Here’s a common, and sometimes confusing, question that I get asked: “Do I need to do any special tuning, or need a tuner for my J-Pole antenna?” The easy answer to this question is: No.

Now for a little background to the answer. The J-Pole and Slim Jim antennas that I build are all pretuned to the particular bands they are intended for. The antennas have at least 4MHz of bandwidth, so they will easily cover their intended amateur radio, public safety, railroad or marine bands. This makes using the antennas easy, just connect the coax and transmit. You don’t need to worry about tuning or using a tuner on the antenna.

The tuner part is where things get confusing. On a HF bands, a tuner is a necessary item. HF antennas are designed to be multi-band, so tuning becomes critical for the antenna to work efficiently over a wide range of frequencies. VHF antennas tend to be more band specific, so tuning is not much of an issue.

MFJ antenna analyzerI do recommend checking your installation with an SWR meter or antenna analyzer if you have access to one. The MFJ 259B Antenna Analyzer is a common accessory found in most ham stations. Ask around, a neighboring ham will most likely let you borrow theirs to test your new antenna.

There may be issues with nearby objects, antennas, or structures that could affect the tuning of your antenna. Or, the connections  or coax may not be good. A meter or analyzer will catch these performance issues and allow you to make corrections. My list of Frequently Asked Questions has some tips on dealing with high SWR.

Often, if you are receiving high SWR readings with your antenna, checking the connectors, reorienting it or changing its location will solve the SWR problems. But tuning the antenna or using an antenna tuner won’t fix things.

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