Description
The JPC-12 antenna is a full kit to set up a resonant 1/4 wave vertical antenna including a case to keep all the components in, making it ideal for portable operation.
The comprehensive kit covers a total of 8 bands from 7MHz all the way up to 50MHz (40m through 6m). Some users have even reported getting it to work on 144MHz (2m) by using just the fully collapsed whip (without the coil or extension rods).
It’s incredibly quick to deploy, you just drive the ground spike into the earth, screw the various pieces together, adjust the coil position/whip length to tune, and you’re on the air and ready to start making contacts. Not all bands require the use of the coil, so you can either move the slider to it’s highest position (which essentially bypasses it), or leave it out entirely.
The advantage of having a truly resonant antenna without any loading is that it is much more efficient. This is especially important if you happen to be operating with QRP power levels, when you really need to be maximizing every bit of output that you can.
The extension rods are a nice addition. These raise the coil up away from the ground, making this a center loaded antenna, which is another feature that aims to increase efficiency over a base loaded antenna. Again, very important if you’re operating QRP portable.
The JPC-12 antenna kit includes:
- 2.5m telescopic adjustable whip
- Adjustable coil
- 4 x aluminum extension rods (each 32cm long)
- Feedpoint base
- Radials
- Ground spike
- User Manual
- Nylon carry case
Conclusion
The JPC-12 antenna is a great addition to any portable setup. It’s compact size and efficient use of the input power means it’s good for 100w stations and QRP operators. You can increase the efficiency even further by adding additional radials as we talked about in our recent post: Upgrading the Super Antenna with cheap Chinese parts.