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Reviews For: DX Commander

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : DX Commander
Reviews: 8MSRP:
Description:
dx commander portable or home base antenna
Product is in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
2585
KN6STX Rating: 2023-03-20
DX Commander Expedition Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the DX Commander Expedition Antenna from Callum a few months ago, I built it precisely the way the instructions said to do it. I also watched a few DX Commander Expedition build videos by other Hams on YouTube, which helped a bunch! After I built it, the antenna sat for months, until last weekend when I went to activate a POTA park. Oh my, to my surprise, this antenna is absolutely amazing! In about 4 hours I had 75 contacts in my log. The contacts were on 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m. Not once did I have to get up and change or re-tune the antenna for band changes. I live in California, I am in a valley surrounded by mountains, and my signal got out all over the place, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Tennesse, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I have never had a Coast to Coast contact before. So, would I recommend this antenna, I would ABSOLUTELY recommend the DX Commander Expedition, I am a new Ham Radio Operator, and I have been licensed for a little over a year now, with a General license. I learn a little bit every day about Ham Radio and I have learned that the antenna is everything in this hobby!!! The DX Commander Antennas work and they work well!!! Get one today!!! 73, everyone!!! KN6STX
WB2FKW Rating: 2022-11-11
Very, very pleased so far !!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received the DX Commander about a month ago and inventoried everything that was sent. It was all there !!! No probs with shipping and the instructions, which can be downloaded from Callum's website, are very clear and easy to use. As the WX is getting colder here in Upstate New York, this antenna will probably get put up in the Spring. The quality of the components is also above average; all the drilling and sizing of screws, wire for elements and radials, connectors .....It is all there !!; No chasing around from site to site to find things. I am really psyched to put this antenna up. It is an excellent product at a reasonable price. Will write a review in the Spring. 73s everybody !!!
KC9WUV Rating: 2022-04-30
Excellent Performer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is long overdue. DXC Classic. My version has been up since Dec. 2018, harsh winter , summer and all in between. Other than some preventive maintenance it has been trouble free. I did have a failure of the wire to the driven plate from the constant moving around back and forth. Broke the wire. Turned the antenna 90 degrees made another and no issues for last two years. You can not find all the quality parts for what Calum sells the kit for. I Recommend this to everyone. They look at my log book and can’t believe it. Thanks for a great product and support. Keep in mind it is not a beam at 100 feet. Small footprint great results. No tuner and easy to build. Fun actually. Excellent support and information on you tube from the designer. Quality all around.
MW0MWZ Rating: 2022-01-10
DX Commander 12M Pole (Awesome build quality!) Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have just received my DX Commander 12M pole, I cant really find any reviews of this beast yet, so if you are considering purchasing one, it sure gets my vote.

I also have a 10M DX Commander classic too, and there is a substantial difference between the two, the 10M pole is exactly as I expected it to be, its very good, but a little too "whippy" to be installed permanently. For /P and semi permanent installs it is great, but the 12M pole is quite a different beast.

The first thing you notice is the weight, it's quite a bit heavier than the 10M pole, a quick look at it and the reason is clear - the wall thicknesses are all beefed up, and the top section is not tapered away to a whip, compared to the 10M pole its like the top 2 sections are not there. IMO this was a superb design choice, the pole is strong to the very top giving me more choices about how I use it.

This isn't a SOTA / Backpack antenna pole, but thats not the point of it, it's going to make an excellent permanently installed 40-10M setup, I *may* string 80M on it too, I get the feeling that i could put the 80M inverted L on here (or a small loading coil) and it would cope with that easily.

I'll come back and update this review once I've had some more time to experiment.
KD8WBZ Rating: 2021-12-10
Build it to your specialty Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I’ve had my DX Commander up since late October, and in that time I’ve logged over 800 QSOs. The longest being from my QTH in NW Ohio to the west coast of Australia, which is over 11000 miles on 40, 30, and 20M bands.
The antenna comes as a kit build, so you can optimize the antenna for CW/digital, phone or both to your liking. The build takes a day, once that is settled,you can set it up, and tear it down in about 30 minutes. That works great since I live in a HOA development. When you get your antenna, your invited to a discord channel where other owners, and even Callum himself would be happy to help out with any issues you might have.
I’ve own several portable antennas, but when it comes to ease of operation. Band resonance, and the power it can handle. It rates as a top notch antenna for the price.
K9LRG Rating: 2021-02-11
I love my DXCC!!! 5 months, 1500+ FT8 contacts from Middle USA Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I Made my first contact on this antenna on 9/23/20 (My first HF contact) I have made over 1500 FT8 contacts as of this writing on 2/3/21 I've contacted all 50 states in the USA, all 6 continents, all over the UK, HI, JA, and Aus. Callum has all the bits, bops, and doingy doingy you will need in one package. You will have to do some measuring and cutting, but not without plenty of instructions to guide you each step along the way. I used a Nano vna to tune my elements after cutting them to the lengths recommended in the instructions. This is my first antenna (DX Commander Classic 6 element ABV) connected to a Yaesu FT-891 and has 1.5 SWR on 10, 12, 17, 20, 30, 40, and 15(free) Building this antenna has given me a better understanding about how antennas work than all the Websites and YouTubes you can ingest. Thanks to Callum, I'll be building my next antenna from scratch, an inverted V NVIS to reach the people left out there that I can't reach now (skip zone). I have Hi power lines that run North/South behind my property, and a rock bluff 200 feet hit across the street in front of my property. And I can still talk from UK to JA, CA to SA (on the right band) any day of the week! I love my DXCC 6 wire ABV!!!!!!
G6YRU Rating: 2020-05-14
EXCELLENT PRODUCT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
just set up my all band verticle,fantastic as the previous reviewer stated EXCELLENT swr on all bands, follow the explicit instructions for a seemless construction of comprehensive parts supplied.. you must check out the YOU TUBE videos that will show everything and progressive improvements that callum (@momcx) has made. my verticle 1/4 wave outperforms my dipole under these condx. 0-1200 qro is possible so no power limits.postage fast around the world, over 200 sold in this month i believe. check it out!
with some minor support on base use ,works here at my windy qth. well done callum ,he also sells all parts for home brew, and has many options of variety of uses and bands .sota ,iota, expeditions etc.and gives guaranteed support and spare parts to help you build homebrew versions.try the dx10 antenna wire ! flexible high spec ,tested qro. 73 jim G4WSH. EXCELLENT ham spirit!
G0AVH Rating: 2019-09-17
very good antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
i purchased a dx commander classic antenna in july 2019 i know this antenna is suppose to be portable but i adapted mine to be home base i put a 8 ft pole in the garden with two hose clips which had stand off brackets coming from the pole to hold the dx commander the hose clips were padded with sponge to protect the x commander fibre glass pole
half way up the commander pole i tied 4 guy wires and then three quarter way up i tied another 4 guy wires to make the fibre glass pole stable the counter poise wires were buried under ground as per instructions in the manual .
it took me about one day to assemble the dx commander
when every thing was in place i tried to tune my radio in and i couldnt beleive it every band tuned between 1.1 to 1.5 i then tried for some contacts even though the bands were not good with plenty qsb on the frequencies but when i tried for contacts i was gob smacked
russia 5.9 poland 5.9 bulgaria 5.9 and i got greece 5.9 this antenna is truly amazing for its size i am so happy i got it