| MM0DVZ |
Rating:  |
2020-04-11 | |
| Great performance, Great product |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Decided to order a DX Commander 80-10m antenna from Callum. And very glad i did. I was looking for a vertical antenna to give me all band use, quick band changing, low vswr and good bandwidth to replace a poorly Steppir vertical. Antenna arrived quickly with everything required and more. Built it up and fitted it where the previous antenna was which is over 120 radials. Tuning was simple with 80m, 40m and 15m all at 1.0:1, 30m 1.2:1 and 20m,17m,12m and 10m at 1.2:1. The following morning the shack was alive with the first contact of ZL4 New Zealand on 40m LSB followed by YB0 Indonesia on 20m USB followed by CW contacts on 20m to JA Japan, HS0 Thailand and over 30 more dx contacts. Really pleased with the performance and quality. Needless to say the previous antenna costing over £1700gbp is now NOT going back up. Remeber to spend time as with any vertical you need radials as the other half of the antenna. If you do spend the time with radials and buy this antenna you won't be waisting time or money. Great performance, great quality and great value for money. |
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| DB2HBV |
Rating: |
2020-04-11 | |
| Get one if you want to build your own vertical. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
If you like to build your own antenna, without too much “creativity”, get a DX commander.
It is an extremely well thought out kit. You get all the parts that you need for a very good antenna, also with a few spares as we all do mistakes.
Its a multiband vertical antenna, that when you have built it will produce very good results. (Use wspr and check it out once you have built it and don’t listen to 5-9 from contests)
You should invest a bit of time to get this up and optimized. An antenna tester (Nano VNA or similar) are cheap and very helpful.
You will be putting the antenna up and down a few times and trimming cables a few cm here and there. Its worth it, you will get some spectacular results if you invest a day or two to put this together properly!
Theoretically you can save yourself a few cents buy doing it yourself. However Calum has put so much of his experience into this that you will probably maybe make breakeven at your 5th antenna... the earliest...
What could be done better? The description is text based, and some people will find it useful to watch youtube videos for the assembly I did!
I’d give this a 5+ for performance and true ham spirit
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| ON8VP |
Rating: |
2020-03-27 | |
| The proof that less expensive is not less effective |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Ordered end 2019 and assembled the vertical( cutting element wires to correct lengths, cutting and welding the radials ,preparing clamps, measuring the Swr ….)this week-end! It took me a whole day to get the vertical working to my desire.
Did some tests in the garden and to my surprise it works teriibely well. Had some nice CW contacts with VK, USA, South Africa, New Zealand etc... with 50 to 100 W.
Conclusion; for it's price and purpose it is unbeatable and worth considering if you need a quick and straightforward deployment during a fieldday.
73
Peter ON8VP
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| AE4MQ |
Rating: |
2020-03-01 | |
| Wonderful antenna. Very low SWR, running QRO with no tuner. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Well thought out kit, easy to build. Takes about a day to assemble the antenna for the first time. After that set up time is about 15 minutes and it comes down just as fast.
Since putting the antenna up I have made over 300 contacts all around the world. Including rare TX. If you’re looking for a portable antenna for vacationing or DXpeditions, look no farther. With the use of a triplexer you can run three radios at the same time.
Also, the Technical Support that Calum gifts for this product makes it a win-win.
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| S53ZO |
Rating: |
2019-11-15 | |
| Great performer |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Great antenna. Easy to assemble, you just follow the manual. SWR was perfect from the start, with minimum being from 1:1,2 to 1:1,5 on all bands. I have 80m version, here the lowest SWR is around 1:2.
Initial assemble took around 4 hours but I made around 400 meters of radials. Once ready the disassembly takes 10 minutes and putting it up again takes 15 minutes.
We used this antena at S53M for CQ WW SSB contest as M/2 team. It was a secondary antenna for inband station but I was surprised that all the operators commented that it is working really good. After the contest two OPs ordered the antenna!
Recommended!
We will also take this antenna to our CQ WW CW expedition - TK0C - and I am looking forward to see it perform near the salt water. One is also going to 9G5W. |
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| VA7DLC |
Rating: |
2019-11-12 | |
| A Great Product from a Great Company |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have the 80 meter version of this antenna. It is a fantastic product from a fantastic little company in the UK. I received this antenna as a gift from my kids in October and only got around to building it last week. I’m a regular watcher of the DX Commander live stream on Saturdays. I was chatting with another viewer on the stream about a problem I was having getting a good tune on some of the bands. To my surprise the next day Callum McCormick, the owner of DX Commander reached out to me to help me with my problem. With a little email back and forth we were able to correct the issue and I now have a fantastic tune on all bands. I think this is an amazing thing; he contacted me because of what he saw in the chat. It’s like tech support calling you before you file a service ticket.
Now it so happens that I purchased a vertical multi band antenna from MFJ last spring. I emailed and called them for some help about poor tuning. I’m still waiting for a response and the MFJ antenna is still not working on all bands. They could learn a thing or two from Callum. I’ll also add that the DX Commander cost a third of what the MFJ set me back and it's a much better performer.
