DELKIM The birth of a legend
It’s hard to believe that behind such a legend stands so few people—and only a family at that. For me, the message is clear: now that I know what I know, I have even more respect for the Delkim brand.
Bite alarms, a hotly debated topic just a few years ago, are now a standard part of every angler’s bag. I’m not sure there has ever been a bigger fuss around any other piece of gear. Many anglers fought this novelty tooth and nail, and every now and then things even escalated here and there. And it is not really surprising. Whether anyone admits it or not, many of those negative emotions stem from envy, which is something we are born with. Sometimes it can also come from a certain resistance to change, or simply from a lack of information.
I will quite happily admit to all three of those traits. I first came across this novelty sometime around 2003 at a friend’s place, and when he showed me his new toy, I immediately had a dozen reasons on the tip of my tongue for why it was useless, and plenty of arguments for why I, of all people, certainly did not need it.
There was certainly a bit of envy in it, because I was only a spectator with no information and, at that time, without enough money to buy one either. Another reason was the change I mentioned. What use would an electronic bite alarm be to me when I was sitting by the rod and had bobbins? I would have to be a complete idiot to need music on top of that. Yep, by then I had already been fishing for almost 17 years, and everything had its order and its rules, even if by today’s standards they were limited.
Those opinions disappeared in less than a year, though, when I was invited on the first proper carp-fishing trip of my life, which changed absolutely everything. That was where I was lent my first bite alarms, with the explanation that you simply could not fish for carp any other way, let alone through the night or over a whole weekend.
Freedom was born!
When an Angler Is Finding His Way
I can’t recall exactly which bite alarms I was loaned back then. All I know is that after that trip, I simply had to have my own—and that they looked absolutely perfect paired with my rod pod.
What I do remember perfectly, though, are my true firsts—the first bite alarms I ever owned. It wasn’t right after that trip, but four years later. That’s when I bought the SEMA Magneto alarms, without a receiver.
Two years later, in 2010, I bought a 3+1 set from the brand SKarp, called TREND. They were budget-friendly little gadgets—and they worked just fine.
The next change came in 2015, in the form of the Delphin Roler. Compared to the previous ones, they were a nice step up—but not enough of a leap to stay with me for more than a year.
Then came one of my absolute favorites—the FOX MXr+. They were my first proper, high-quality alarms, and I valued them like nothing else. But, like most carp anglers, I kept glancing toward the ultimate dream of bite alarms—the one and only Delkim.
Tempted by countless fishing videos, I was just waiting for the right moment—and it came with the launch of the Txi-D and Rx-D models. From that point on, nothing could stop me. I finally made my dream come true.
DELKIM
I’m fairly certain that the products themselves need no special introduction—but what about the brand as a whole? Does our fishing community truly know Delkim?
Did you know that the brand DELKIM was founded in the late 1970s in the UK—and that its original purpose was to distribute ingredients for making baits and attractants? It even played a key role in introducing legendary flavours like Scopex, Strawberry, and Sice “B”.
Not exactly what most people would expect, right?
The company was founded by two carp anglers—DEL Romang and KIM Donaldson. At the time Delkim came into existence, bite alarms were still in their infancy.
At that time, the only bite alarm on the market was the antenna-style “Heron,” invented by Dick Walker back in the 1950s. It really puts things into perspective—just how far ahead English carp fishing was compared to ours here in the Czech Republic.
But back to the point. At the time, the Heron was not only the only available bite alarm—it was also considered the most advanced. Unfortunately, it had its flaws, which anglers tried to improve on their own in various ways. That’s when the Heron system caught the attention of Delkim, and the “Heron Conversion” project was born.
Anglers would send their Heron alarms to Delkim for upgrades, where they were enhanced using LED lights, electronic circuits, and GPO speakers. This service not only refined the alarms—it also marked the very beginning of Delkim’s journey into the bite alarm business.
The First Delkim?
The first four sets of custom-made, self-service antenna bite alarms were built by Del in 1976—just before the official founding of Delkim. According to Del himself, these were the very first true Delkims. In fact, he kept one of the sets for himself, and it’s still fully functional to this day.
Around the same time, Delkim also produced the first commercially available carp retention slings and weigh slings.
You’d think this would be the moment—the first mass-produced Delkim finally arriving. Surely, it must be now.
But I’m afraid I have to disappoint you—the road was still long and full of thorns.
In the early 1980s, another revolutionary bite alarm appeared on the market—the “Optonic.” Once again, anglers began calling for Delkim to bring their own innovation to the table.
Delkim resumed its conversion services, this time modifying the Optonics. But eventually, legal issues arose, and all modifications had to be halted.
This period brought two major milestones for the company.
The first was a positive one: Delkim had earned a solid reputation and firmly established itself in the market. The modifications they introduced were so groundbreaking that they set entirely new standards for how products in this sector were evaluated.
The second milestone, however, was less fortunate. Due to the legal issues surrounding the Optonic conversions and the uncertainty that followed, Kim Donaldson decided to leave the company. The stress of that difficult period was something he no longer wanted in his life.
Still, his departure happened on good terms, and the friendship between Del and Kim remained intact.
From that point on, Del Romang continued running the company alone, slowly nurturing a dream of producing his own bite alarms. He wanted a commercially made product of his own, rather than improving the work of others.
In the end, everything truly began with a dream—in the literal sense. In 1983, Del had a vision in his sleep, an idea that would lead to the bite alarms we know today.
He woke up in the middle of the night and, completely naked, ran into the living room to pull a piece of fishing line across the stylus of his record player.
