HOM rev.

new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

Heathkit of the Month (HotM) #97:

by Bob Eckweiler, AF6C

AMATEUR RADIO - SWL

Heathkit SA-2040
Antenna Tuner Figure 1: Heathkit SA-2040 Full Legal-Limit Antenna Tuner

Introduction: sionally, and many users of wire antennas

In the second half of 1979 Heathkit released home-brewed their tuners. In the 70’s, as
the SA-2040, a no-frills, full legal-limit, an- newer radios came on the market, many using
tenna tuner (Figure 1). Heath’s previous an- less rugged TV sweep tubes and others using
tenna tuner, the AC-11 first appeared in a easily damaged RF power transistors with
Heathkit ad in the September 1953 issue of their broad-band output coupling, antenna
Radio News. The AC-1 continued to be sold tuners quickly entered back into the vogue.
until the AT-1 transmitter was replaced by
Heathkit reentered the antenna tuner mar-
the DX-20 HF CW transmitter in late 1956.
ket with the SA-2040 antenna tuner. The
In the 1950s a revolution in ham equipment SA-2040 originally sold for $149.95, a price it
began. The new rugged 6146 transmitting held for about two years during an inflation-
tube became popular along with the pi-net- ary period. By the fall of 1981 the price rose
work output circuit designed for 50 - 75Ω to $154.95 and by the winter of 1982/1983 it
coaxial cable. Coax became the feedline of reached $169.95. It was no longer offered in
choice due to its ease of use, and 50 and 75Ω the fall 1983 catalog.
resonant antennas became very popular. A Heathkit offered two other full legal-limit
well designed pi-network could tune a load antenna tuners, the SA-2060 (followed by an
with an SWR of up to 3 to 1 allowing reason- ‘A’ version) and the SA-2500 automatic
able bandwidth around the resonant fre- tuner. The original SA-2060 was offered
quency. The average ham shack no longer starting in 1981 and sold alongside the
needed an antenna tuner. For those still us- SA-2040 for a couple of years. These tuners
ing non-resonant wire antennas the venerable may be covered in a future HotM article.
E.F. Johnson Matchbox tuner line was widely
available. Over this period few antenna The Heathkit SA-2040:
tuners were marketed in the ham magazines, While the SA-2040 has been referred to as a
though construction articles appeared occa- basic no-frills tuner, this is not in reference
to its matching capability. What it lacks are
1. Notes appear at the end of this article. the capabilities that are easily handled ex-
ternally, such as SWR measurement and an-
Here is a link to the index of Heathkit of the tenna switching. The SA-2040 is a clone of
Month (HotM) articles: Lewis McCoy-W1ICP’s Ultimate Transmatch2.
http://www.w6ze.org/Heathkit/Heathkit_Index.html The SA-2040 is capable of tuning into loads
with an SWR as high as 10:13, though Heath

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

W6ZE

Figure 2: On the front panel is an erasable place to write settings as well as a place to add your station call letters.

specified its matching output impedance only this capacitor is directly grounded by the
as “wide-range”. Specifications are shown in mounting feet. The rotor section and remain-
Table I. ing stator section are isolated from ground by
ceramic end-plates. The output capacitor has
The SA-2040 has a 50Ω input and has out- a single 170 pF section with both the rotor
puts for a coaxial cable connected antenna, a and stator sections isolated from ground by
single wire non-resonance antenna and a ceramic end-plates. The roller inductor is 12
balanced-feedline antenna. This last output is µH. The hot end is the rear shaft. The front
coupled via an internal 1:4 toroidal balun cold end, the roller contact and its shaft and
transformer. Only one antenna at a time tensioners are grounded.
should be connected to the multiple outputs.
The front panel is bare aluminum covered
The SA-2040 measures approximately 5⅝” H with a self-adhesive-backed sheet of “vinylite”4
x 14¾ W x 14” D and weighs 10½ lbs. Inter- that contains the panel markings. This panel
nally it has only four electronic components: is medium-dark gray with black trim and
two large high-voltage variable capacitors, a black and white lettering. It includes a win-
roller inductor and a balun coil. They are lib- dow to allow viewing the turns-counter. There
erally spaced apart due to the high RF volt- is also an erasable table area where one may
ages that can be present in the tuner. Both mark down settings for later reference as well
capacitor rotors are at a high RF potential so as a place to put the station call-letters using
the extension shafts are made of insulating supplied vinyl lettering. This area is shown in
material. The input capacitor has two sec- figure 2. The cabinet is painted black, and the
tions, each section is 125 pF. This is not a dif- rear panel is painted a light gray with black
ferential capacitor; the sections track with the lettering.
same capacitance. The rear stator section on
The SA-2040 Controls and Connections:
The front panel of the SA-2040 has three
Heathkit SA-2040 Specifications large control knobs. On the left, TRANSMIT-
Frequency Range 3.5 – 30 MHz (80, 75, 40, 30, TER MATCHING adjusts the dual-section in-
20, 17, 15, 12, 10 meter bands) put capacitor. The dial is marked 0 - 100 in 5
Power Capability (input) SSB: 2 KW PEP unit increments over 180°; every other in-
CW: 1 KW crement is numbered. In the center, INDUC-
Input Impedance: 50 Ω TOR controls the roller inductor. It has no
Impedance Transformation: 4:1 (balance to unbalanced) dial markings, but to the left of its knob is
balun the window of a turns-counting dial. Every
Output Impedance: Wide range full turn of the inductor is represented by 10
Table I counts on the dial. The inductor has about 25
turns or 250 counts. On the right, ANTENNA

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

MATCHING adjusts the out-

put capacitor and is marked
in a similar manner as the
TRANSMITTER MATCHING
control.

