Tram 1411 Discone Antenna.. 6 meter review

[KC0CCB]

hey everybody just wondering how well this Tram Discone would do on 6 meters and if it's my best bet on all bands to replace my older Rat-Shack Discone i've had for-ever almost..?? i plan to get one this year before summer gets here and want to feed it with Belden 8214 cable and all that jazz...

73 from Todd Rittel KC0CCB / WRKH774

 

[mmckenna]

Not a Tram.

Here's an SWR sweep of a Diamond D130N discone I did a few years ago. Sweep is from 30MHz to 1.2MHz, the advertised capability of the antenna.

——NOTE----
SWR is NOT the only measure of antenna performance. NONE of this takes into account the radiation pattern of the antenna. This ONLY tells you how well the antenna is doing something with the RF other than sending it back down the pipe.
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Answer, SWR on 6 meter band isn't great. It's a loaded antenna. There's not a good ground plane under it. It'll "work" in the sense that it will hear a strong signal, and it'll radiate some amount of your transmitted signal.
I've never used on on 6 meters.
I cannot imagine that it would work well. I'd imagine that ANY purpose built 6 meter antenna is going to work better.

 

[GMB951]

Not so good on 6 meters, but very good on uhf/vhf,Fair receive on common low band.

 

[mmckenna]

Not so good on 6 meters, but very good on uhf/vhf,Fair receive on common low band.

Yeah, there are much better antennas.

The only real selling point to discone antennas is that they cover a lot of spectrum with acceptable SWR. The radiation patterns get wonky as you go up in frequency, I think.

Dedicated band antennas will almost always work better. But if you are using a scanner and only can put up one antenna, a discone is kind of hard to beat. I scored my Diamond for free many years ago. I stuck it up on the side of my house as a "temporary" solution. As they say, "Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution", and so the antenna sits there, doing antenna stuff about as well as I need it to. Just waiting to find a more suitable antenna for free.

 

[KC0CCB]

what type of antenna should i look into for a base station for a Kenwood TK-690H to mod for 6 meters

 

[mmckenna]

what type of antenna should i look into for a base station for a Kenwood TK-690H to mod for 6 meters

I'd get a dedicated 6 meter vertical. I know there are some multiband ham verticals what will cover 6 meters. A 5/8th's wave 2 meter VHF base antenna will act like a base loaded 1/4 wave on 6 meters.

 

[KC0CCB]

I could try a mag mount up on my stainless steel roof of my house

 

[mass-man]

Check out the Arrow GP-52! Pretty cheap way to get on 6m FM and see how you like it!

 

[mass-man]

You could do that…

 

[KC0CCB]

Check out the Arrow GP-52! Pretty cheap way to get on 6m FM and see how you like it!

im still thinking on going with this GP-52 ground plane for 6 meters and just waiting on "my discone upgrade"

 

[KC0CCB]

i live in a small town where there's certain rules (like a HOA type thing) in Edgemont.. so would a Karen see that GP and start to ***** and complain about my antennas...? i could tell her or him i'm a HAM and show them my license copy i guess

 

[KC0CCB]

i just ordered this antenna from Amazon

Shark Antennas S-FM6 Mono Band 6 Meter Mini Mobile Vertical Antenna with 3/8x24 Threads, Handles 250W Max​