Category: DX Commander

Beaming 240 degrees from UK to VK

Today I’m prepping my compact 160m dipole project. I start by spray-painting a few fibreglass poles, then discuss some ideas for making low-band antennas smaller – from dipoles, linear loading, horseshoe shapes and even loops.

Along the way I fire up the modelling software to see some quick far-field plots and test how these designs might actually work in practice.

If you’re curious about compact solutions for 160m (or just enjoy a bit of antenna waffle), this one’s for you!

Tower Project (Discussed): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcC64tNkZB7yRBNMcXCPeOvxLR305kQpx

I’ve been experimenting with guying on my 18m fibreglass mast – and I’ve added 3 x 1m lengths of 12mm (1/2 inch) heavy shock-cord to the top guys. The result? Instead of the mast top shuddering in the wind, it’s now smooth and controlled.

In this video, I show you how I did it, why it works, and what I’m planning next for the station. If you’ve ever wondered whether shock-cord can tame verticals, this is for you!

Beaming 240 degrees from UK to VK

This is my biggest DX Commander antenna and needs careful planning and execution to make sure this goes up first time without a hitch. But the rewards are big! Enjoy the fun – and the mistakes.

This build uses this cut chart:

80m – 21.23m (For 3.8m and above, use 20.75m)
60m – 13.02m
40m – 9.77m (USA / Region 2 – use 9.7m)
30m – 6.88m
20m – 4.87m
17m – 3.86m

NOTE: 15m, 12m and 10m are not guaranteed – although your ATU will easily tune them – same with 6m band.

00:00 Intro
21:50 Crash
50:34 Result

Although I happened to win my chosen IOTA Contest Category (Woo-Hoo!), the real purpose of this video is to thank those "behind-the-scenes" folks who collate the contest logs and then manage to score the whole event inside 6-weeks. Reading between the lines, there’s probably a ton of errors that creep into these logs with people claiming the wrong category and mixing-and-matching corrupt ADIF files etc. By the sound of it, many of these are probably fixed "by-hand" until eventually, when all the logs can be machine readable, a big process somewhere is finally given the task of collating eveything and all the different categories; multi ops, single ops, 12 hours, 24 hours, assisted, non-assisted, island stations, world-stations – and more into order. So house-points and gold-stars all around. Thank you to the invisible team behind the scenes. 73, Callum M0MCX (Club Call M0XXT).

This time, I went to the Telford Rally. I ran a TS-590SG and a DX Commander Antenna from the car and just had a chill-time, chatting and reminiscing with folks. See what you think! Callum.
PS – Telford and District Amateur Radio Society (TDARS) have a website: https://tdars.org.uk/

The design of the 9×9 Command Tent is (in my opinion) a work of art – and it fits on the back of the original Land Rover Defender. Flaps down. Enjoy.
I found the instructions! https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a74ef8640f0b65c0e845b01/20150319-FOI2015_02935_tent_enclosure.pdf

Designing a 5m extension for the tower and I’m re-commissioning one of the old coax cabinets – and other stuff…

Beaming 240 degrees from UK to VK