wobble much at highway speed. The antenna also has a spring assisted "fold over" feature allowing you to enter low clearance garages etc.

However, that feature is also its weakness, as I discovered driving during a rain storm. At highway speeds, the antenna suddenly flopped over. After stopping and resetting the whip back into the base, I turned it so the whip screws were facing outwards, assuming the wind and wetness 'forced' the whip over, thus overcoming the spring's tension. With the screws outward, the antenna could only fold over left and right, not front and back; thus being immune to the wind blow over.

Wrong.. the car's vibration caused the whip to turn in its base until it could flop over again. The spring just does not have enough tension to keep the whip firmly mated with the antenna's base when its wet outside. This is a serious design flaw IMHO.

I will probably try coating the whip base with something like rubber cement in order to try to add some friction material so it will stop twisting.

This one flaw is unfortunate, as this antenna performs very well, but that's useless if you have to remove the whip when its wet outside.