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Reviews For: Stockcorner JC-4 automatic antenna tuner 1KW

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Stockcorner JC-4 automatic antenna tuner 1KW
Reviews: 25MSRP: 1050 Euros
Description:
Remote antenna tuner rated for 1KW pep. Two antennas. High
quality parts and high performance coupler.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.stockcorner.nl/index.php/en/jc-4s
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00255
PA0FRI Rating: 2015-03-20
Great value for the money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Generally the tuner is able to match random rods and wire antennas, even if no antenna is connected. Not always with SWR = 1 but often with SWR < 2. It will be clear that with a short antenna the bulk of the energy is absorbed in the tuner itself. To protect the device one have to reduce the transmitter power significantly or use recommend length of antenna systems as stated in the documentation. In terms of price a JC-4 is an attractive alternative to similar but more expensive couplers from other manufacturers. It may be up to a difference of 50% in price: JC-4 1000W/PEP about EUR 500, SGC-235 500W/PEP about er EURO 1000. JC-4 has 11 coils and SGC-235 8 coils available to obtain resonance.

I confirm the review of OR5A.
TF3ARI Rating: 2015-01-13
He is now 7 Month old Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Hi
just little follow up
I have now use the JC-4 for 7 month and still act like new . I run him 99% of the time with 1kw SSB from VL 1000 and Anan SDR radio
I have 2 antenna one on A and other on B input and I can switch remote from
A to B and roof is ground, mate of metal.
both antenna are 43 feet (13m) long ( one Hor and other Ver) and tuner is always 1.1.1 and my VL 1000 amp works well and run cold on this good SWR. I use this tuner on 80m to 10m ( also on 60m) alwas 1.1 SWR very unusual.He have also no problem with 160m 1.1 Swr and I run him 100w there and my antenna is short. Best tuner I have owns last 30 years.
CX2AL Rating: 2014-12-04
Magic box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have used the JC-4 for almost three months now.
My antenna is composed of a 40m horizontal long wire about 30m above ground and a vertical 20m counterpoise.Connected to one end of the LW, the JC-4 will tune it to any ham band from 160 to 10m in a matter of seconds to very low SWR, most of the time 1:1.1.
I have owned in the past MFJ, LDG and SGC tuners, the JC-4 outclasses all of them.
Keep up the great work Casper!
SV1JCZ Rating: 2014-08-30
5 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Nice Tuner JC-3 / RAN3 (200watt pep SSB) & JC-4 / RAN5 (1000Watt pep SSB) are construct in Athens Greece by SV1NL

I have the Ran3 for Portable use and the Ran5 in the second QTH with a 18m Spiderbeam Pole as Vertical Antenna.

Here the Manual in Greek Languish:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8sk8g53gooepuel/AACl_vAfPhRRwcS1aMeQNAdia?dl=0

73 Danny
SV1JCZ / DL1JCZ, SX0HQ, SX1L
OR5A Rating: 2014-08-07
A leap forward in remote couplers Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Thanks to some ham friends I came in contact with Casper from Stockcorner. He is a fellow ham who likes development. His point of view: make ham equipment using high quality parts for the best possible price. After using the JC-4 coupler I can now tell the difference between most commercial tuners or copied Chinese junk and this remarkable high performance coupler.

Does the box needs to look appealing? No it doesn't. But open the sealed cover and you find a PCB board with the finest components on the market. Relays, coils, capacitors, all well up to the task. Soldering and finish is very HQ.

Presuming you have enough antenna length according the bands you want to work, the coupler allows you to run 1 KW SSB and 750 watts CW. It can cope with short antennas but the shorter the antenna on lower bands, Casper advises to reduce the power output. Also retuning has to be done with the linear amplifier in stand-by.

The tuning is very, very fast. Using smaller capacitor steps a very accurate tuning is provided. Besides, this model comes with two antenna outputs A and B. Both antennas can have up to 50 memories to recall tuned segments. But multiple setups are possible. A symmetrical dipole using antenna rods A and B result in a very good working all band doublet antenna, directly at both antenna outputs or with open feedline.

I'm using this to replace a dipole for 40 and 80 meters. I love the idea covering the complete band with good swr. Using 2 x 25 meters of wire fed with 600 Ohm open line to the tuner gives me a great antenna with nice performance on 160, 80, 60, 40 and 30 meters. (on higher bands I'm using a directional antenna).

The tuners supplied remote controller has a switch to select antenna A or B or switch both antennas to ground (also when powered off). A button lets you start the tuning process. It does not start without this button to make sure unwanted retuning can not happen while in qso.

Another nice feature: tune two different antennas (A and B) on the same frequency and you can compared them without the need to retune either one of them. This is really great and never seen on any other competitors model. Just flip the switch on the remote controller and you have a reading on the transceiver. Great to test antenna configurations and compare them on air with your qso partner.

Already tuned segments are recalled in milliseconds. New segments are tuned in just over 2 seconds. SWR is really 1:1 or 1,1:1 and not higher so your amplifier is happy.

As with all similar concepts, end fed wires or verticals need a decent RF ground to get good results. There's no magic involved here. If only a poor ground is to be provided, consider using the tuner for balanced antennas like dipole, doubled, G5RV.

Email response from Casper is great. He takes proud in his developments. There's also a 200 watt version and a 4 KW version available.

I've been using SGC smartuners, CG-models from China, MFJ remote tuners all using the same concept. So I've done quiet a bit of experimenting with different antenna solutions and brand tuners.

All I can say is this: once I've used the JC-4 I now know what a good coupler has to be. The JC-4 is a leap forward in remote coupling antennas to feedlines and transmitters.

I really can recommend this tuner. It's a class apart not being overpriced. I rate it 5 stars without a doubt.