If you’re looking for proven, highly transportable, and easy-to-deploy options for getting on the air during the 2024 ARRL Field Day (June 22-23), you can’t go wrong with any number of portable HF antennas available at DXEngineering.com. This article represents just a sampling of what you’ll find online.
Let’s begin our survey of Field Day antenna options with the amateur radio pros at Chelegance, who offer several excellent choices for POTA, SOTA, Field Day, and other outdoor activations:
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JPC-12 Portable HF Vertical Antenna
The JPC-12 (40-6M) is built for easy assembly and excellent performance. You receive a special antenna base with SO-239, ground stake, counterpoise wire set, manual tuning multiband coil, heavy-duty aluminum tubes with threaded studs, stainless telescopic whip, and carrying bag.
With a manually tuned center-mount coil and whip adjustments, expect good results from 7 MHz and up. It handles up to 100W and can be quickly put together to connect with a user-supplied coax for use on the go.
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JPC-7 Portable HF Dipole Antenna
This 100W antenna covering 40 through 6 meters includes special antenna base, a 1:1 choke balun with SO-239 and connection leads, rotating arm bracket kit, brass connector, tripod adapter, manual tuning multiband coils, heavy-duty aluminum arms, and two 98.4-inch stainless telescopic whips.
The dipole kit comes packed into the provided 14.5″ x 9″ carrying bag but extends out to over 21.5 feet overall. Requires user-supplied tripod/mast and coaxial cable for portable use.
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MC-750 Portable HF Vertical Antenna
Covering 40 through 6 meters and handling up to 100W, this no-tools-required antenna system is easy to set up and disassemble. Its antenna base features a built-in ground spike; female SO-239 connector; and jacks for up to four preassembled, 11.48-foot counterpoise radials (included). The antenna functions as a quarter-wave vertical ground plane antenna for the 14-50 MHz frequency range while using the included 17-foot telescoping whip.
Also included is a loading coil for operating in the 7 MHz/40M band.
The kit comes with a 1.64-foot extension, cable winder, and carrying bag. Tripod for the MC-750 and 80M tuning coil available separately.
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DX Engineering Multiband Off-Center Fed (OCF) Dipole Antenna Kit
This wire dipole kit offers the benefit of HF multiband operation—an unusually useful result of feeding two different lengths of wire with a 4:1 balun—as compared to a single-band resonant dipole with equal length wire legs. Low SWR band coverage is typically achieved with a transceiver’s internal antenna tuner. For legal limit 1.5kW SSB and CW power handling, the cost of OCF multiband operation is the requirement of a capable external tuner.
This rugged wire antenna kit includes two lengths of premium 14-gauge relaxed PVC antenna wire with soldered ring terminal for connection to the balun; one DXE-MC20-C4-1 Maxi-Core® 4:1 Balun; the patented high-strength antenna center insulator DXE-WA-BMB Balun Mounting Bracket and End Insulators; stainless steel hardware; and printed instructions.
User trims the provided 48-foot and 113-foot lengths of wire to achieve the desired band coverage (80-10M or 40-10M). Add rope and supports, such as a DX Engineering Premier Telescoping Carbon Fiber Mast, all available at DXEngineering.com.
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DX Engineering EZ-BUILD® UWA Center-T and End Insulator Kit
Not sure what kind of antenna you want for Field Day? Here’s an easy solution. This kit has the pieces you need to create a range of wire antennas, including single-band, multiband, multi-frequency, folded dipole, doublet and inverted-V, OFC, Windom, Zepp, long wires, rhombic, V-beam, or loop antennas. There’s no need for looping, wrapping, or soldering, so adjusting wire lengths in the field is fast and simple.
Designed for building wire antennas for high-power operations, this model mounts to any DX Engineering balun for a balanced and isolated wire antenna, or this insulator kit may be used directly with DX Engineering 300-Ohm Ladder Line for a non-resonant multiband dipole. The kit includes a center-T insulator; two end insulators; two stainless steel wire connection bolts, nuts, and washers; six crimp ring terminals for antenna and ladder line wire connections; and additional stainless steel hardware for mounting a DX Engineering balun.
