These are my objective and unbiased reviews based around having owned and installed 3 Diamond base verticals over the years.
VKD50 2m/70cm Base Antenna
Comparable to the Diamond X50
PHYSICAL QUALITY: The antenna itself looks to be made of high quality materials. All fittings are as you would expect with a high quality antenna. Seal between the fibreglass outer pole and base is of high quality. The base and SO239 is of high quality. The radials are stainless steel.
SWR TESTS as pictured:
VKD200 2m/70cm Base Antenna
Comparable to the Diamond X200
PHYSICAL QUALITY: The antenna itself looks to be made of high quality materials. All fittings are as you would expect with a high quality antenna. Seal between the fibreglass outer pole and base is of high quality. The fittings/sealing gland/joining nuts between the lower and upper fibreglass sections are of high quality. The base and SO239 is of high quality. The radials are stainless steel.
SWR TESTS as pictured:
What’s inside these antennas?
CONCLUSION:
I’d definitely be happy to own and use these antennas. The quality is better than I expected from a Chinese manufacturer, in fact both look as good as their Diamond counterparts, inside and out.
Installation of the VKD50 is very straightforward as the antenna pole is one piece, whereas the VKD200 is a little trickier to install as you need to assemble the top section of the pole to the bottom section. There’s hex keys included in the packaging to make this task easy. Lee has told me that there will also be online assembly instructions for the VKD50 and VKD200.
Cheers Glenn, VK4NGA.