I put up a 10-80 DX Commander just before Field Day 2020, and took it down a couple of days ago. While it was up, it was mounted on a pole-in-ground, and due to some physical constraints the radial field covered an arc from WNW to ESE. I had 36 radials in that space. While it was working, I made contacts world-wide, including Japan, Australia, and Asiatic Russia. As far as I'm concerned, it works and works very well. I would leave 80M off as it complicates tuning (at least it did for me-did finally get it though). However, it's down now and will be replaced with a Hustler 6BTV with some of the DXEngineering add-ons. It may survive the outdoors long-term in a temperate climate, but where it freezes, I don't think it will make it long. I took great care with the build, adding silicone to waterproof the pole segments and 2 additional sets of guys. Unfortunately, it appears that something, perhaps water or perhaps strain on the pole from the mounting method lead to it splitting for about 3' in the middle of the first segment. I used some big hose clamps to get me through until I could consider a new antenna, but apparently the additional flex in the pole started the various elements catching on the hose clamps. I'd go to use it and all of a sudden a band wouldn't tune. I'm out there with a long pole trying to untangle things, usually with a flashlight. Not fun. Finally, I got tired of all the PITA and took it down. The Hustler will go up after vacation. I'm going to rework the DX Commander into a 6-40 (I hope) portable, assuming I can figure out a fix for the split pole section that doesn't involve a new pole. It's going to become a portable antenna for when I'm RVing or for Field Day.
I would be interested to hear from other DXC owner about their experiences with the radials. Callum has a video about number of radials, and points to an article which concurs with some other technical articles I've seen, that says that once you get to about 16 1/4wave radials, you are reaching a point of diminishing returns. You will gain only small increase in efficiency for a large number of radials. Alternatively, you can make more 1/8th wave radials, and get a similar result. My current setup is 16 radials each about 13ft. This is probably not ideal, but I'm a bit limited in yard space, and even so, I get out to Europe, Asia and Oceania quite easily on 40m. I can work EU and AU on 80m without too much trouble if the band is cooperating. I am curious what the results would be if I set up 16 20meter radials, for 80m. Maybe will try this winter when then snows come.
More feedback: I've never had mine up for more than a couple of weeks, so no long term feedback here. I guess with a telescoping fiberglass pole, I just don't consider that as permanent .... permanary maybe Because of what I had heard about tuning, I put on the 80 meter inverted L right off the start and tuned all the rest of the elements with it on .... eazy peazy and very consistent! works very well for me no mater where OR forest to AZ dry desert, as well as N. NV on top of snow installation. I did find that an extra bundle(2 wires) of long radials under the 80 meter inverted L element made the SWR for both 40 and 80 drop appreciably. My attempt to elevate it with tuned radials failed...... I guess I didn't have the patience for it..... 20 and higher no problem, but 40 and 80 were my problem children with the radial lengths.... gave up! I have a buddy who put it up on his roof with all his short radials and it works for him well... he sounds good with it. One last weird comparison.... I have an old basket case SteppIR vertical, that I converted to a portable setup. It works very well too and is faster to setup than the DX. It's a very subjective feeling, but I think my DXC has done a marginally better job for me....purely seat of the pants no hard data.
I've seen a lot of people on club outings spend two hours (and more) trying to get a Commander to work properly on all bands. I have to say I don't know why they bother. It takes 60 seconds to deploy a monoband vertical, the matching will be stable, predictable and low SWR (typically 1.2:1). If you want another band, put up another pole and wire, or just pull the dead band wire down and stick the active band one up; takes seconds. It really is much simpler, neater and cheaper.
i have one also. It’s 20 years old. It’s super finicky to tune but it’s working great. Mine is ground mounted with 60 radials. It’s definitely a DX takeoff angle. I can usually hit 16K miles no problem.
Mine has been up since Dec. 2018 . I have had to replace the wire on the so239 connector . Restring the shock cord once . Other than that it has done me a great job
I wouldn't bother if it took that long to set up, but it doesn't. If I went really slow it would take me 20 minutes to set mine up. I suspect there was something else wrong. It is certainly fast to put up the wire as well, I have a 40-10m efhw that works great as a sloper from my 12m Spiderbeam pole. 73
I just received mine after listening to many of Callum's YouTubes, and hearing this review. I intend to leave mine up permanently. We shall see Painted my guy wires bright yellow. May hurt the life of the ropes--we shall see, but they are visible. Chip KD9OQI
I think age and club mentality had a lot to do with it! Some videos online seem to show inter-element interaction and hence matching instability to a degree, which you can only really expect, but may not necessarily be a 'problem'.
On your suphogh,orclov="AB0R, post: 5909341, member: 938203"]I wouldn't bother if it took that long to set up, but it doesn't. If I went really slow it would take me 20 minutes to set mine up. I suspect there was something else wrong. It is certainly fast to put up the wire as well, I have a 40-10m efhw that works great as a sloper from my 12m Spiderbeam pole. 73[/QUOTE] On your sloper, to you put the transformer on the high end or the low end?
Low end. You COULD add a counterpoise or even a ground rod etc, but it's not needed for portable use like this IMO.
I see. That could have been a thing. Calum now gives pretty specific recommendations for element placement. I just put them where he said and no problems here. 73
Without being remotely QRZ.com-esque, when you say "no problems", have you looked at how the matching turns out with an analyser? And have you looked at any instability introduced by wind due to element interactions? There's at least one video showing poor matching at 12 and 10m. Yes, you can 'ATU' them out, but that's not really very good. You can do that with any not-very-good wire.
