Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Alpha Delta DX-CC

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Alpha Delta DX-CC
Reviews: 104MSRP: 119
Description:
82' No Trap 80 thru 10 Dipole.And it is great ALL bands. This includes 12, 17, and 30.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.alphadeltacom.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
151044.3
W0BKR Rating: 2012-12-01
Good Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used the DXCC for some time and here is what I can tell you from personal experience.

Works great for working DX on 160-80 and 40. Not as good (due to the vertical polarization) for stateside. CONUS stations are a bit down moreso.

I get good SWR on 160, 1.2 at 1.800 up to 2.0 at 1.890. That is pretty good. I have to use a tune on 75 and okay on 40.

The only gripe is the wire connection at the tower mounting. It is somewhat dinky and the wire will break off the connection over time. You need to add your own personal strain relief for the wire part of the antenna where it connects to the feedpoints.

Would I buy one again? I already have a spare.

Would like to have both an inverted vee for 80 and 40 and a sloper for 160-40 but a bit much wire to have strung up without interaction. I tried floating one once, didn't notice much interaction but didn't seem to get me much so I took the inverted vee down. I use a FLAG antenna for 160 rcv (use it on 80-40-30 also). You can't hear much DX on a sloper. Too noisy. But if you have a separate receive antenna...works great in that combo.
KK8ZZ Rating: 2012-10-09
Best antenna for the price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had a lot of copper and aluminum in the air over the 40 years I've been a ham, but if you have the space to string one of these guys up ( I used the relatively cheap surplus military sectional poles that seem to be available everywhere these days) it will give you excellent results, day in and day out, and require little if any tweaking. Great investment, fork over the $140 and not worry about anything else for a long, long time.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KK8ZZ on 2009-03-29

My SteppIR vertical was in for repairs, so I bought one of these from our local AES to stay on the air. With the bands in the dumper lately, I've been working mostly 40 and 20, and couldn't get on 75 with the vertical (unless I paid an extra $400 for the 80 meter coil and shipping from SteppIR). So... for about $160, I put this up in the air with a set of surplus fiberglass poles I got on eBay ($4 each!). Attached a pulley to the top, pulled the dipole up, ran a couple of dacron ropes to nearly trees about 15 feet off the ground, and went back down to the shack to see what it was like. Well - 40 was filled with the strongest signals I'd heard since the last sunspot peak, and with a little tweaking, 75 was magnificent. I checked the bands on 20, 15, and 10 and got good swr across each band, but signals were nil, of course. I'm REALLY pleased with the results from this all-band dipole, and with the gray-coated wire, it really DOES practically disappear once it's up in the air. Need a quick and simple antenna that really reaches out?? This one's a REALY WINNER ! de KK8ZZ
KC9WHL Rating: 2012-10-01
Great for the price point Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am a new HAM and have been trying to figure out what the most economical antenna would be for my situation. I like to go out to parks and go camping and "play radio". I started with a G5RV Jr. and was pretty pleased. I borrowed this antenna from a friend and was really pleased. It takes quite a bit more work to set this up compared to my G5RV Jr. The antenna is heavier and longer, but the I got my first overseas DX using this antenna. I am convinced this is a good antenna for the price and will be purchasing my own. I run it with 100W and an internal tuner.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KC9WHL on 2012-10-01

I am a new HAM and have been trying to figure out what the most economical antenna would be for my situation. I like to go out to parks and go camping and "play radio". I started with a G5RV Jr. and was pretty pleased. I borrowed this antenna from a friend and was really pleased. It takes quite a bit more work to set this up compared to my GBRV Jr. The antenna is heavier and longer, but the I got my first overseas DX using this antenna. I am convinced this is a good antenna for the price and will be purchasing my own. I run it with 100W and an internal tuner.
K5PZ Rating: 2012-07-07
Power Limited Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I run less than full legal power on SSB into my DX-CC due to the capabilities and limitations of my Collins 30S-1 linear amplifier. I've burned up the original end insulators and even the new ceramic set that the Alpha Delta send me. The coils show signs of over heating and deterioration. Alpha Delta told me of the 5000 DX-CC antennas sold, mine was the only one that had this problem reported. Additionally, I was told that the antenna must be at least 20 feet away from any other object or the antenna might corona. REALLY? I guess it's an acceptable antenna if you don't use a linear amplifier or you're 1 in 5000 like me.
KC8LTL Rating: 2012-06-28
Solid solution for single antenna in limited space Time Owned: more than 12 months.
In my opinion, the simplest starter antenna for HF is the 40M dipole. 40m itself is open somewhere practically all the time and in addition to 40m, that simple dipole will also do OK on odd harmonics like 15m and 6m.

But there are other bands you will want to play with. Alpha Delta has come up with a solution that is not much longer than the 40m dipole and will also cover 10m, 20m, and a portion of 80m.

And so I replaced said 40m dipole with a DX-CC about 10 years ago. I usually operate qrp, so cannot say how this antenna handles power, other than it seems to have been fine when I occasionally run 100w.

