• JK Antennas Donates 40-Meter Yagi Antenna to W1AW

    From ARRL de WD1CKS@VERT/WLARB to QST on Thu Apr 26 23:51:16 2018
    04/26/2018

    JK Antennas[1] of Connecticut has generously donated a new two-element, 40-meter Yagi antenna to Maxim Memorial Station W1AW at ARRL Headquarters. JK Antennas' Ken Garg, W3JK, and his assistant, Craig, transported the new Yagi to W1AW on April 24 for assembly and installation.

    "I am very grateful for Ken's generosity," said W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q. "His kindness toward W1AW, technical expertise, and pride in his product is most refreshing." Carcia said the new antenna replaced a Yagi that had not been performing as needed and had failed a couple of times in the past.

    "What we did on April 24 was remove the old two-element, 40-meter Yagi - fixed to the south-southwest and used for all of our 40-meter code practice and bulletin transmissions - and replaced it with the JK402T two-element 40-meter Yagi," Carcia explained.

    Taking down the old antenna was Andrew Toth - who works with Matt Strelow, KC1XX - and Craig. Carcia pitched in to tram the old antenna down a line and off the tower. Strelow and Toth, who handle most of W1AW's antenna maintenance, were at W1AW to perform spring antenna and tower inspections. "The installation of the JK402T was a bonus! The timing just worked out," Carcia said, adding that the pair also installed a second 6-meter loop for scheduled transmissions on that band.

    Strelow, Carcia, and Craig hoisted the new antenna into place, with Toth pulling from the tower and then affixing the new Yagi, making the necessary feed-line connections. Garg oversaw the process of assembling the antenna and trimming the elements to W1AW's specification.

    Carcia recounted that the old antenna could not provide full band coverage right out of the box and required the user to pick a band segment for operation. "I had to compromise and tune it for the CW/digital segment," he said, "but when it came to either end of 40 meters, the amplifier was not happy."

    In contrast, Carcia said the JK402T offers wide bandwidth, keeping the SWR below 2:1 across the entire 40-meter band. 

    Carcia estimated that the entire enterprise - from removing the old antenna to assembling the new one and putting it in place on the tower - took about 9 hours.

     


    [1] https://jkantennas.com/

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