I called Diamond to ask a questions about handheld antennas. I spoke to, I’ll call him W. We spoke for a good while and I ended up giving him an idea to help with counterfeit antennas. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Anyway, he was pleased with my idea and to thank me, sent me an antenna of my choosing (thank you). I picked the SRHF 40A.
The problems with antennas for HT’s is that if you want to get a good one it needs to be long, and if you get a long antenna it’s hard to carry. When you try to carry a long antenna you get poked in the ribs, armpit or even you chin in some cases. It’s just not that practical to carry and 16″ or longer straight antenna on your person. This is where the SRHF shines, you can curl it up like in the image and video below, then extend it when you want to transmit. It’s the best of both worlds. It’s a good antenna too. I’ve been able to lower the output wattage on my radio and still hit and have a 5×9 or clear signal on the repeaters. I’ve even tried it on 6 meters and hit the repeater, but since no one monitors it I couldn’t get signal read. I am also able to receive clearly from it. Technically, this is a 2m – 70cm (440) antenna. It also receives on 120,150,300,450,800,& 900mhz bands.
When the antenna is curled up it measures just under 6″. Check out the video to see how you turn a 6″ antenna into a 16″ antenna.
This is the image they use in their literature it’s also found in online ham radio websites and catalogues. I’ve seen it several times, but thought why would I want to by a squiggly antenna? It didn’t occur to me when I looked at this model that it could be bent into many different shapes. I think that’s a hard point to get across in literature, but I think Diamond should have multiple photos and a more detailed descriptions so people don’t pass this one up.
This is one of my favorite shapes to carry the antenna in. It wraps about my back and stays totally out of my way when I carry on my hip.
My only beef with Diamond is that on their website it’s listed as a Tri-band antenna. This is a dual band antenna. Why do they list it as Tri-band antenna? They also don’t give details as to what bands it receives on (RX) or what the third (TX) band is. I would like to see more details on their website. Here is the HT antenna page, and here is the specific product page.
Here are the specifications that came with the antenna.
Gain: 2. 15dBi(70cm) Max output: 10w Impedance: 50 ohms Connector: SMA
1/4 wavelength (2m), 1/2 wavelength (70cm)
Overall length 16″
A word of caution, there are a lot of imitation Diamond antennas out there, make sure you know what your getting.