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Show all reviews of the Alpha Delta DX-CC
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of the Alpha Delta DX-CC.
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W0STU
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 3, 2009 13:21
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Good experience.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I've got the DX-CC in an inverted vee centered at 35' on a pvc pipe extending 1' above the top of a ponderosa pine. Ends down to about 12' and one side's wire running through some pine limb 'holes' that I selectively pruned through other smaller nearby ponderosas to avoid direct touching. Same side attaches to the garage facia and comes near the roof. So, not optimal and not a 'clear' installation as advised by A/D.
After plotting a set of SWR curves I 'trimmed' the 10m, 20m, and 80m wires by folding and twisting each back along itself and not cutting them. (Rented a one-man lift.) It took a couple of iterations, but I was able to get quite good curves on 20m and 40m, with troughs at/below 1.2:1 and most of each band below 2:1.
On 10m the 2:1 SWR bandwidth was narrower than I'd like, but the trough is down to 1.1:1 and easily tunable across the band except for the extreme low frequency end (>4.5:1).
The 15m band SWR remained high as expected per A/D information at 3:1 or greater and nearly flat.
The 80m band has a narrow 2:1 SWR bandwidth of about 65kHz, just as advertised, but troughs at 1.2:1 and is tunable across most of the general class frequencies where I chose to center its curve.
After the trims I've had terrific success with the antenna. I'm at 7600' in Colorado with downslopes all around, and I've had excellent signal reports (s=7+) with just 100W in Hawaii, Virgin Islands, Nova Scotia, and Alaska on 20m. I'm getting out all across the continental US on 40m (California to NY), and all over the western US on 80m even with the 1/8 wavelenth height for that band (Alberta to TX, CA to OH).
This antenna isn't perfect in the stealthy configuration I had to install it in, but it is doing everything I wanted it to do and more under the much less than optimal installation conditions. I am very pleased. And it's already withstood its first Colorado blizzard with no ill effects. Highly recommended for similar installations and small lot requirements.
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