We seek to understand and document all radio transmissions, legal and otherwise, as part of the radio listening hobby. We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations. Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissible in your locale.

Author Topic: Dual band vertical Vs Discone  (Read 4090 times)

Matt285

  • Guest
Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« on: January 28, 2020, 1644 UTC »
So, I would like to plan on having a VHF/UHF antenna up on a mast so that I can use it with an SDR receiver. I know that Discone's are fairly popular for multiple frequency use, but I would mainly use for TX/RX on 2m/440 and receive for F.M radio, Airband, FRS and GMRS. Seems like the vertical would be the way to go, but am I missing any factors here? Thanks

Offline ThaDood

  • DX Legend
  • ******
  • Posts: 1209
  • Likely, not where you are.
    • View Profile
    • Extreme Part #15!
    • Email
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2020, 1752 UTC »
You are just using this for receiving only? A Discone is a nice wide-band compromise, but a cheaper way to go would be a scanner base antenna that Channel Master and Radio Shack had. In the early 1980's, I stuck a 30" AM / FM car antenna +30ft up a pine tree, and I couldn't believe what I was able to hear on that, 10M HAM, McDonalds 35MHz drive-through FREQ, 46 / 49MHz cordless phones from a couple of miles away, the regular police, fire, hospital maintenance and UHF MED 1 FREQ's, 2M HAM repeaters from +75 miles away and 2M simplex from guys over +20 miles away, Conrail, local radio station VHF remotes, UHF TV audio from stations +80 miles away, AM aircraft chit-chat on 123.450MHz from several states away, etc. Of coarse, I was spoiled up on a hill then. Today, I live in the bottom of a river valley, where I use a Diamond Discone Antenna to RX / TX wide-band on 6M FM, 2M HAM, MURS, 222MHz HAM, 440MHz HAM, but doesn't seem to match well on 462 / 467MHz GMRS FREQ's. For me, having a do-all low gain antenna works better than an antenna that has gain, since signal just heads to the hills and bounces back to me, but a lower gain antenna helps me take advantage of refraction and reflection, where I can get-out better locally. So, it really depends upon what you want to do and where you are located geographically. If you can afford to shell out +$100.00 for a wide-band Discone, go for it. You could use it to transmit on later in the future, if you plan that. However, if you are on a budget, look at a cheaper scanner base antenna out there. Heck, there are some sites and Youtube VID's out there that show you how to build your own. I've seen people even recycle TV antennas by mounting them vertically. The compromise there is that they tend to be directional, but great if you have a target area to monitor. Hope that helps. Good luck!!!!
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Offline Rob.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 622
    • View Profile
    • N1NTE KiwiSDR online
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2020, 2200 UTC »
My personal experience with discones has been unsatisfactory. I have always found that an antenna cut for a particular band works much better. Some people swear by them, some at them. :)
- Rob

CT/MA border
Email: n1nte.rob@gmail.com
KiwiSDR (x4) online - http://sigmasdr.ddns.net:8073/
ΣSDR Blog - https://n1nte.blogspot.com/

Offline kris

  • Marconi Class DXer
  • ********
  • Posts: 9036
  • N.Poland
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2020, 2228 UTC »
   The basic difference is that the dualband antenna will work profitably in the designed ranges,
while diskone works without profit but usually from about 30 MHz to even 1.2 GHz.
Some company names may be used for TX in selected bands (optimized SWR).
I have Moonraker installed high, but I'm not happy (maybe too long cable?).
RX888 ( SDR-FE-PLAY, HRD-747, Sony XDR-F1HD),
Ant. Sky Loop 180m 15m AGL, Sky Loop 120m 35m AGL
       + QRM X-phase eliminator
QTH: Gdańsk N.Poland  Ru/Sp/Gr/Sb=Russian,Spanish,Greek,Serbien
eQSL appreciated to: 13krzycho@gmail.com

Offline Josh

  • DXing Phenomena
  • *******
  • Posts: 4322
    • View Profile
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2020, 2257 UTC »
It'd be nice to have both. The tri/dualband vert at the top, and the disco on a yard arm. Run a preamp on the disco inside the home so you can increase the sig levels and remove it if desired. Don't want to have to climb back up there to replace a lightning popped lna.
We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations.

