Alpha Delta DX-EE

[ropin4gold]

I live in town and do not have any trees in my yard. I also do not have a tower. I am looking at putting a dx-ee up in my attic. Does anyone have any experiance with this antenna. The reviews on eham seem to be pretty good. I have a single story house.

 

[N1BHH]

Just get the thing centered in your attic and spread the legs out in the longest dimension possible. Hand the feed point from the highest possible point. Then if the legs don't fit, they can be twisted into an L shape to fit your available pace. If you have 40 feet to work with you won't have to do it, but if it's about 30 feet you should pull the legs as straight as possible and then bend the rest of the legs to fit the available space.

 

[prcguy]

I tried the bigger DX-CC version that included 80m and it worked ok on 40m and up but 80m was compromised due to the loading coils. It was also very narrow band on 80.

I suspect 40m will be compromised on the EE model but that's what you live with in a shortened antenna.
prcguy

 

[N5TWB]

Just get the thing centered in your attic and spread the legs out in the longest dimension possible. Hand the feed point from the highest possible point. Then if the legs don't fit, they can be twisted into an L shape to fit your available pace. If you have 40 feet to work with you won't have to do it, but if it's about 30 feet you should pull the legs as straight as possible and then bend the rest of the legs to fit the available space.

This ^^^^^ is exactly what I did a year ago in my attic but I had no need to do the L-shape. I use an LDG autotuner and it allows me to work 40m-10m, including 12m and 17m. I need to do a little work on it to help the tuner on 40m and the weather has now turned to allow more time up there for the adjustments.

I may eventually add a flagpole vertical and I'm considering a loop around the perimeter of the house at the gutter level but I'm thinking the DX-EE will probably be my primary antenna.

 

[acyddrop]

I don't mean to get off topic and sound like a broken record... But why not make your own dipole antenna? It's really very easy and you can fit it to your attic better that way. If you want to add loading coils yourself you can do that too. Depending on how much power you're planning to use you could even roll your own balun for your dipole. Alpha Delta antennas are nice and they make a good product, but it's by no means any better than you could build at home. Wire antennas are pretty simple things to construct. Making antennas and such has become a bit of a passion lately it's why I suggest it.

 

[prcguy]

I agree, with just some wire and worst case a toroidal core and some PVC pipe for a loading coil form you can make a better antenna than the Alpha Delta for just a few $. Instead of using spacers to run the parallel dipole wires you can fan them out from the feedpoint and staple to rafters in your attic. If the 40m dipole is too long you can bend it around your attic or worst case load the 40m elements with just enough coil to fit your space.
prcguy

I don't mean to get off topic and sound like a broken record... But why not make your own dipole antenna? It's really very easy and you can fit it to your attic better that way. If you want to add loading coils yourself you can do that too. Depending on how much power you're planning to use you could even roll your own balun for your dipole. Alpha Delta antennas are nice and they make a good product, but it's by no means any better than you could build at home. Wire antennas are pretty simple things to construct. Making antennas and such has become a bit of a passion lately it's why I suggest it.

 

[ab3a]

I have to say, I have never understood the need to buy these wire antenna kits. If you're that much of a klutz that you don't know how to measure a length of wire, or to set up an insulator, I really can not imagine how you would be able to install these kits.

 

[ropin4gold]

I have made wire antennas in the past but nothing as "advanced" as this type of antenna. This will replace an 80M dipole I made.

 

[acyddrop]

It's not really advanced.. The radials will be automatically selected for example. Which ever one is resonant at the frequency you're operating at will be the one that is used by default. The coils on the end of the 40M length are there to allow the overall length to be shorter. You can obtain or build those coils yourself to load out a shorter antenna electrically.

I have made wire antennas in the past but nothing as "advanced" as this type of antenna. This will replace an 80M dipole I made.

 

[trap5858]

Take a look at the current edition of QST magazine, there is a nice review of this antenna.