Dude, as you can see, this sucker is great for RX and TX. I've been thrilled with it so far. Got it permanently mounted today. I highly recommend!

I was totally shocked at the difference between the Tram and the Diamond. Night and day. I haven't got it installed yet, but I'm planning to do the same thing.

It was night and day difference between the two - I was really surprised.

Glad it helped, thanks for watching!

Yeah, I put this on the shop (and secured the mast...) I'm going to use it for a GP scanner antenna/2m/440 PRN. It's amazing the difference.

@drmikeyb1 - Thanks for the kind words above! Come and join me on the TOADS server. Temporarily Offline, TheSmokinApe, Chuck, and myself, as well as a host of other friendly, knowledgeable (and opinionated) hams that love to share info! discord.gg/aKqhrvcFSY

@@FEPLabsRadio Ok discord I've never used before, I set up an account and everything is it like a live blog. When do you have your live podcast. Last question, how much do you charge for either a phone call or email regarding questions within the ham relm. What's really embarrassing is I bought a BF-F8HP for LISTENING purposes only to get an idea of the lingo. I downloaded chirp and for the life of me can't figure out how to program it. So many questions.

Exactly. I use mine as an sdr scanner antenna (thru a multidrop), also use it for 2m/440. I've been very pleased with this antenna.

Great suggestion! - If I can remember to do that, it would be a neat follow up!

Mine is literally mounted on 2 10ft sections of chain link fence top rail, sitting on the ground. The bottom of the mast is sitting on the dirt, inside a concrete block, and I have the mast guyed to my shop building. With anything, height is might. 30ft on a chimney would beat the hell out of 12ft. Better reception of longer distance and weaker signals.

Yeah these things are super wide-banded. I think the power limit on the Diamond is like 200W, and if I remember right, it was not too bad out of whack on HF.

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!

Silly question on the LMR400 I want to buy this antenna the diamond he previewed in the video but when I went to look at the LMR400 I didn't realize there were so many different ones. I want to run to either my SDS100 or SDS200 so which ends will I need. Thank you.

@@drmikeyb1 If you are buying LMR400 with ends, I'm thinking you'll want N connectors on both ends. After that you can adapt at the scanner from the N to what ever you have. I'm guessing that is your question? Make sure which connector your antenna has when you order. I'm thinking that this particular antenna has the SO239 connector option also besides the N.

It was horrible! When I got the Diamond discone, I slapped it on the same coax run, and it tests out and works perfectly fine. There is something janky with the Tram antenna.

@@FEPLabsRadio yo, thanks for this reply. If you have a model you'd recommend I'd love a starting point

@@theg0z0n The one in this video is what I have up now. The Diamond D130 - amzn.to/3ziE61T

@@FEPLabsRadio as soon as I asked I knew the answer, but couldn't figure out how to delete my comment, thank you!!

Darrell, that is not a bad idea for a follow-up! I'll look into it

Go for it! I use this guy out in my shop, usually with 2 sdr dongles connected to a drop amplifier, so I can monitor local sheriff and fire on the county P25 system. It also fills in as an ok test antenna, since it is so wide-banded.

That diamond antenna is great. I've got a drop amplifier hooked up, with 3 SDR dongles plugged in. It is working great up in the 850Mhz range (local PS stuff). Works great on 2m/440. It ain't a Yagi, but works well for the cost vs performance on it.

Yes they are pretty much the same as the TRAM antenna. Amazon or ML&S or such would have the size dimensions - I'd say at the bottom cone area, it's pretty close to a meter in diameter.

@@FEPLabsRadio Thanks very much for the information!

Right? Not like there is super complicated internals on it. The Diamond tested out great, I went back for a second and third pass on the Tram, it just sucks. I looked at it, I couldn't see anything overtly wrong with it, but obviously, something is outta whack.

I know this video is old but I just watched it. The PL connector on the Tram antenna ... could it be that it does not make a connection on the center pin ? There will still be a capacity between socket and connector and the antenna will be somewhat working but at a higher impedance. I think this "ringing behavior" looks like it could be the case. Also the construction of the antenna seems to be alright.

