Diamond RH77CA Thumbs DOWN

[Ramathorne]

Slapped the above antenna on my GRE 500 this morning...Gre 800mhz antenna gave me 3 solid and 4 flashing bars at all time...Attached the Diamond and BAM, 0 bars flashing 1...

Left it on for 15 minutes and took it off...Sold it...Absolutely no good for my rural area...Only thing that came in was NOAA at 5 bars..

As soon as I reattached the GRE 800mhz antenna, right back in action...Amazing how much difference there can be in antennas...I am going to try a Condor next and or perhaps a Watson...More or less just doing it for an experiment...

[thomast77]

Originally Posted by Ramathorne

Slapped the above antenna on my GRE 500 this morning...Gre 800mhz antenna gave me 3 solid and 4 flashing bars at all time...Attached the Diamond and BAM, 0 bars flashing 1...

Left it on for 15 minutes and took it off...Sold it...Absolutely no good for my rural area...Only thing that came in was NOAA at 5 bars..

As soon as I reattached the GRE 800mhz antenna, right back in action...Amazing how much difference there can be in antennas...I am going to try a Condor next and or perhaps a Watson...More or less just doing it for an experiment...

You are comparing apples and oranges. The Diamond RH77CA is a dual band 144mhz/440mhz antenna. It will work good for VHF/UHF. It will not outperform an 800mhz antenna on 800mhz.

[Rt169Radio]

Well a dedicated antenna for a certain freq band would work better then a antenna designed to cover more then one band.

[N9JCQ]

Research research research!

[ridgescan]

Diamond RH77CA Product Reviews

32 reviews and almost a perfect score

also those GRE's from what I have learned, are crazy sensitive and may not like too much antenna.

[drsl2000]

Originally Posted by N9JCQ

Research research research!

"The Diamond RH77CA is an HT antenna for transmit on 2 meters and 440 MHz. It is a 1/4 wave on 2 meters and a 1/2 wave on 440. It can additionally receive these bands: 120, 150, 300, 450, 800 and 900 MHz. As a result of this exceptional coverage, we actually sell more of these antennas to scanner listeners than hams! It is a favorite model for scanner enthusiasts, and for those using the new breed of wideband handheld radios."

[Allan_Love_Jr]

I still have mine. And it is one of the best damn Antenna's to date. Especially when monitoring the Rail band. Perfect Antenna.

[n5ims]

Originally Posted by drsl2000

"The Diamond RH77CA is an HT antenna for transmit on 2 meters and 440 MHz. It is a 1/4 wave on 2 meters and a 1/2 wave on 440. It can additionally receive these bands: 120, 150, 300, 450, 800 and 900 MHz. As a result of this exceptional coverage, we actually sell more of these antennas to scanner listeners than hams! It is a favorite model for scanner enthusiasts, and for those using the new breed of wideband handheld radios."

You're pointing out what the marketing department added after engineering was done. They probably checked with their engineering team and asked if the antenna would pick up a signal on those other bands if it was strong enough and engineering said "Sure, if the signal was strong enough." so marketing added it as a feature. As I like to say "Works on" doesn't equal "Works well on", it simply means it doesn't filter out those signals.

[RadioDitch]

Mine works just fine on all bands on my PSR-800, BCD396XT, and BC346XT. No complaints at all. And that's in the mountains of PA...

[Ronaldski]

Dont forget those GRE/RS radios do terrible when they get overloaded with too much signal.
Example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgminOVS2no

[n8zcc]

Originally Posted by drsl2000

"The Diamond RH77CA is an HT antenna for transmit on 2 meters and 440 MHz. It is a 1/4 wave on 2 meters and a 1/2 wave on 440. It can additionally receive these bands: 120, 150, 300, 450, 800 and 900 MHz. As a result of this exceptional coverage, we actually sell more of these antennas to scanner listeners than hams! It is a favorite model for scanner enthusiasts, and for those using the new breed of wideband handheld radios."

Did you copy this: Diamond RH77CA Amateur HT Antenna

I agree, the RH77 is an outstanding antenna, I use it on my PRO-106 and it does the job.

[awattam]

Years ago I bought one of those Diamond RH77CA antennas for my PRO-106 scanner. I had to sell the scanner and sold with with what antennas I could find. Last week the kid cleaned out my car and found this antenna under a seat. Using the supplied SMA to BNC adaptor that came with my newer Uniden BCD396xt scanner I put this antenna on the scanner.

So my question is, why does this BNC version of the antenna totally outperform the SMA version that I purchased when I bought the Uniden scanner?

[k3cfc]

Originally Posted by drsl2000

"The Diamond RH77CA is an HT antenna for transmit on 2 meters and 440 MHz. It is a 1/4 wave on 2 meters and a 1/2 wave on 440. It can additionally receive these bands: 120, 150, 300, 450, 800 and 900 MHz. As a result of this exceptional coverage, we actually sell more of these antennas to scanner listeners than hams! It is a favorite model for scanner enthusiasts, and for those using the new breed of wideband handheld radios."

I have a sportcat scanner and replaced the original telescoping antenna with my 2 meter 440 diamond antenna and i can say what a difference. soooo i am getting another for my scanner.


K3CFC

[awattam]

What model number is the 2 meter 440? I am all for getting some specifically tuned antennas as opposed to wide band.