Matt285

  • Guest
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2020, 2350 UTC »
I was pretty set on the Dual band vertical, but I think I will go with the Discone. I'm probably not going to use it that much for 2m/440 transmit, but I think it will have the performance I need to get into repeaters. Do you think that performance will be better for Fm broadcast vs the dual band vertical? Not looking to DX, just a little gain would be nice. Any links to pre amps would be great.

Offline NJQA

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 322
  • Virginia
    • View Profile
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2020, 1251 UTC »
I think a good discone is useful to have as a general purpose antenna.  You can never have too many antennas.

The Diamond D777 is an antenna for the VHF (118-136) and UHF (225-400) aviation bands.  You can find them at Ham Radio Outlet.  I have one but haven’t installed it so I can’t speak to its performance yet.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-012019


« Last Edit: January 29, 2020, 1254 UTC by NJQA »

Offline Beerus Maximus

  • Administrator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 1409
  • Boston, Massachusetts
  • hold my beer and watch this
    • View Profile
    • Beerus' 30 Below Site
    • Email
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2020, 1526 UTC »
Honestly if it were me, and I could only have one antenna to share between 2m/440 TX and general coverage VHF/UHF receive then I would pick a solid 2m/440 vertical like the Diamond Antenna X50A.

For a pre-amp, if money is no object, a Stridsberg PRE-20.

http://www.stridsbergeng.com/preamp.html

Their multicouplers are also fantastic so if you are looking to share a single antenna with multiple receivers they have a great solution. I have the MCA204M and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Just make sure you never put RF through it - RX only!
# Genetically engineered sentient sausage & undisputed inventor of the end-fed dipole. I also invented the schlumpy dipole.
# KiwiSDR, NetSDR, Airspy HF+, Airspy HF+ Discovery, TS-590, IC-7610, FTDX10, ANAN 7000 DLE MKII
# beerusmaximus@gmail.com * North Shore, Massachusetts

Offline chanito

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 217
  • S.Texas
  • RF Exposeur
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2020, 1918 UTC »
The MP Antenna works for both wideband V/U and for 2m/70cm transmit. I use it mostly for FLTSATCOM reception on 260MHz. Works better than a ground plane cut for that band. About the same price as a good discone. https://www.mpantenna.com/product/uhf-vhf-antenna-08-ant-0863/  You can find them on Amazon or eBay.

Thinking of getting one of these just to be ludicrous https://www.mpantenna.com/product/uhf-vhf-antenna-08-ant-0861/
PCR-1000, PCR-1500, RSP1A, RSP1, VR-120D, HDT-1, Accurian HD, Royal 3000
Caras HF-315, Belar LP-1A, SuperAntenna MP-1, RatShack 20-043 discone, MLA-30, 100' wire

Offline nickcarr3151

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 75
  • Bellevue, WA
  • The only easy day was yesterday...
    • View Profile
Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2020, 2115 UTC »
I was pretty set on the Dual band vertical, but I think I will go with the Discone. I'm probably not going to use it that much for 2m/440 transmit, but I think it will have the performance I need to get into repeaters. Do you think that performance will be better for Fm broadcast vs the dual band vertical? Not looking to DX, just a little gain would be nice.

Don't even think about a preamp until you get the antenna and do some monitoring.  I use a Diamond D3000N with LMR400 and it picks up way more signals than I need at times.  In fact, I have to use a NOAA + FM BCB notch filters just to get a 'tame' signal.  I live in a high-RF area so unless you're really out in the boonies, I wouldn't worry about a preamp.  I would feed it with LMR400 especially if you're looking to monitor 700-800 megs.  If your focus is more VHF then you can get by with cheaper RG8 coax (and if the coax length is fairly short.)

PS.  I have the Diamond X510HDN antenna for my HAM VHF/UHF work.  It's a solid vertical but it's interesting how I hear better on the discone for most of the time.  It's an ideal antenna if you have to transmit regularly. 

Both antennas do require a little height to be truly effective.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2020, 2118 UTC by nickcarr3151 »
Perseus SDR + Wellbrook ALA100LN (60m loop), Wellbrook 1530S+
ICOM 7000 + Zero-Five 10/40 GP Vertical
Xiegu G90
Motorola XPR/XTS Portables, Uniden scanners, Whistler Scanners
Airspy Mini SDR + DSDPlus + Diamond D3000N Discone