Wayne, Are you thinking the 40 m extender would be an add-on? I’m close to ordering an AX1 — should I wait for 40, or is it safe to buy now and add 40 later?
Peter W0LLN On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 7:59 PM Wayne Burdick <n...@elecraft.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > Sometimes the bands normally covered by the AX1 just aren't open (20/17/15 > meters), yet 40 meters has all sorts of activity. Like tonight, at my QTH. > 40 m is also a great local/emergency band, with many active regional nets. > > For such times, we may offer an extender for the AX1 that moves the 20 > meter resonance down to 40 meters. > > A significant amount of additional inductance is required. The ATU built > into the KX2 or KX3 provides any needed fine-tuning to efficiently cover > the entire band, despite the unavoidably narrow-band nature of a short whip. > > I whipped up a prototype of the hypothetical "AXE1" this afternoon and had > excellent on-air results. Tests were done in my back yard, featuring > hard-packed soil and brown unwatered grass...in keeping with our legendary > drought. With one call each I bagged British Columbia and Colorado. Both > stations were peaking S-9, and both gave me reports in the S-5 range. > > This brings up an important caveat: a short whip is not the optimal > antenna on 40 meters by any stretch, so calling strong stations is a good > strategy. They could be strong due to propagation, good antennas, or high > power, and two out of these three aid both ends of the QSO. > > The extender would be about 6" long and 1/2" in diameter. (Even a small > amount of added length helps on 40 meters.) It threads into place between > the AX1's whip and base, and adds just 1.8 ounces of weight, still > consistent with hand-held use of the KX2. > > Equally important, for those of us who travel light, the extender -- plus > a counterpoise wire for 40 m -- fits comfortably into our smallest bag, the > CS40, along with the AX1 and an AXB1 whip bipod. > > (In answer to the inevitable question: it *might* also work on 30 meters > in a pinch, with an ATU, but efficiency would be lower.) > > If you'd be interested in AX1 use on 40 meters, please email me directly. > I won't necessarily be able to respond, but this will help us gauge > interest. We'll keep a list for possible early announcement. > > 73, > Wayne > N6KR > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to peter.wol...@gmail.com > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
