[Heathkit] SA-2550 Antenna Matcher

[Mike McCarthy, W1NR]

It is the "Antenna Matcher" SA-2550.  I have two in service (160 and 80) and
one unbuilt (sorry, I'm not willing to let any of them go).  Bought the last
two when the local Heathkit store was closing down.

It is a very simple design.  The capacitor is 8 1/2 inches long, roughly 5KV
spacing and (I'm guessing) maybe 600-700 pf.  It is turned by a 1 RPM gear
motor powered by a two conductor control line or through the coax.  The
control unit has a rocker switch to apply voltage for forward or reverse
tuning (by reversing + and -) and the capacitor rotates freely without any
stops.  You cut the dipoles to be about 5% long at the bottom end of the
band.  If you find a cap and a motor you could build one easily.

It is meant to go in one leg of a dipole or at the feed point of a vertical.
The cap is just placed in series with one leg of the dipole.  It works
fantastic on 160 or 80.  Both my 160 and 80 dipoles can tune the entire band
with under 2:1 SWR.  This is going to be REAL important when the 80M phone
band gets expanded.  I will try and make scans of the manual and post them
on my WEB site and to BAMA (after the contest this weekend!).

Mike, W1NR

-----Original Message-----
From: heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of BSugarberg
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:47 PM
To: heathkit at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Heathkit] SA-2550 Antenna Matcher

 From the Heathkit book:

"It is important to note that the SA-2550 is not a "tuner".
It is a "matcher" designed specifically for use with single or multi-band
half-wave dipoles, inverted-Vs, and 1/4 wave antennas.  It is not for use
with 50 ohm beams, random wires, or balanced feedwire antennas."

"To use the SA-2550 to its fullest requires you to lengthen your existing
antenna by 5 to 15%."

"Proper operation requires an external dual wattmeter or SWR bridge."

"Very rare".

73, Bruce WA8TNC
====================
Rick Brashear wrote:

> Hi George,
> I'm not familiar with that Heath number or capacitor.  Are you sure of 
> the number or component?
> Rick/K5IZ
> 
> George wrote:
> 
>> I'm told that it is a Heathkit SA-2520 I'm looking for.
>> Anyone know of one that is available?
>> George

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