If I remember - the antenna is either a female N-type, or SO-239. Most scanners are BNC, so my recommendation is get good coax, and a bnc adapter to whatever , put that on the scanner side.

Louis, I agree on PL-259, them things are everywhere. The Diamond was $75 more than the Tram, and as you saw, looks freaking great on the RE. As for strong RF, that's a great point. I do live out in the county, so generally, I'm the only strong RF around for miles. Of course, someone else could have been messing with GMRS or whatever, without checking in with me! ;) Wavy-gravy - spot on description!

It's passable on 11m, haven't tried it on 10.

The inner core connects to the "disc", and the lower "cone" is generally connected to the shield. They are not connected to each other.

I would guess the only difference would be element length? Seems like an interesting idea.

@@FEPLabsRadio The antenna covers 7 MHz to 30 MHz or 50 MHz without any traps or adjustments, and the high current point is at the top of the structure.

I haven't - but I need to replace/upgrade my elderly discone, I will be getting a diamond for sure. I don't specifically have anything up above 1.2 (and barely 1.2), so if price is a factor, I'll probably go cheaper.

@@FEPLabsRadio from what I have been seeing the D130 is about $20-$30 cheaper.... in most cases... in other cases, it's almost the same price... Also, I was wrong about the size of the antenna. They are both the same size and weight.... the only thing is there really a big difference between 1300 and 3000 MHz ? From what I have been reading the Diamond D3000N is the first original antenna made by Diamond... Some testing needs to be done... 🙂 As of right now I'm running off a 500ft 12g sold core copper long-wire that is looped around the top of my 6ft dog-wood fence. The radio I'm using is the very popular RTL SDR USB dongle with SDRsharp... I love that little radio....

Hey Adam, I don't usually have help, so my raising of the mast is probably an OSHA violation! I used two chain-link fence top rails. I had the mast leaning against a saw horse, mounted the antenna to that. Then I just raised it up vertical, VERY close to where it was going to be mounted against the outside wall of my shop. I already had the bracket mounted and ready. I placed the bottom of the antenna in a concrete block to keep it steady and just leaned it into the shop and then fastened the bracket, and set some guy ropes.

I was going to make a similar comment. SWR means very little in transmit efficiency and radiation patterns. I wouldn't be surprised if this discone had a parallel resistor to keep the SWR appearing low.

I'd recommend lightning protection. Those things are not super expensive, and decent enough insurance. I don't have a specific recommendation, I use the MFJ ones. A lightning arrestor is a pretty simple thing, and they all work well enough, unfortunately, you're never sure of that until the moment comes. I will say for years and years, I never put any on my scanner antenna, and it was fine. As for amplifiers, there are some amplifiers that will boost an incoming signal, but keep in mind, it will also boost the incoming noise. An amp is not going to make the signal better, just stronger (along with the noise). It may help in your specific case, but I couldn't tell you for sure one way or the other. If you're in a metro area, you really aren't going to hear any more than you would without one, IMO.

For weak signals, I would recommend a bandpass filter for what frequency range you are looking at. Mini Circuits - look at their RF Filter page. This will give you a good idea of where to start, then what to look for. For example, when picking up weak satellite signals, this is a requirement if you do not want the signal down in the noise of everything else going on. Remember to connect the filter between your tranceiver, and antenna tuner. Connecting between the antenna tuner and antenna makes things less than ideal, and increases SWR. Adding an amplifier should be after the bandpass filter obviously, between it and your tranceiver. Good luck!

I don't think it would hurt at all. My Diamond is on chain link fence top rail mast (2 sections), sitting directly on the ground (guy-ed off). Should work fine, either way.

​@@FEPLabsRadio thanks Jim.👍🍻

Discone is a ground plane antenna. They do not need ground connection to function but it is a good idea for other reasons like close by lightning induction.

Nothing special. I have a ground on my gear to the rod outside, that's it.

Not really, as far as I understand it. It can have a *slight* effect on it, but it's basically non-existent. If the coax and antenna are matched at 50 ohms, then the effect is negligible. When you do see a difference in SWR with different cables, that can indicate that the antenna system needs a counterpoise and/or choke, so that you are not radiating on your cable. Again, generally negligible.

