Yesterday in the Elecraft-KX Groups.io group, an astute ham observer shared marketing material for a new Elecraft AX4 antenna and associated accessories. The posting included PDFs detailing the AX4 antenna as well as the BL3 balun which will probably be available as well. Those PDFs are shared here for posterity’s sake in case the PDFs get pulled offline. You’ll find them at the end of the post.
The AX4 is considerably larger than the previous AX-line antenna options at nearly twice the length both collapsed and extended. For comparison, the AX3 which its whip fully extended measures around 50 inches. The AX4, with its 8-foot whip, will measure closer to 98 inches extended, while being able to collapse down to just over a foot. Due to the extra length of the whip and the tuning coils inside the antenna base, no extra coil component is needed to work the 40 meter band.
The AX4, when paired with an ATU, will be able to tune in 40 through 10 meters. Unlike the AX3’s band selection knob, the AX4 has a band selection “jumper block” with positions for 40m (7 MHz), 30m (10 MHz), 20m (14 MHz), and 15 m(21 MHz) meters. Setting the jumper block to the 15m (21 MHz) setting allows a suitable ATU to tune the 17m (18 MHz), 12m (24 MHz), and 10m (28 MHz) bands.
There is a counterpoise post for attaching the supplied 16-foot counterpoise. Users can attach the BL3 balun near the antenna-end of their feed line as a common-mode choke.
Mounting options included the AXTC4 table clamp, which connects to a screw mount on the side of the AX4 body and can securely attach the AX4 to tables up to 3″ in thickness. If you own a camera tripod with a 1/4″-20 screw mount, you may use it to mount to the bottom of the AX4 body.
Due to the new design used for the tuning coils inside the AX4, the antenna is rated at a whopping 100 watts (CW) or 50 watts (SSB), though there is no mention of duty cycle measurements for either rating, so you’ll need to use your best judgement.
Wayne, N6KR, of Elecraft confirmed the existence of the AX4 and its accessories and the antenna is now being marketed on their website as of today (maybe as of yesterday, I’m probably late to the party). There is a pre-order form available on the site.
Click on one of these images to view the associated PDF.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
K2MAS.net 