Delkim The Birth of a Legend
After the dream that changed everything, Del went on to patent the Delkim Vibration System—an innovation that took nine years of intense development, finally culminating in 1992.
That year saw the birth of the first commercially available Delkim bite alarm. A product Del had refined to perfection—something he could truly be proud of.
As you can now see, the design elements have remained recognisable from the very first alarm all the way to the present day.
Innovation
Then, in 1994, came a true innovation—the first radio transmission system. Named the Tx 2000, with the Rx 2000 receiver, it marked a new era for bite alarms. However, the first version still relied on a transmitter unit that had to be mounted on a bankstick below the alarm. From it hung what anglers called "mouse tails." Not long after, in a wave of further innovation, the transmitters were released without these tails.
A small step for man…
The year is 1996, and Delkim launches its first bite alarms with integrated transmitters under the name Tx-i.
At the same time, they become the first to introduce a blue LED light to the market—setting a trend that continues to this day.
These transmitters were paired with the Rx 2004 receiver, featuring four LEDs and the ability to monitor up to eight alarms.
As with previous systems, Delkim once again introduced clever innovations—this time in the form of significant energy efficiency, an area in which the brand had always excelled.
Delkim also claimed another first by introducing a white LED. By now, it's clear who the top player on this field really is.
Delkim Plus
In 2003, Delkim introduced an upgrade to its old range, which had been in production since 1992. Until then, everything had changed except the housing. Now it was a complete upgrade. A second LED and a brightness adjustment button were added to the alarm. At the same time, Delkim brought purple LEDs to the market, once again as the first in the entire industry. With this range, energy saving was again improved significantly. Brightness could now be set at three levels, and the night LED could be switched on or off. On previous products, night indication had been handled by an isotope holder positioned just below the line guide.
An RX Plus receiver with six LEDs was also available for these alarms: pink, red, white, purple, green and yellow. Thanks to Delkim’s own radio receiver development, the range was pushed beyond 200 m. Battery life: 6000 hours.
Another innovation on this model was a connector for attaching illuminated bite indicators.
Due to technical problems, Delkim released only the Plus version that year, and anglers had to wait until the following year for the Txi+ version.
The Delkim alarms in this Txi+ version are known by anglers all over the world. This product started the biggest boom in the world of carp fishing. You would be hard pressed to find a single video by a well-known angler from that time where this product is not in shot. At the same time, it brought Delkim incredible popularity, and the brand that had already been setting trends and standards became a manufacturer with no real competition.
I fell for this mania myself and knew that one day I had to own these top-end alarms. Delkim became the dream of most anglers, and that trend continues to this day.
At the beginning, I mentioned the Delkim Vibration System and its connection to a record stylus. First thing for the children of today: by record, I mean a vinyl record. The Vibration system, which is built into Delkim alarms, can be compared to the cartridge on our turntables. It is a piezoceramic sensor over which our line runs, passing the vibrations on for further processing inside the body.
Delkim TXI-D
Development of the new range began in 2009 and took a long 10 years before they brought their already perfect product into absolute angling heaven.
With the release of the Txi-D version, they pushed the boundaries of the impossible.
The main change was once again the design and a significant reduction in size. A change that could not be seen, but was perhaps even more fundamental, was digitalisation.
The previous product was based on an analogue signal, while this one processes the signal digitally. The biggest problem was converting vibration sensing into digital form.
So the new product once again brings us proven vibration sensing, digital signal processing and a digital radio signal. The system is equipped with beep speed control, has an improved security system and expanded LED intensity setting options. It also offers silent mode, instant switching from night to day mode, low battery indication of course, and a very fast start-up.
It has much better weather protection, user memory for preferred settings and much more besides, but more on that in the second part of this article. There we will take a much closer look at this product as part of the review.
It took me several years before I decided on an alarm from Delkim. Now I am glad I held out until this range was released and bought it straight away.
Today, day in and day out, I come across countless opponents of this system, plenty of anglers who would never buy a Delkim, or who claim it is useless. As you can see, the topic of electronic bite alarms is still controversial; it has simply shifted from who has one to who has what.
Yes, it is probably not the most suitable alarm for a boat, but everywhere else it is without competition.
It is a sad fact that most of these haters bad-mouth it purely out of envy, because it is out of their price range, or simply because of the foolishness of their nature. Sometimes, perhaps, it is only a lack of information. As I have already written, we have it in us. After all, most of us usually have the best product. Unfortunately, most of those heavily promoted products are only weak copies from China of products such as Delkim, Fox and a very small handful of others.
If you are interested in more details about the history of the brand and its products, and more information about the development and innovations, definitely take a look at the DelkimLtd YouTube channel; there is loads of material there.
A very useful video is in the Live section and is called Delkim Live – History of Delkim.
Supplement
I would be remiss not to mention that Delkim is a truly family-run company. As we’ve already discussed, the founder is Del Romang, who started the company together with Kim Donaldson. Kim left the company in 1986 due to the stress caused by legal issues surrounding the Optonic case. It’s worth pausing for a moment on Kim—unfortunately, he passed away in 2001. According to reports, he died doing what he loved most: carp fishing. Another major driving force behind the family side of the company was Del’s first wife, Bev. She too is no longer with us. Both Kim and Bev played invaluable roles in the creation of Delkim, and without them, this story would never have taken the path it did.
Today, the company is run not only by Del, but also by his son Lee, daughter Carla, second wife Carol, her son Paul, and additional sons Robert and Mark. It’s hard to believe that such a legendary brand is driven by so few people—and only family at that. For me, the message is clear. Now that I know what I know, I value the Delkim brand even more.
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