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DX Engineering

From HamWiki
DX Engineering
TypePrivate company; sister company of Summit Racing Equipment
HeadquartersTallmadge, Ohio
Chief executiveTim Duffy, K3LR
BusinessRetailer and manufacturer
Amateur radio
Known forAntennas and antenna hardware, coax and cable assemblies, receiving antenna systems, retail sales of station equipment
Product lines it ownsButternut, Hi-Z, Comtek, Top Ten Devices, Clifton Laboratories, TransWorld Antennas, KD9SV
StatusActive
Websitedxengineering.com

DX Engineering is an American retailer and manufacturer of amateur radio equipment based in Tallmadge, Ohio, near Akron. It sells transceivers, amplifiers, antennas and accessories from many manufacturers through its website and showrooms, and it designs and builds its own line of antenna hardware, coaxial cable assemblies, receiving antenna systems and other station components. Over the years it has also bought several antenna and accessory product lines from other companies and continued making them. DX Engineering is a sister company of Summit Racing Equipment, the automotive parts retailer, and its showrooms are inside Summit Racing stores. Its chief executive officer is Tim Duffy, K3LR.

History

Published sources differ on when DX Engineering was founded. Much of its recent history has been shaped by acquisitions of established ham radio product lines:

  • In December 2014 it bought the Skyhawk and Skylark Yagi antennas and the Butternut line of HF vertical antennas from Bencher of Antioch, Illinois. The Skyhawk is a tribander for 20, 15 and 10 meters, and the Skylark covers 17 and 12 meters. Bencher kept its line of CW paddles.
  • In November 2015 it acquired InLogis and the rights to its RF-PRO-1B, an active magnetic loop receiving antenna formerly sold under the Pixel name, and moved its manufacturing from Colorado to Tallmadge.
  • In May 2016 it acquired the amateur radio products of Clifton Laboratories, a maker of preamplifiers and filters, and bought TW Antennas, maker of the compact TransWorld antenna for portable operating.
  • In December 2023 it took over the product line of KD9SV, which had made receiving devices for the low bands since 1987.

The company also owns the Comtek, Hi-Z and Top Ten Devices product lines. In 2022 it introduced its own heavy-duty antenna rotator.

Besides its own products, DX Engineering has signed distribution agreements with other makers. In 2023 it became the exclusive North American distributor of DX Commander products, in 2025 it began exclusive distribution of 4O3A station products in the United States and Canada, and the same year FlexRadio added it as a distributor of its FLEX-8000 series transceivers. The British antenna maker InnovAntennas also names DX Engineering as its exclusive North American distributor.

Duffy, licensed since 1972, is also known in contesting as the founder and chairman of Contest University, a day of contest training held during the week of the Dayton Hamvention.

Products and services

  • Antenna hardware. DX Engineering makes antenna tubing, clamps and other parts for building and repairing antennas, along with complete verticals and dipoles.
  • Feed line and connectors. It sells coaxial cable, connectors and made-to-order cable assemblies, with an online tool for specifying custom cables. It also makes baluns and ununs, weatherproofing supplies and grounding kits; see Grounding and lightning protection.
  • Receiving antennas. Its own receive antenna phasing systems and the Hi-Z and KD9SV lines are aimed at hams who use separate low-noise receiving antennas, such as phased verticals or the Beverage antenna, to hear weak signals on the 160- and 80-meter bands.
  • Retail sales. The company sells radios and accessories from major makers, including Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood, as well as amplifiers, antenna tuners and other station equipment. Its staff, many of them licensed hams, provide technical support.
  • Showrooms. Its main showroom, in the Summit Racing store in Tallmadge, offers technical help and order pickup. A second location, in the Summit Racing store in Sparks, Nevada, handles order pickup only.
When ordering a cable assembly for a rotating antenna, measure the run carefully and allow extra length for a loop at the rotator, so the cable is not pulled tight or bent sharply as the antenna turns.

See also

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