The antenna is actually a "fan" of three antennas. The first is a trapped 80/40 dipole. Alpha-Delta doesn't call it a trap since there is no separate capacitor - instead it uses the capacitance of the wire itself to make the trap. In addition there are dipoles for 20m and 10m.

Ideally a fan dipole will have more separation between the dipoles than this does. It is admittedly a compromise to have them this close, but they have worked it out so that it actually seems to work fairly well, especially if you occasionally take it out to the field, like I do.

On 40, performance is like the dipole it replaced, namely, a decent all around antenna. On 20 it does OK, but will not be able to really compete with the many beams you will find there. On 15 and 10 it also does OK, so if the band is open, you will make contacts. SWR bandwidth is a bit reduced over separate dipole because of interaction between elements.

On 80 it is compromise. SWR bandwidth is quite narrow. On mine, out of the bad it is centered at about 3.7 MHz. Most of my operation, however, is at the opposite ends of the band, rather than the middle. With a tuner, it sort of works. It is not like a full size dipole, but you can work people.

With a tuner I have also made contacts on 12/17/30. But I have not made A/B comparisons on these bands.

"The Perfect Antenna" really doesn't exist. But this one does a lot of things well. Like a Swiss Army knife, it is useful to have around because of all it can do, even if there are better tools for many of the tasks.

I would like to give it a 4 1/2, but with all that it does, choose to round up to 5 rather than be stingy with a 4.
W8GTX Rating: 2012-04-15
Excellent for what it is Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Installed 35' at it's apex. 25' at either support end. I had to slightly trim it back (fold the wire over) to bring 80/75 around .900. Other than that is covers almost the complete 40m band below 2:1, about half of the 20m band below 2:1 (need to trim it back further for this band). Need a tuner for 15m but instructions and literature clearly state this. Covers 10m from 28.0 - 28.9 under 2:1.

80m is tight and has a little over a 60/KHz band spread and again, literature clearly states that fact. The tuner takes care of the rest. I'm also able to easily tune it on 17m/12m and have had several 5/9 contacts on these bands. So this antenna does what they state it will. Just take your time setting it up and spend a little time with the solid core wire in getting the kinks out. It will operate and look fine. Just be mindful on your installation. Last I corrosion proofed (so to say) the wire connection points on the antenna for added long term maintenance.
KB6HRT Rating: 2012-03-15
Works well! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had an used a DXCC for 15 years with out problems, I make sure my SWR is 1.2 or less before using the PW-1 (1000W) amplifier. On 75 meters where the antenna has been shortened by the use of a coil, do not use the PW-1 where SWR is 2 to 1 or above. The DXCC works well 10-40m SWR is 1.2 an it's is 1.2 on 3940 the low point an 2 to 1 on 3930 and 3950 So far have not experienced flash overs, the resonant frequency on 75m does lower some when the antenna gets wet so I check SWR again before using the amplifier in wet weather............KB6HRT


----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KB6HRT on 2001-08-12

This is my 2nd DXCC antenna the first one I used for about 2 years with good results then I installed a W9INN 87ft dipole which was some what more broud banded on 80 meters I used both antenna with a Kenwood 570D radio. The W9INN dipole seemed to have a better signal to noise ratio with the Kenwood and worked well. I got a 756PRO last week and its antenna tuner is not a forgiving as the 570D so I went back to the DXCC now I don't need a tuner on 40-20 or 10 meters and on 80 meters a 3to1 match on 3850 & 3944 & 1 to 1 on 3900mhz. The ALPHA DELTA DXCC works very well with the ICOM 756PRO and DON from Alpha Delta was very help full when I called about a tuning problem i was experanceing.
AC8GX Rating: 2012-03-15
Great DX Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ive had my DX-CC deployed in various ways, flat top 20 feet, inverted V feed point at 36 feet, flat top at 50+ feet.

In every case this antenna performed exceptionally well, deployed well below the manufacturers recommended settings!

I have used my mfj 993b to tune the warc bands.

I have used the antenna at my home QTH, and various feild location for feild and QSO parties running 100 watts and work more than my fair share of the contacts
W6QT Rating: 2012-01-05
Trouble Free Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I reviewed this antenna a little over two years ago. After having it installed in a DX location here in the Philippines, I'd have to say it works very well on 12, 15, 17, 20, and 40 meters. No testing done on 10 or 80 meters. Mine is installed as an inverted V at 20 meters with the ends about 5 meters off the ground. With only 100 watts I was able to log many DX entities inspite of the antenna being oriented in a permanent NE direction.
VA3MLV Rating: 2011-12-23
does what a dipole does Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Ok its not a directional antenna so i cant compare it to one but compare to some of the other dipoles ya its a really good one , built rugged , 82ft , covers 5 bands that only a part of 80m i use a tuner with and got it from a amateur operator friend of mine that has a few alpha delta dipoles that he uses also , so i got it as a inverted v 41ft a leg and it does what its supposed to. works great. 73 Happy Holidays