diamond 777

Location : worcestershire Spotter Watch Member : Yes !!!!

Hi all, A question about tha Diamond D777. In the spec: it says--Range 120--300mhz. does this mean it will cover right upto 399 or only upto 300? Sorry to ask a basic question but I want to be sure. At the moment I'm picking up freq's from Lynham and Brize in the 119 to 136 area with my 3500 connected to a folded diapole thats been up since Adam was a lad (well before I moved in anyway) which was put up for short wave. While on my 785xlt which is connected to a new discone stays stubbornly silent when tuned to the same freq's ( a bit dissapointing to say the least). I've made up my mind to get a dedicated A/B antenna after advice from the lads on the site, and there's been some good comments on the 777..Many thank's kindest..Jim.. :D ..

Location : various

it will cover DC to light....but it covers the airband frequencies slightly better ;)

What they mean by the specs is that the aerial is designed around tuning at those two frequencies but to have a bandwidth that will include resaonable reception throughout civil and military airband.

The quoted gain figures refer ONLY to the theoretical gain at those two SPOT frequencies

Location : Near RAF Aldergrove

Hi guys,

I have seen many people requesting info on this antenna on the forums before now and I'm just giving an update on mine. I got it before Christmas but due to being unwell I just got it up today. The mounting kit with this is a really well made job and it is a breeze to get set up. The bottom of the antenna is a few feet above the height of the ridges and we have a nice clear unobstructed view of all the local countryside.

Initial impressions are very good - I can pull in the ground vehicles from the local airport 7nm away with as clear audio as if I was sitting in the airport viewing gallery. Really does sound very good! I am using the thicker 213 cable compared to the 58 cable which I have used in the past. Maybe this makes a good difference too.

There are not many UHF stations in the area but first impressions on normal airband are very good.

Would recommend this to all!

Hope this is of interest to some.

Location : Whitley Bay, Newcastle

I have a D777 on my roof - very impressed. VHF does appear slightly better than UHF. It's my first aerial so I have nothing to compare it too!

No complaints from me though

Location : Workington Cumbria

pilot_ngb wrote:: I have a D777 on my roof - very impressed. VHF does appear slightly better than UHF. It's my first aerial so I have nothing to compare it too!

No complaints from me though

Just seen your location, this antenna also works very well on the vhf marine band...

Location : Whitley Bay, Newcastle

Thanks Mike - I have the marine channels in my AOR8600 but to be honest I don't find the transmissions that interesting.

Location : Norwich

I'm interested in getting one of these aerials. Could someone also advise what accesories will I also have to buy to set it up.

regards

Darren

Location : Near RAF Aldergrove

All you need to buy extra a mast to mount it to and possible wire to attach to chimney. If you already have a pole put up then you need nothing extra.

Location : Whitley Bay, Newcastle

drumsey wrote:: I'm interested in getting one of these aerials. Could someone also advise what accesories will I also have to buy to set it up.

I got a look aerial guy to take down an old TV aerial - he used that pole to clamp my 777.

Subject: Diamond D777 2009-04-23, 15:10

Can the Diamond D777 do the same as a Discone i.e. be used for listening to bands for example USB,NFM,etc on my Yupiteru MVT-7100,or is the 777 just for UHF/VHF airband,also i've read in the specification that the 777 is pre-tuned..what does that mean,finally what range,depending on line of sight can the 777 pick up,the manufacturers of discones say their antenna can pick up aircraft 250 miles away,so what's it to be discone or Diamond D777...(i have a Discone).

Location : various

lowlevel wrote:: Can the Diamond D777 do the same as a Discone i.e. be used for listening to bands for example USB,NFM,etc on my Yupiteru MVT-7100,or is the 777 just for UHF/VHF airband,also i've read in the specification that the 777 is pre-tuned..what does that mean,finally what range,depending on line of sight can the 777 pick up,the manufacturers of discones say their antenna can pick up aircraft 250 miles away,so what's it to be discone or Diamond D777...(i have a Discone).

USB, NFM, WFM, LSB, NAM etc are all modulation methods and not 'bands'. In a general sense an aerial is mode-independent.

The D777 is a V/UHF airband aerial...it is designed to be fairly wideband but with centres within VHF and UHF airband. In practice it will work fairly well across a fairly wide frequency range.

V/UHF signals are 'line of sight'...ie. if the transmitting aerial is line of site to the receiving aerial then the aerial will pick up the signal and it makes no difference if that aerial is a wet lettuce leaf or a spiky bird-perch. Put your discone in a grounded metal box and it's unlikely to receive a signal from a few feet away.

Discones have their uses (good bird-perches, good noise generators etc) but an aerial tuned for your band of interest will almost always out-perform it given the same location, coax etc.

Subject: diamond 777 2009-04-26, 14:03

Thanks for the info' Dervish.

Subject: Re: diamond 777 2009-04-27, 05:05

just out of interest, what cable are people using to connect the diamond to their scanners?

Location : Near RAF Aldergrove

RG213 here.

Location : various

ringo747 wrote:: RG213 here.

A good choice given it's not too bad attenuation at 400 MHz, reasonable price etc.

...what I don't undertsnd is why they make an aerial for V/UHF use and shove an HF connector on it ;)

Subject: Re: diamond 777 2009-04-27, 08:54

currently using some rg-8u i was given would i notice any difference if i swapped it over for rg-213? cablings not my stong point Laughing

Location : various

352SOG wrote:: currently using some rg-8u i was given would i notice any difference if i swapped it over for rg-213? cablings not my stong point

I don't know if you'd notice a difference....but I know I would ;)

Subject: Re: diamond 777 2009-04-27, 13:39

ok cool. would it be an improvement all round or would be sound qulity, clearness, noise etc...?

Location : various

352SOG wrote:: ok cool. would it be an improvement all round or would be sound qulity, clearness, noise etc...?

No, I'd suggest you stick with what you have now (which I should have said before but got distracted!)

Subject: Re: diamond 777 2009-04-30, 00:23

dervish wrote:: No, I'd suggest you stick with what you have now (which I should have said before but got distracted!)

Still muti-tasking?! :)

Location : sth.killingholme Spotter Watch Member : yes

I have a dimond D777 antenna, but it is in the shed/packed away at the moment, as I have sold my scanners.
Hopping to get it going again soon. So looking for a new vhf/uhf scanner Sad

. This is due to the credit crunch and lack of spare cash. Crying