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Reviews For: Stockcorner JC-3 compact automatic antenna tuner 200W

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Stockcorner JC-3 compact automatic antenna tuner 200W
Reviews: 2MSRP: 349 Euro
Description:
Remote antenna tuner rated for 200W. Sealed housing, compact
and very easy to install
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.stockcorner.nl/index.php/jc-3-automatic-antenne-tuner-200-watt
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
SV9DRU Rating: 2020-10-30
Excellent ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Excellent design, functionality and reliability. I have been using one daily since 2006, and never let me down.

In my opinion one of the best remote tuners (with its big brother JC4), and the fact that almost every SV station have used them for the last 15-20 years, solid evidence for that statement.

HB9CQK Rating: 2016-12-02
Excellent tuner and outstanding support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
In the past I was using a trapped “Kelemen” dipole for 30, 40 and 80 meters. This antenna is well made and performed very well. However, it is very narrow band on 40 and 80 meters, such that you have to decide on “digital or phone” by adjustment. I decided it was time to look for an antenna that allows me to operate all sections of these bands especially considering the declining number of sun spots in 2016. I had some experience with antenna tuners for portable operation having used an SGC 237 and an icom AH-4. The AH-4 is a great tuner especially in combination with my icom 706MKIIG that I use for portable operation, but I did not dare using that for a permanent installation. The Stockcorner JC-3 is so compact I can mount it on a dipole plate together with the 1:1 ATU current balun (1771ts) from balundesigns in Texas (highly recommended). I have 15.5m of antenna wire connected to each side of the balun and a very short connection between the balun and the JC-3 ATU. This short connection was made possible by a modification to the JC-3 done by the manufacturer at no extra cost!! The GND connection is normally located at the bottom of the tuner, but Casper from Stockcorner modified the tuner for me such that both connections are located at the top. The dipole is an inverted Vee configuration with an angle of approx. 100 degrees. The dipole plate is hung from my aluminum mast just below a Mosley TA-53-M using keflar rope. It is swinging a bit in the wind and I want to fix that after the winter. I am aware that the close proximity to the TA-53-M could be an issue, but I have no choice if I want to use a dipole at all. The dipole does not interfere with the SWR of the TA-53-M at all. The JC-3 is fed using 17m of RG-213 type coax and controlled using a 4 wire control cable. I inserted a toroid choke on the control cable, but none on the coax, because with the balun between tuner and antenna I have no common mode current at all and no HF in the shack when transmitting. The JC-3 comes with a little control box that has to be connected to a 12V power supply. The ground connection of the JC-3 goes through the shield of the coax, so you have to connect 12V minus of the power supply to the TRX housing. My base TRX are a FlexRadio 6700 and an icom IC-7800 . I use the dipole for TX only and a Wellbrook Magnetic Loop for RX, because the interference level with a dipole in my neighborhood is above S9 on 30, 40 and 80m. The dipole quickly tunes from 10 to 80m (no tune on 160m) with an SWR of 1:1.3 maximum. I made a contact with TR8CA on a seemingly dead 40m band using JT65 just minutes after the installation. The JC-3 has performed flawlessly since the installation. I can only very strongly recommend this tuner. Casper from Stockcorner is very open about what it can do and cannot do. He told me not to use 200W with high speed CW. Since I am not capable of this it is no issue for me. If you need more power you can always use one of the two other tuners from Stockcorner, but you will lose the compactness of the JC-3. The support from Casper is absolutely outstanding. He is very knowledgeable and he responds to emails within a few hours!