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Reviews For: Diamond A430S15 70 cm Yagi

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Directional (Yagi, quad, etc.)

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Review Summary For : Diamond A430S15 70 cm Yagi
Reviews: 8MSRP: 89.95
Description:
Base Station 15 Element Yagi Beam - Special Features:
+ High Gain 14.8 dbi
+ Easy Assembly (weight only 2.15 lbs, length 89")
+ Great for base or portable use (100 watt power rating)
+ Quality Construction
+ Factory adjusted - no tuning required 430-440 MHz
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/a430s15.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
1183.9
EA3OW Rating: 2023-01-29
Good construction, poor dipole feed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi all. I completely agree with the first review made by KB1GMX, the exact same thing happened to me.
I have nothing to add
KB1GMX Rating: 2021-10-07
feedpoint is poor, needs help. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Finally got to writing this one up.

I bought two. Put one on the tower. The other was for later portable or rover work as its light and easily broken down. Initially it was a quick solution with an expectation of it will at least work.

Out of the box neither ever had a SWR below 2.5:1 anywhere from 380 to 500mhz and both were the same. Both were tested and it was found the feed didn't work or was badly mis-tuned. This was validated using a Agilent 8357A. Testing showed the feedpoint had both excessive reactance and no clear resonance. As a result the gain was over 4db down from specification and expectations for this size beam.

Opened the driver element box (drill out rivets) and while well soldered and all it was simply not a functional arrangement. The feed was a SO239 with about 8.625 inches of #28 clear zip type speaker wire from the connector to the elements.
At UHF this is a rather questionable way to do things and turned out to have high loss. Add to that the driver element lengths were both wrong. I would end up redesigning and rebuilding both. The result now has a SWR under 1.2:1 for the stated bandwidth and will now tolerate more than 300W easily. With the feedpoint corrected the measured gain was very close (within .3db) of the advertised where before it was not close.

Rating 2 of 5 as its light, remarkably rugged, inexpensive on the plus side. It has stood a winter with ice and snow loads.

On the heavy minus side the feed arrangement on the two I have (A430S15) was a bad design or incorrectly assembled. I would not buy again
or recommend without the caveat of rebuild
the feedpoint it will work well.

In short for the price its good aluminum but not serviceable out of the box.

Update: For those that desire how I modified the feed assembly its been years since I did it and cannot recall the specifics to the "do this" level. Sufficient to say I opened the feed and went for a simple parallel coax choke feed. and altered the element lengths. to be functional at 432.1Mhz.
UR5FLN Rating: 2018-11-06
Great Super Light Antenna with high gain. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hello
2 weeks I use 2 A430S15 stacked with standard Diamond's cross boom. Together with the 2M A144S10 on the same must just 2 m below total 8 meters from roof. Thanks nature these 2 weeks was a good tropo so I could test these antennas pretty much. My feelings were really good. I enjoy work on these antenna, antenna in vertical polarization, good F/B Ratio for its length. SWR flat over entire Band (plug and play). I using GP omni antenna Diamond F-718 for 70 cm and difference when switching to these yagi 3 s-levels sometimes more. I didn't check the real gain but I think it's close to 16 dBi. Generally review similar with my A144S10 antenna only main pattern is much more sharp +-10 deg signals considerably change down on my s-meter.
I recommend to use this antennas.

- Positives:
1. Very light weight (not required very strong mast) I use also 2 A144S10 stacked 2m below same aluminium pile. For portable operation is very convinient
2. May be used for SSB/CW/FT8 in horisontal polarization - mounting is ready from the box just rotate 90 deg
3. It's realy works (compare to my ultra high gain vertical F-718)
4. Comes preassembled from Diamond so you never mess the elements


- Negatives:
Didn't find yet, will see after winter time operations

kind regards
Sergey
73 de UR5FLN
N2SLO Rating: 2013-01-21
Excellent small footprint Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed a 432 yagi for SSB contesting. I settled on the A430S15. I built the antenna in 10 minutes, and it was operating and mounted on the roof in 20 minutes. SWR 1.1 out of the box, no tunning necessary. I tried it out in the January 2013 VHF contest. I made 17 contacts, and all reports with 50 watts were excellent. The only drawback is that the antenna will handle only 100 watts. This is not for the "big gun" stations, but a decent antenna to participate in contests with good results. Very happy with purchase.
KD7QDG Rating: 2010-11-15
A430S10 Review - 5 Elements Less Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
There is no A430S10 Catagory, so this will go here.

This is identical to the A430S15 minus 5 elements. Advertised gain is 13db whereas the 15 element is 14.8. This antenna is for the lower end of the band, not for your repeater work at all! Low SWR only in the range of 420 to 435. At 440 you are at 2 to 1 and it gets worse at the top of the band. I purchased for satellite work so no disappointment there. Hard to find a 30 MHz BW antenna you know?

Easy to build, light and works very well in the low end of the band. Came with mounting bracket, 1.5 inch. Good design, very portable.
WD4AB Rating: 2010-07-07
GREAT PERFORMER Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I installed this antenna at a mere 30ft and find that making contacts with stations 150 miles or so is no challenge. I have made signal comparisons with other local hams using bigger beams and find that the Diamond usually equals or outperforms them. Good antenna for the money. Should work great for tropo and e-skip.
K6ERF Rating: 2010-02-14
Good Performance Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased my first A430S15 a year ago for 432 multi-mode & SSB work. It worked so well I purchased a 2nd one and stacked them 30” apart with two 41” harness cables to the T connector from the specs that the Diamond Tech told me. The match was 1:1 and the performance has been great. The stacking helped with capture of weak sigs plus some leveling out signal fading on 90 mile plus distances.
W7OZ Rating: 2008-01-22
Bag to rag in 5 minutes Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up the Diamond A430S15 to use with my new FT-8800R. They work great! The Yagi was very easy to assemble - just loosen wing nuts, rotate and center elements, re-tighten. A few more wing nuts for the boom halves + driven element and you're done.

I placed it in my attic on the back of a wood chair with a horizontal coax feed, aimed it East towards Portland/Vancouver and was rag chewing within 5 minutes of taking it out of the bag. I could easily work simplex with a mobile ham in Vancouver. His signal was maxing out on the FT-8800R indicator.

This is my first operation on 70 cm and working with this tiny but well made 15-element beam was so refreshing compared my old 3-element 20m Yagi. Though my first contacts have not really challenged this beam, I plan on exercising it on some 100+ mile paths up into Washington State. I will be getting a Diamond X700HNA in a few weeks and then it will be interesting to see how the advertised gains compare (14.8 vs 13 for X700).

For now I am delighted with this antenna and give it a 5.