Ham Radio Holiday Gift Guide 2025 Part 2: Gifts for the Portable Operator

If you have an amateur radio operator in your life who is passionate about going portable, we’ve got some great gift suggestions for the holiday season available at DX Engineering.

The Gift of Patience

Remember that shiny new banana-seat bicycle that had to sit dormant through the winter because it was no fun pretending to be Evel Knievel while dressed like Admiral Byrd? Anyone who has ever received a bicycle or baseball glove for the holidays will understand that a portable-operating gift may be a matter of delayed gratification—a test of one’s patience as you dream of setting up your station on a sun-drenched picnic table after the thaw. No worries, though. Talk with those who live for Field Day and POTAÒ and you’ll know you’ve given something that was worth the wait.

Disclaimer: We could probably fill the rest of our gift series with high-performance portable operating gear, so we had to narrow down our choices to a handful of the products that make POTAÒ, SOTA, IOTA, and any other OTA activities easier and more fun. You’ll find many more portable possibilities—in a range of prices—at DXEngineering.com.

And remember, there’s no reason to wait until late December to be the world’s champion gift-giver. By giving portable equipment now (or gifting yourself…you deserve it, right?), you’ll have more time to enjoy ideal weather conditions before ice and snow make things more challenging. Know someone who can’t wait for Winter Field Day (Jan. 24-25, 2026)? This list is for you.

Finally, if you’re just not sure what to give your ham friends and relatives, you can make it easy on yourself with a DX Engineering Gift Card in denominations from $25 to $500—a perfect choice regardless of the weather.

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Let’s start Part Two of our annual Amateur Radio Holiday Gift Guide with portable antennas from REZ Antenna Systems, sold exclusively through DX Engineering.

REZ offers several complete antenna systems that make operating outdoors simple and effective. REZ’s Ranger 80 II HF Portable Antenna System is a high-quality, fast-deploy portable antenna that is easily tuned for 80 through 15 meter operations. It comes with a Ranger 80 II HF coil assembly, heavy-duty military whip, radial kit, ground spike or aluminum tri-pod mount, and large MOLLE backpack in your choice of four colors.

Also choose from these REZ options:

• Recon 40 2 HF Portable Antenna Systems (40-10M)
• SCOUT Vertical Antenna System Combos (20-6M)
• Portable Delta Loop Kit Combo (40-6M)
• 4-Band Linked Dipole Kit

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Chameleon Antenna boasts more than 90 portable antennas and accessories available at DX Engineering, including its popular MPAS 2.0 Portable HF Antenna:

Here are a few other portable gift choices from Chameleon:

• Basic Limited Edition HF Antennas
• WARC-D Dipole Antennas (30/17/12M)
• F-LOOP 3.0 Total Portable HF Loop Antenna (3.5-29.7 MHz)
• Lightweight 8010 End-Fed Half-Wave Sloper (80-10M)

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You’ll also find a nice selection of DX Engineering portable equipment that will make rugged, long-lasting gifts for outdoor operators. This includes DX Engineering Nomad Portable Fiberglass Telescopic Masts. One customer raved about the Nomad in his five-star review:

“I purchased the Nomad 19-foot mast for POTA. It’s only 22 inches when closed. I pre-measured guys (thin nylon cord) so I can raise the mast by myself. With a lightweight 40/20 center-fed trap dipole at the top fed with RG-314 coax, the mast easily holds the antenna with no bending. Excellent! It’s a strong mast that won’t break easily. Should last for years.”