| K9RCS |
Rating:  |
2023-09-19 | |
| Unreal Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| The 10-80M HF EMCOMM Antenna I picked up from Steven at Dayton has been the most incredible portable system I've ever used. It is super easy to deploy and gets you up and going in minuets. I am a Alpha Antenna fan for life, second to none customer service as well .... 10/10 would buy Alpha Antenna system again. |
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| VE7IAD |
Rating: |
2023-02-07 | |
| HF Vertical works great. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Owned vertical for over 8 years. Easy to set up, and works well under adverse conditions. Use primarily for RV and it has traveled all over US and Canada. Excellent results for field day use as well. The low angle of radiation from the vertical produces amazing results with my IC 735 travel station running 100 watts. Remember, it still is a vertical and results don't compare with a YAGI at 60 feet. |
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| W2PP |
Rating: |
2022-12-09 | |
| Easy setup great performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I’ve had this antenna for 3 years. Used it all over the place. Easy as pie setup in under 5 minutes. Works great. Love it. |
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| AD7QQ |
Rating: |
2021-01-13 | |
| Great antenna for portable use, easy to erect and tune |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have an early version of the alpha antenna DX-EMCOMM which has been my companion for field days, light climb SOTAs, and when storms have taken out my main dipole antennas. It is easy to tune, sturdy and dependable. The tripod is robust. I recently lost a component in the snow (probably not a good idea to disassemble any antenna in the dark during a storm) and Alpha was incredibly helpful in arranging a replacement part. I have used it for WSPR at 5 watts 20 meters and it easily communicates both in reception and transmission to South Africa, NZ, Australia, Antartica, Europe, Japan, Hawaii, etc from my location in N. Idaho. It is easy to erect and tune- less than 5 minutes, and is stable even without guying. Although I have used it for SOTA, it is a bit heavy and large to give a whole hearted recommendation for that use. It was nice having a good antenna on the mountain top the few times I used it for that purpose, though. I strongly recommend this antenna for portable operations. |
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| KX4XB |
Rating: |
2020-03-01 | |
| Great Light Weight NVIS Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Great little EMCOMM NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) antenna. Very lightweight and easy for use as a portable antenna or to setup in the back yard. It came in a black zipper canvas type carry case about 27 inches long. In Southern Virginia, on 20 Meters I was able to pick up as far west as Vancouver, BC, Texas, Arkansas, Maine, and points in between. On 40 Meters I was able to pick up transmissions as far as Rome, Italy. As with other reviewers I recommend tie downs on the tripod just in case a gust of wind tries to tip the antenna over. Steve at Alpha Antenna is easy to work with and provides great customer support. Great little antenna. |
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| K0MMO |
Rating: |
2016-12-28 | |
| GREAT PORTABLE |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have used this portable antenna for field day type activity and just to test it out. I have had good luck with it, but I am using an antenna tuner with it. I have made 65+ mile contacts with my FT-817ND and have tried it with various other HF rigs for some stateside DX.
For the compact size of this antenna, it works better than expected. It tunes up on all the bands with great swr's and is perfect for EMCOMM or Field day set up.
I would recommend that you anchor the tripod good as it will blow over in gusty winds and possibly damage the elements.
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| K6DPD |
Rating: |
2015-10-05 | |
| Lose the shack without losing performance in the field! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this antenna August 2015, and it has been great for getting out of the shack and going portable! I found the Alpha DX Sr antenna while looking for an antenna system to use portable with my FT-857D. I wanted something that was easy to use, self-contained, covers 80-10 meters, durable, and can handle higher power if I ever want to use it with an amp. If you're looking for the same thing, that's exactly what you will get with the Alpha DX. The design has been updated over the last few years to incorporate a more durable bastion coil, as well as the more durable and easy to use mil-sticks, so Alpha Antennas is obviously listening to user feedback and improving their designs.
