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Reviews For: Diamond D220 mobile discone antenna

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

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Review Summary For : Diamond D220 mobile discone antenna
Reviews: 4MSRP: 109.99
Description:
100-1600 MHz mobile mini discone antenna. RX 100-1600 MHz. TX 2M, 70 CM, 33 CM, 23 CM. Gain: 2M 2.15 dBi; 70 CM 5.5 dBi; 33 CM 2.15 dBi; 23 CM 2.15 dBi. VSWR less than 1.5:1. Max. diameter 8.5". Height: 35.5". Weight .85 lbs. Connector: UHF. 50 ohm impedance. Maximum power: 50 W.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/d220.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
KE0GXN Rating: 2022-04-27
Diamond D220R - Nice little discone! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased this antenna for strictly civilian and military air-band scanning and it works awesome!

Picking up aircraft transmissions a lot further away then when I was using my old wide-band Radio Shack antenna.

I can only speak to how it performs on air-band, however it is very well constructed and easy to put together and I am sure it would do well on whatever bands you decided to use it for.

Diamond quality all the way!

K2LAX Rating: 2018-01-17
Very Impressive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Needed a VHF/UHF antenna for portable ecomm rig, that was easy to transport and would go on top of 25' telescoping tripod. Hooked it up with a 25' cable. SWR 1.0 all freq. I use. Reception equal to 30' vertical at base. Very pleased!!
K6ATZ Rating: 2012-01-14
I liked this mobile discone so much, I put it on my tower. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The unfortunately named D220 is not designed for transmission on the 220 MHz band, but there is in fact an SWR dip between 222 and 225 that I find usable. Anyway I'm not going to hold that against this well-designed rugged little antenna, as all the specs and packaging clearly state - even for those of us who cannot read Japanese - that the D220 is designed to transmit on 2 meters and 70/33/23 centimeters. In fact, I like the results on all bands so much I even mounted this little mobile discone at the top of my tower!

In my installation the SWR is near 1.9:1 at 223.5 MHz, rising to 3:1 at the edges of the 222 - 225 range. I wouldn't risk my treasured Icom IC-375A on that, but I've found that some 220 MHz FM transceivers based on land mobile designs from Alinco and Jetstream can handle the D220 just fine without a tuner, and at that SWR I'm still getting from 75% to 90% ERP. The D220 has good SWR on the other ham bands in its range, and my receiver/scanner works well on the full 100 to 1600 MHz range of this antenna too.

I mounted the D220 atop my tower by sliding it into a short length of PVC pipe and hose-clamping the bottom end of the PVC to the top of the tower mast. This antenna weighs almost nothing, and disappears against the sky. I had the larger Diamond D-130J up there first, and that one does work more bands - including 28, 50 and 220 MHz - but the D-130J occupied more space than I could spare...and also it kinda looked like Sputnik was landing, hi hi.

Height matters, and even a J-Pole would work wonders at 40 or 50 feet, but the compact D220 is multiband and does provide some gain. I achieve full FM quieting and good D-STAR connections with no R2-D2 throughout most of the Bay Area, and I have made FM simplex contest contacts as far as the Sierra foothills 180 miles away with this little discone. If you squint you can just about see the D220 in pictures of my beam posted via www.k6atz.us
K6QT Rating: 2010-08-24
Wonderful antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a fairly new antenna for me (two weeks), but I love it exquisitely! I have tried other antennas rated at 2.15 dBi gain, but this is by far the best one I have tried at that rating (also, 5.5 dBi for 70 CM). With other antennas I usually have a little fading, with this one, none. (The only difference between antennas is the one I happen to screw in to the one mount.)

Sometimes I can not even hit a repeater with another antenna. With this one, I can hit everything I can dial in. I have especially a 70 CM repeater that I have tried in vain to hit with other antennas and with this one it's a breeze, all the way into Salt Lake during the commute.

Good job, Diamond. I have had the pleasure of owning other Diamond antennas. I have only had problems with one of them (manufactured with a defect). Setup with this one was a breeze. Although all the instructions were only in Japanese, just look at the diagrams and it is easy to see how to put it together. I only wish I had the ability to read any other warnings or things to watch out for with the antenna. I have a bunch of Japanese friends at work; will have to have them read it for me. Though Diamond should have put instructions in English on an antenn bound for an English speaking destination.

Discones have an interesting look and I get quite a few interesting comments on my antennas on my little car (I have four of them, including a couple of strange-looking ones, plus the car radio antenna, so five total.), but I wouldn't trade any of them, especially this little antenna. Don't worry that there isn't enough space for it. It's got a very small diameter (I think 8.5", which can easily fit onto the back of a car on a lip mount with room to spare for another antenna.). So unless you own a Smart car, you'll have plenty of room.

The antennas don't seem to be interacting too much with each other, and even if they are, in my case, it's a plus.