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| VK3FSPD |
Rating: |
2019-08-04 | |
| Brilliant. Love it. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I am having great results using the DX commander ABV. I'm using it on 40, 20, 15 and 10m. The 40m element also tunes on 15m. The instructions are easy to follow and the recommended wire lengths were spot on.
It is a breeze to assemble and disassemble. I'm using it in a permanent position.
I don't need to use an external tuner and it's under 1.5:1 on 40, 20, 15 and 10m. I have also previously used it for 80m with a inverted L configuration.
Callum's level of customer service and support is exceptional. I broke the pole last year leaving it up in a very heavy storm. Callum replaced the pole at cost (cheap).
I have ordered spare parts and extra wire and it is all too quality and terrific value.
It is very simple and doesn't have lossy traps, caps etc. No tricks, gimmicks and outrageous claims.
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| AI7MG |
Rating: |
2019-07-22 | |
| A Pleasant Surprise! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Hi Callum (and visitors to this page),
I just wanted to leave you a note of the great success your (my new) antenna was at Field Day for the K.A.R.S. club in Rathdrum Idaho.
It was of GREAT interest to both new comers and veterans alike, in fact the gent sitting next to me with his very pretty Elecraft K3 ran A/B testing with mine against his antenna.
His was a 43 ft wire in a collapsable mast similar to yours with auto tuner at the base. the fence was his ground.
It proved to be superior in all but the highest tested (15m) band where they were equals.
The signal was the same strength, but the NOISE was nearly non-existent in the lowest bands, then successively rose to be at par on at 15m.
All the hams in attendance were impressed with that (and scratching their heads as to why, but the facts were there).
Even at home, the noise level using the DX Commander is often 4-5 S units lower with the same or only slightly less signal strength than my dipole at 35ft.
Go figure. So much for “Verticals are noisier. NOT ALL Verticals are anyway.
I did a 20 minute Field adjustment to the antenna… I added 80m by running a wire up to the top (eye) spreader and slung it to a tree in an inverted L configuration.
Cut right 1st try, no trimming afterwards. We were up on 80 as it opened and swept the band for new contacts, many were logged in about 10 minutes, then back to chatting with visitors to our event.
Others were then just hunting for any new possibilities over the next few hours and apparently I’d gotten so many they were happily mad at me for such good coverage in such a short time.
I think I gave about 19 tours to all the antennas setup and all the other antennas were ‘Uh huh…. (blank stare)” then with the DX Commander, many questions… lots of possibilities discussed and it would NOT surprise me that you get several orders to the Pacific North West area of the US from those conversations.
1 additional note: I was told that seeing the lengths of the different wires labeled “6m”, “17m”, “20m”, “30m”, “40m” (didn’t label the 80m, but it was obvious at that point)
I was told that it made so many puzzle pieces fit together in their understanding of RF wavelength vs. naming of the bands vs. physical characteristics, and other Antenna magic finally making more sense to them.
I was thanked several times by different people for that contribution to their understanding of the hobby.
A great side effect!
SO… THANK YOU for coming up with such a great idea, kitting it and bringing it to market.
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| W1KPS |
Rating: |
2019-07-11 | |
| All band, all star! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The DX Commander is probably one of the greatest antennas on the market! I put mine together in a few days only because I took my time and took notes along the way, marking everything! Callum the inventor of this fine piece of kit and a pleasure to deal with personally and professionally! The epitome of what customer service should be. He has a great YouTube video channel and a great DX Commander website! I have learned so much from his YouTube channel in the last six months and I continue to watch videos from his past episodes. All in all if you need a quick antenna or one of his other antennas for field day or camping this is your antenna! |
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| K4JDA |
Rating: |
2019-05-22 | |
| Outstanding quality kit antenna with great support |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have a bit of a different take on the DX Commander ... being a relatively new ham and learning the ropes, I've found Callum's channel on youtube a fantastic "Ham Radio School" and extremely entertaining. If you watch the videos somewhat in order, you will feel like you were along for the ride as Callum designed and refined this design. I feel like I know 10x as much about antennas now that I've watched the videos, ordered a kit, and built an antenna! If you are wanting something that works out of the box, this is not it ... some assembly is required. But it is an enjoyable build (except for dealing with the D10 wire as mentioned in other reviews - US buyers may want to source wire locally or from wireman ... otherwise, wash the wire through a rag in a bucket of soapy water a few times before handling). The antenna components are robust and of very high quality, and the antenna performs extremely well. Frankly, if Callum had amortized his development time/cost into the cost of the kit, it would be twice as much and still worth it. As it is, it is a fantastic value, a very high performing product, and a remarkable learning tool. Highly recommended, particularly if you want something affordable, efficient, and portable/removeable.
In addition to all of that, Callum is just a super nice, honest, and very entertaining fellow!! |
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