When I got my antenna, it was packaged very securely, and the included nylon bag has plenty of room for extras. I am able to pack the full antenna system, 25 feet of RG-8X, some para cord guy lines that I made, and a padded bag for the bastion, all without splitting the zipper, so the generous sized bag is much appreciated. When I set up the antenna I quickly got the SWR below 1.5 using the recommended coil setting, and started working 20m SSB. Even with the antenna under a large set of trees in my front yard in California, I was easily able to make contacts in Washington, Colorado, Kansas, and Georgia while only using 65 watts. I know that's not very impressive to a seasoned pro, but this was my first time trying any kind of HF, so I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was that day! Since that first day I have added a MFJ tuner (MFJ-939Y) and am now able to tune 80-6 meters with the push of a button. Just this past weekend I made several contacts in Canada, as well as Midwestern and East coast states, while operating off of my truck tailgate! I'm looking forward to some better propagation and the contesting season so I can finally see what this antenna is really capable of!
Needless to say this is a purchase that I'm very happy with. It makes operating portable easy so you can enjoy being outside without sacrificing performance!
73,
Dean, KK6PTS
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| K7JNT |
Rating: |
2014-02-24 | |
| Portable, solid construction, and kicks butt |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'm a newly licensed General and this is my first HF antenna, paired with my little Yaesu FT-817 5-watt QRP rig. So I don't really have anything to compare it to. But just go to my QRZ.com page and take a look at my QSO map showing all of the great phone QSOs I've had in just the 2 months I've owned this wonderful antenna. SSB to Alaska, Japan, Venezuela, Chile and even Australia with just 5 watts was done with this antenna. That I think speaks for itself. Probably works even better for CW, but I haven't tried it yet. It stows in a nice compact carrying bag and sets up in literally 3 minutes. Very stable on a quality tripod base.
I also purchased the counterpoise kit and that helped me achieve near perfect 1:1 SWR on 10, 15 and 17 meters, but was actually more difficult to tune on 40 meters.
Overall, I can't recommend this antenna more highly for a rugged and capable HF antenna, especially for portable QRP. |
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| M0GGK |
Rating: |
2013-12-29 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I wanted something else for portable operations, after looking around and playing with different set ups I eventually cam across this set up.
Pros
Easy and quick set up, resonant on bands from 40 m to 6m using a antenna analyser .
Cons
Heavy to carry.
All in all I am happy but mainly with the owner Steve. Any questions you have or are not sure about then the customer service is second to none!
Dave M0GGK |
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| KC6NRE |
Rating: |
2013-11-05 | |
| Great QRP antenna! +80 Meters? 1KW=WOW! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought this antenna a little over a year ago when I was looking for an all around replacement antenna for my Alex Loop and Buddipole. Mainly because I wanted to only carry one antenna that does it all. Well this is it!
PROS:
EASY TO TUNE - My original purchase came with the extendable whips, and a few months ago Alpha Antenna came out with the upgrade package to Mil-Stick whips for the Alpha DX. This made a big difference, because tuning is now so much easier with the new whips.
QRP to 1000 Watts - Where my Alex Loop was 20 watts PEP and Buddipole was 250 watts PEP, the DX Mil is 1,000 watts Continous!
Performance - The DX Mil has a longer vertical whip and three horizontal whips. The 3 horizontal whips gives the lower 40-80 meter bands better performance because these bands tend to operate more with NVIS, while the vertical whip provides the take off angle for DX that allows me to really out perform the other antennas when compared side by side on both receive and transmit.
Durability - So, after a year of using the telescopic whips that Alpha Antenna used to ship with the DX, I found that they were getting gritty from the environment I used them in. Although a little oil seemed to clear this up, I found myself wanting for more. That's when I went back to Alpha Antenna and noticed the DX-Mil. About 3 months ago I bought the new whips, which I was informed have begun shipping with all DX-Mil systems. These are really the most durable whips I've seen for civilian use. Although Alpha Antenna doesn't claim this antenna will work on 80 meters (yet), these new whips allowed me to tune 80 Meters with my LDG tuner. Oh, and very strong well built tripod and bag!
CONS:
Weight - I'd say this antenna system comes in around 12 pounds, which the weight is dispersed fairly evenly with the shoulder strap, but I wouldn't want to carry this back packing more than a mile or two.
Durability - This turned out to be both a pro and a con, as the coil is the weakest point in this antenna system. After about 9 months of using it I had to resolder the wire with the clip back on. This required me to remove a peice of shrink tube. Once the shrink tube was off I also noticed there was a metal cylinder that also needed a little solder to the coil. That bit of maintenance and all was working perfectly again. |
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