DX Commander All Band Vertical HF Antenna Build & Review

Considering cost and time money searching for and fabricating what you need to create your own it's a very good deal. Callum is a good guy and will answer any questions in time. The video clown world I can do without.

 

My DXCC is up and running with the 80M element. Previously, before the tornado, I had trees, and my min antenna was a ~135 ft doublet fed by open wire line. DXCC is not as good for the 150-400 mile close-in, but it does work. Where the DXCC shines is DX. I'm in Connecticut, USA, listening to a Romanian station working a contest on 40M in daylight, which did not happen with the doublet in summer 2020. It is also quieter than the doublet. I had been considering an EFHW, which I may still install. The hardware is good, the mast is very good. I was in awe with the initial tests with my NanoVNA. I think it is pretty difficult to screw this up.

 

Thank you. I appreciate that any antenna you could "DIY" or build it yourself, me included. However I was looking for a simple, easy antenna and I didn't have the resources at the moment like I have in the past to build it. Wonderful antenna, well thought out.

For those interested, I put up my 80m element as an inverted L and I get 1:1 SWR at 3.6 MHz after some fine tuning. I might even have a go at adding more radials and a 160m element.

 

I would be interested in seeing sweeps of this antenna. I am most interested in SWR across each band not just lowest SWR figures. Thx.

 

I bought a similar antenna from M0MCX, the expedition version. Callum does a great job with the fit and finish of his antennas. The DX10 wire provided is really easy to work with and deploy. The fiberglass pole is exceptional, surprising what comes out of that small package. I use my antenna for POTA camping trips and have had great success with it. I could built something close (maybe) to this, but sourcing the materials here would be more than the cost of this kit.

 

Good morning from England,
This antenna are Radials a must.
Normally verticals need radials
My Antenna Farm is a measly 50 foot x 17 foot.

 

Beat me to it. Some of us work 2 jobs and have kids that take most of our time...Being able to buy it and slap it together fast is our only option sometimes.

 

I agree. Every thing you need in one simple box.
Just saying...

 

Roger that. The time that goes into building one's own antenna is significant. Sourcing parts through the mail, sourcing parts locally, having to fabricate parts, then going back to the hardware store multiple times and then having left over materials that are waste or that have to sit on the shelf until they become part of another build, etc. I have built my own...it takes a lot of time and troubleshooting, all of which is pure joy when you finally get it working.

But unless you are designing a new, unique antenna that nobody has designed before (fractal antennas come to mind as an example), all antennas are spin-offs of past designs, often with improvements in materials, gain, FB ratios, durability, etc.

I give Callum and anyone who evolves and perfects retail antenna systems kudos for making life easier and more predictable for all hams who are busy with life and appreciate that companies like DX Commander have done all the hard work for us. We are happy to reward them for this work, and recognize their effort with our hard-earned dollars.

As an aside I've set up a web store, dealt with sourcing hard-to-get items, had inventory issues and had to find alternate suppliers, had to deal with customs and import duties, the whole thing...I suppose because others have done all this before some smarmy nozzle could have told me that I'm ripping off an idea and ripping them off and that they are justified to complain because they could have done it all themselves. Great way to go through life...being upset at the drive and success of others from the comfort of your keyboard.

 

Does your 80m element affect 17m? With my DCX Lite, the 40m linear loaded element shifts the 17m resonance. I ended up cutting it down to 15m and run the antenna 40-20-15. When the DXC shows up I plan to run it 80-40-20-17-12-10 (with 40 giving 15).'

When people complain about price of something like this, they seem to assume that time is free. Last time I checked, it isn't, and I have a shorter amount left every day. Do I want to spend my time sourcing parts or paying someone else to source (and optimize) so I can quickly build and get on the air? I'll take the latter, but everyone has different aspects of the hobby they like and different pace-of-life.

 

I donated 100 pounds to his move fund late last year but have not been following him closely since I was one of the millions of people banned by YT. Or suspended for vague unspecific reasons. Not worth fighting for to get back there as a subscriber. Just algorithms and AI. Heck I was doing a review of a ham radio item on an online buying website. I mentioned MFJ and the AI highlighted that as foul language forbidden, so I had to type M** !!!

 

Mein Schwager DK2BE im Nachbarhaus hat eine, wir haben sie mehrmals aufgebaut und genutzt: Sehr gut
My neighbour DK2BE has one, we used it together with good results. You should ask him.

 

Proper radials are paramount!!! Here we are close to the salty Northsea with excellent ground conductivity (best ever in Germany) and antenna is working excellent on all bands designed for.

 

No it doesn't seem to! It might be due to where I cut it perhaps. It's cut for 3.6 MHz, I think Callum mentions that if it's higher in the band it may affect 17m. About the only thing is the bandwidth on 10m is not that wide, so I can't operate digital at the lower end, SSB in the middle and FM at the top end of the band above 29 MHz. But that's a compromise, and I think it's working well regardless of that.

 

I don't have the DX Commander as of yet, I will though next month...The antenna is a FAN vertical (So to peak)...But The owner's (Callum McCormick, M0MCX) videos are great. iI for anything, one can learn a ton, especially when Callum uses the Antenna software (Analysis) and indicates the patterns versus various scenarios.

And by the way, the antenna is really cheap, I read somewhere on this thread you can make it yourself, I guess you could, but if you buy all the parts I think you would not save all that much..!

DE NN2X. Tom