Same piece of feed line (RG-213 - I think), only about 20 feet long. Same mast, same hookup. It's strange, the difference between the two antennas

Well without a thorough examination, you may never know ? Could have been poor Coax, bad connection, location, etc. hard to say ? As Discone antennas are by design Unity gain antennas, and fed properly, are a good fit such as your multiband scanner application ! But because of their frequency gymnastics, and typically High frequency design, they are a hard not to end up in negative numbers, when you're dealing with Unity gain to begin with, and unless you're feeding them with feed line the size of a Fire hose, the losses in feed line are horrendous , to say the least ! I have never been a Fan of the mods manufacturers made to appease those crying about their needs for some type of lower frequency capabilities, hence the vertical whips added over the years ! Which in my understanding, makes them no longer a Discone ! But Manufacturers will do anything to sell something, right or wrong ! Because of the above mentioned reasons, I have found most antennas supplied with scanners, do just as good a job at receiving, if not better ? I employed one many years ago, made for Radio Shack, or Tandy, I'm no longer sure who they were back then, maybe even, Allied Radio shack (?), specifically for their frequency flexibility, as back before many had ventured into UHF, it served as a quick and easy, " No Switch Box " option to switch from Two meters to 70 cm, in the blink of an eye ! And good SWR, to boot ! Really unique, back in the day ! And I believe because of their design, the input impedance is 50 ohms ! So they do have a nich place, but just difficult to rangle the losses ! From my experiences, anyway ! Good luck and most of all, have fun experimenting ! '73 !

Man, I put that thing up in '92 or '93. I probably bought it from scannermaster? Maybe? Sorry, that info is lost to history. Really recommend that Diamond though. Super good antenna for wideband scanning!

@@FEPLabsRadio I was digging the SWR curves of the oldie but I'm definitely considering that diamond ☺️

Back in the 90s Radio Shack sold a decent Discone was popular!

Right, honestly didn't even think about that, as I'm not using that antenna in those bands. VHF and up is where that guy gets used. Might be itneresting to go back and check that out.

I do have only 50ft run of cable on the Diamond now, just to eliminate that variable. I did re-mount the Tram on a tripod mast, and re-tested with about a 15ft section of RG-8X, and still got the hot garbage. I dunno what they did, but they broke it good. If I'd kept the packaging, I'd have sent it back.

@@FEPLabsRadio Be interesting to sweep your coax run with a known good 50 Ohm dummy load on the far end too ...

Yes it will! I use it with multiple SDR dongles, as well as my SDS-100 Uniden scanner.

About 25 ft max.

Yeah, it really blew me away Ron. Before I shot the tram video, I had already run sweeps on The Elder, and knew it wasn't junk, just old. So, two out of three look good, and the Tram - well, it's Krap.

I did that, I thought I mentioned in the video, but yes. Same mount, same coax, vastly different results.

I have no idea. It's on a temp pole outside, I haven't been motivated to tear it down and find out why it's so bad. I had no idea you could mess up a discone as much as that one is. I looked at it, no obvious problems at all.

I didn't have a rig to test 6m with, and it's just not something I get a lot of around here. It should work ok, it's a very wide banded antenna

Maybe I just got a clinker, but I don't know how complicated it is to screw up a discone. I was really amazed at how poorly that tram performs.

Right? It baffled me totally. There's not much to a discone, it's certainly not complicated other than the elements. I suspect something is shorted inside maybe. I haven't troubleshot it any more, it's just sitting there on a test mast, head hung in shame. I probably need to either fix it or throw it away.

I really got it for my scanner, and it works great for that. They're advertised as being able to transmit, and my results were based really on what SWR showed up with the rigexpert. Obvi, there are a lot better antennas for HF/VHF/UHF than a discone. it is a compromise.

Its only a bit worse than a 1/4 wave ground plane so not bad at all. A thing to know allthough is that it isnt strictly horisontal or vertical polarized it is both and everything in between depending on frequency.

I never really do anything around here with 6M. I mostly bought this as a scanner antenna/satellite (maybe?). I'll have to put the RigExpert on it and see how 6m tests out.

Do a full scan on all of them to their datasheet.