[Review&QnA] K6ARK QRP Antenna Matching Unit Kit - Male BNC

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	[Review&QnA] K6ARK QRP Antenna Matching Unit Kit - Male BNC GotoProduct About this item Male BNC for direct attachment to radio Can be used with HF bands from 160 m to 10 m Build as a 49:1 Unun, 9:1 Unun, or 1:1 Balun - Just add wire to complete your antenna Options to build as a multi-band antenna
Review
★★★★★ Perfectly well-thought-out antenna building kit you gotta love Verified Purchase Adam has put so much effort into this tiny little kit that is the perfect companion for everyone running QRP and portable ops or who just likes a stealthy antenna setup. It is an easy build which let's you choose between 9:1 Unun, EFHW or 1:1 current balun for a dipole all out of the same kit. There is also a female BNC option - I bought both. The customer service is superb. I can highly recommend this product!   ★★★★★ Great idea Verified Purchase Nicely packaged, easy online instructions, good video. Works very well. Great concept. Thanks Adam!   ★★★★★ Best you can get! Verified Purchase Assembled and tested this unit over the last week. Added 61.5' of 26# poly stealth. Near perfect 1:1 SWR across all of 40, 20 and 15 meters; and across a good chunk of 10 meters. Instructions are excellent. First SOTA activation netted 38 contacts in 90 minutes on 5 watts including several Europe and West Coast US from Ohio. I just can't imagine finding a more resonate, more compact and cheaper antenna matching unit on the market. Can't wait for more products to come from K6ARK!   ★★★★★ Color me impressed! Verified Purchase I paired this with 41 feet of SOTAbeams wire and my T1 tuner. I tested it as a sloper on my 17 foot crappie pole mast. Every band was booming in. 80m was a little weaker (to be expected as compared to a 132 foot half wave). It's a fiddly build. Read the instructions. Take your time. Don't drink too much coffee beforehand! But Adam did a nice job with this one!   ★★★★★ Simple build and excellent QRP portable antenna Verified Purchase I built the 9:1 unun version and use a 29' element with 17' counterpoise. Logged about 60 contacts on POTA activations. Perfect very portable antenna.   ★★★★★ Awesome QRP antenna! Verified Purchase Never failed to make QRP SSB contacts across multiple bands (tunable on 40m through 10m), including numerous DX contacts, with this antenna! Adam, K6ARK, hit it out of the park with this ultra-lightweight yet incredibly durable antenna system! Well worth building your own for your portable system.   ★★★★★ Super Little Kit Verified Purchase Great little QRP Antenna Matching Unit Kit!   ★★★★★ Excellent kit! Verified Purchase A great addition to my go kit.   ★★★★★ Great product Verified Purchase Adam was great help   ★★★★★ Fantastic antenna kit Verified Purchase This antenna kit is very very small. It takes some very careful soldering skills in a small area (especially with the SMT capacitor), but is not difficult. Excellent build instructions at k6ark.com. Give it a try, it's an ultralight portable antenna that can handle QRP 10 watts, and cut to your favorite HF ham frequency.   See more reviews
Custom Questions & answers
Question: Comes with a sticker? Answer: Yes, a sticker is included in the package along with all of the matching unit kit components.   Question: What kind of wire is recommended for the radiator? Anything I can order right here? Answer: I am going to use a .26ga wire for my build. Check K6ARK's website to see if he has a specific recommendation. There are now several youtube videos on the construction of the kit. They are very informative. That is how I decided on .26ga wire. Have a great day   Question: Can the antenna be connected directly to the radio or do you need a feedline? Answer: Yes! Absolutely. That is my preferred way of using the End Fed Half-wave and the End Fed Random Wire versions. Occasionally, users of the End Fed Random Wire may experience issues with RF getting back into the audio of a transmitted SSB signal with direct attachment. Adding a short (even just a few feet) coax jumper with a common mode choke can help prevent issues with that.   Question: When will these be in stock ready to ship???? Cancelled order after long wait with no updates???? Answer: Unfortunately I have no control over how Amazon fulfills these orders. If you'd like, you can reach out to me directly via my QRZ email address and I'll see what I can do to help.   Question: How many Watts can this antenna handle? Answer: I generally recommend a maximum of 10 watts SSB and 5 watts for heavy duty cycle modes like FT8. To handle more power (about 30-40 watts) you can nest the FT50-43 toroid in a FT82-43 toroid (it fits perfectly) and wind them as if they are a single toroid. I may produce a kit like that in the future as it is a perfect combo for the Xiegu G-90.   Question: My near vision has recently become very poor, and I've sadly had to put away my soldering iron. Is anyone making these as finished products? Answer: No, I'm sorry, this is only offered in kit form at this point.   See more questions