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DX Commander Expedition Portable HF Multiband Vertical Antenna
The Expedition model (36.75 feet, 2.13 feet collapsed) covers 40-6M and comes with sturdy fiberglass pole, alloy plates, spreader plates, stay-up kit, shock-cord, DX10 wire, hardware, and more. The antenna features efficient quarter-wave vertical performance and low SWR on every band of operation without the need for traps, coils, or antenna tuners. The antenna is rated at 1,500W SSB/CW and 400W for FT8 and other digital modes.
The new 2024 Expedition version comes with speed slots, screw base, and quick-release elements for even faster deployment and teardown.
Five Stars: “I gave mine a proper workout recently for Winter Field Day and was very pleased with the performance using 20 radials (I made over 70 digital contacts using 5W). Wide bandwidth easily covers all designed bands well under 2:1 SWR. Very lightweight and portable, it took me about 20 minutes to set up (mainly uncoiling wire and organizing guy lines). Materials provided are high quality and the entire antenna is modular, so if one thing breaks you can just replace what you need. The wire is very easy to work with and is perfect for radials (it’s like a wet noodle). I look forward to using it for Summer Field Day in a few months and during other portable ops. Overall, a very clever design for an easy to set up, portable, multiband 1/4-wave vertical antenna.”
Find all DX Commander HF Multiband Vertical Antennas and Accessories at DX Engineering, the exclusive North American distributor of DX Commander products.
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DX Engineering Multiband Dipole Antenna Kits
Ideal for easy setup on Field Day, these rugged yet lightweight 2,500W power rated antennas are usable to 30 MHz with a tuner balun (available separately). They feature strong and flexible 14 AWG stranded-copper, relaxed PVC-jacketed elements; 18 AWG 300-ohm ladder feedline; center-T support; and end mount brackets. Choose from three models:
- DXE-WA-070 – Antenna, 70-foot long for 40M and Up
- DXE-WA-135 – Antenna, 135-foot long for 80M and Up
- DXE-WA-260 – Antenna, 260-foot long for 160M and Up
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REZ Ranger 80 HF Portable Antenna System
The Ranger 80 kit comes with an adjustable, rugged base-load tuning coil that allows for tuning from 80-15M with the included seven-section tapered military whip made from brass and stainless steel (9.3 feet extended, 17 inches collapsed). Operation on 12M and 10M requires the use of an optional telescoping whip (sold separately) in place of the included whip.
The unique manual-tuning sliding coil collar features a large contact area for worry-free power handling (200W SSB, 100W digital at 50% duty cycle). The heavy-duty coil base comes with a REZ Radial Puck with eight 4mm holes.
The kit also includes four 33-foot 18-gauge radials terminated with 4mm banana plugs for quick connection to the puck. The Ranger 80 and additional gear fit nicely in the provided laser-cut, water-resistant MOLLE backpack (your choice of five colors). Kits either include 17-inch ground spike mount or aluminum tripod mount.
Read an excellent review of the Ranger 80 from Mark, K8MSH, here.
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Chameleon MPAS 2.0 Portable HF Backpack Antenna System
This system covers HF and 6M and comes with either the Hybrid-Micro (100W SSB/50W CW) or Hybrid-Mini (500W SSB/250W CW) matching unit; portable base; 113-inch collapsible whip antenna; 105.5-inch antenna extension; 50 feet of coax with RFI choke; in-ground antenna mount; military-style olive green backpack; stainless steel hardware; and 75 feet of antenna wire and 25 feet of counterpoise wire to support a range of deployment configurations, including vertical, horizontal, sloper, inverted-V, inverted-L, NVIS, balcony, stationary vehicle, and man-pack. Also available are MPAS Lite models.
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Find many more antenna options at DX Engineering.com from leading brands, including Par EndFedz, Kelemen, Alpha Delta, Icom, Buckmaster, Bushcomm, more Chameleon portable antennas, SOTAbeams, TW Antennas, plus other DX Engineering branded antenna choices and accessories.
