Diamond X50N antenna (dual band base)

The Author has been making commercial antennas for years. This is a report for a another commercially made one

It appears to be built for a medium duty application for a type amateur station at the home or possibly low-level (non harsh) site. It's well built and appears to last several years. The Author has a couple at remote sites with no issues. The type N termination is a nice touch to keep up with commercial specs. The Author has mixed feelings about stainless steel parts however, no issue was found with this product. The manual claims some rather unrealistic gain specs. At best 2-meters would be unity and 70-cm would be 3 db. That's an honest gain over the industry standard of a center-feed half-wave dipole. The return loss (RL) came in 38 db on 2-meters and 36 db on 70-cm which is excellent. The Author apologizes for the fuzzy images. The mounting pipe is secured by a small bolt. It's easy to have it slip on your fingers down the tower to get lost forever. In case you are searching for a replacement, after extensive search the Author determine the bolt is a M6 x 1mm pitch, about 6-8mm in length, hex cap bolt in stainless steel. There are several types-grades of SS however, it's thought most any will work. The replacement washer(s) have not yet been found however, should be much easier to find either on line or a "big box" store such as Home Depot or North 40. The Author would recommend this product for most station arraignments except for the extreme (harsh) winter mountain sites. When in doubt, one could top brace the antenna for those conditions.

The manual is here for the antenna

This may be copied in complete form only for non-profit purposes, such as for the knowledge for the Amateur Radio Service, with the Author credited as designer. For other arrangements please contact the Author.