Heading

Diamond D-130 Discone Up And Running(ish)

Diamond D-130 Built And Ready To Go Outside

Over the weekend I sat down and assembled my new Diamond D-130 Discone antenna and moved it outside for testing with my SDRPlay RSPdx software radio (now my main wideband receive radio). Now, at the moment is is just outside of my office/shack widow and not very high off the ground so it’s not in an ideal location. Initial testing has resulted in VERY poor reception so I’m going to later today to pop outside and move it further from my office/shack window and get it a little higher off the ground (although I’m never really going to get it more than about 10 feet off the ground).

I really hope this relocation will allow it to work better than it currently is doing. If it doesn’t improve then I’m going to be very disappointed.


06-06-2024 Update

I’m delighted to report that a few days ago I managed to go out and relocate the Antenna to my chosen location and I can confirm that it is now performing wonderfully and pulling in strong signals from all over. Additionally, I’ve hooked it up to my Icom IC-705 to do a little TX testing on 2m and 70cm and I have achieved an almost perfect SWR, so a win all round.