SDRplay Community Forum

Hi , does anyone use the DIAMOND D-130J SUPER DISCONE ANTENNA, with their SDR Play.
Or have you any recomendation for a Discone Ant, please

I have a discone, and it works wonderfully...

Try the forum search facilities at the top-right of the page to have a browse, it's a question that's been asked before, eg:

https://www.sdrplay.com/community/searc ... 8&start=10

Cheers,

Phil VK7JJ

If you're looking for a transmit & receive antenna this is not for you.
However, for receive only, I am quite pleased with this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scanking-HF- ... 3641.l6368

It does what is claimed, at least capable of receiving the UK time signal (strongly) on 60kHz, the Berlin one (strongly) on 77.5kHz, receives some NDB's in the 3xxkHz range (might do better more appropriate times) - I haven't checked), but looks OK through HF generally anyway and it performs very reasonably from the 160M Band upwards to the highest frequency that I've looked at so far of 400 mHz.
Of course there may well be better, but I haven't used any others recently. Anyway, I hope you are satisfied with whatever you may get.

Hi, I`m planning to post shortly details of an antenna I have developed that you will be able to transmit
on (146mhz) and anywhere between 250mhz to 2800mhz with an SWR of around 1.5:1 throughout the range.

Will receive 118mhz to 2800mhz or greater.
This based on a dipole so it has increasing gain in frequency and as such is some what Bi-directional.

It is neat because you can go any where in the ranges stated and not have to change antennas.

Uses..... VHF, VHF-UHF-TV, UHF low, UHF high, ADSB, 23cm Band....e.t.c.

Easy to build and pretty cheap.

cheers Tony.

Hello everyone,

So, the D-130J Super Discone is a good receiving antenna? Great, that's what I was searching for.
Although I run into a little issue: right now, I live in northern France and have no trouble receiving most French, British and German signals. However, I'm in the process of buying a holiday house in which I'd like to install a HAM station, equipped with the RSP2 since I have a spare one from a dismantled emitter/receiver station we had built for my son's high school physics class.
However, it would be far away, and in very different situations; right now, I'm looking at this house, which would be 1) in Greece and 2) near the sea.
So, I have several questions :
-Would the D-130J antenna allow me to receive Western/Northern European emissions from that far away?
-Since I wouldn't be there most of the time, how do I store it? I'll dismount it before leaving, but do I have to pack it a certain way to avoid it getting damaged by sea salt and things like that? What about the hot and dry climate, compared with damp Northern France?
-Will the proximity of the sea mess with radio signals if I want to receive, and if I were later on to buy another antenna to emit?

Thanks a lot!

I use an ICOM AH-8000 discone. It works very well as a receiving antenna for my RSPs. It is also used for transmitting on 2m and 70cm (50W). Just for fun I connected my 100mW WSPR TX (Ultimate 3) to this discone and got reports from VK5.
One advantage may be that this discone is made of stainless steal instead of aluminium. It has a higher resistance against salt water dust. On the other hand steel may have some higher losses than aluminium. If you live near the sea I would take good care of the materials the antenna is made of.

Wolfgang (DF1KZ)