The input and outputs are all

located on the rear panel
(Figure 3). Viewed from the
rear, (left to right) are: a
ground terminal with a wing Figure 3: Heathkit SA-2040 Rear Panel. Outputs are on the left. Input is on the right.
nut; two large ceramic feed-
through insulators (J5 and J4) for a parallel Next, the front capacitor plate is assembled
feedline; a large ceramic feedthrough insula- by adding two ceramic insulators to the metal
tor (J3) for a single-wire antenna; a UHF coax front plate using four #8 screws and eight
connector (J2) for a coaxial antenna; and fi- fiber washers. Then the stator assembly (Fig-
nally another UHF coax connector (J1), for ure 5) is built using two 6¾" #10-32 threaded
the input from the transmitter. A large space rods, four large fiber washers, eight nuts, four
is left between J1 and J2 to help prevent them 3/16” spacers, thirty-two 17/64” spacers, sev-
from being mixed-up. When using a parallel enteen stator plates and the previously as-
feedline a connecting strap must be connected sembled front plate. The rotor and stator sec-
between the middle and right ceramic feed- tions are then mated adding conical and
through insulators (J4 and J3). This strap may
be stored across J5 and J4 when not using a
parallel feedline. Wing nuts are used on these
insulators to expedite secure connections.

The SA-2040 Construction:

Heathkit refers to the SA-2040 assembly as a
“two evening project”. After the parts are
checked assembly begins. Here is where you
get a surprise. No need to fire up the solder- Figure 4: C2 Rotor Assembly; from Heathkit Manual.
ing iron yet, first you have to assemble the
two large variable capacitors and the continu- forked springs, and lubrication is applied us-
ously variable inductor. Then the balun ing grease supplied with the kit. Next, the ca-
toroids must be prepared and wound. Finally pacitor rear plate is assembled, in a similar
you’ll be heating the iron to tin the balun fashion to the front plate, and installed. Final-
leads and solder on a pair of screw lugs. ly a knob is temporarily installed on the ca-
pacitor shaft and nuts are adjusted so the sta-
ANTENNA MATCHING Capacitor Assembly: tor plates are centered between the rotor
First the ANTENNA MATCHING capacitor C2 plates (Figure 6). Rotational tension is adjust-
is built. The rotor section, (Figure 4) assem- ed as necessary, the knob is removed, and C2
bles with a hex shaft, two control nuts, nine- is set aside. The assembly of C2 takes up five
teen 17/64” spacers and eighteen rotor plates. pages in the manual and a full page in the

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

Figure 5: C2 Stator Assembly; from Heathkit Manual.

separate large illustration booklet using four

pictorial, four detail and three inset drawings.
TRANSMITTER MATCHING Capacitor Ass’y:
The dual-section TRANSMITTER MATCHING Figure 7: Completed C1; from Heathkit Manual.
capacitor C1 (Figure 7) is assembled next. Its
assembly is a bit more complicated since there Balun Transformer Assembly:
are two separate stator sections. The C1 as- The balun transformer T1 uses two large
sembly also takes up five manual pages as toroidal cores. Before winding the coil, each
well as two pages in the illustration booklet. core is separately insulated with supplied
glass-cloth tape, and then the two cores are
Roller INDUCTOR Assembly: placed atop each other and tape is wound
The continuously variable rotary inductor L1 around both cores along the full circumfer-
is then assembled. The silver-plated inductor ence. An eleven foot length of heavy stranded
comes mounted on a ceramic drum with teflon-insulated wire is doubled over at its
shafts attached. End plates and the roller con- center and wound onto the toroid to create
tact mechanism are assembled around the ro- fifteen bifilar turns. A two-foot length of
tor inductor. Assembly of L1 takes four pages glass-cloth tape is then wound around the
in the manual and another page in the illus- circumference of the coil to hold the windings
tration book. in place. The doubled wire is cut apart, and
the four wire ends are trimmed to length and
tinned. Using an ohmmeter, the winding

Figure 6: Completed C2 showing plate spacing adjustments;

from Heathkit Manual. Figure 8: L1 during assembly; from Heathkit Manual.

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

ductor shaft that meshes with the gear on the

turns-counter shaft. The turns-counter is cali-
brated and the gears are tightened.
Chassis Wiring:
Wiring the components together is done by
straps and short lengths of #10 bare wire.
Two silver-plated straps are used. One con-
nects L1 to C1 and C2; the second connects
C2 to the J3 feedthrough. A short piece of
#10 wire connects J1 to a lug that bolts to
Figure 9: Assembled T1 balun; from Heathkit Manual.

leads are identified and marked with tape

(Figure 9). The tape is placed on one winding
at the starting end and on the other winding
at the finished end. #10 lugs are then sol-
dered on the two untaped leads. A ceramic
feedthrough is used unconventionally to make
a mounting post for the balun (Figure 10). As-
sembling the balun transformer T1 takes five
pages in the manual.
Chassis Assembly:
Once the two capacitors, roller inductor and
balun are assembled, chassis assembly is
started. The turns counter is assembled and
mounted, the front panel “vinylite” face is
mounted to the front panel, shaft bushings
are installed for the three front panel con-
trols, and the shaft with nylon gear is in-
stalled on the turns-counter shaft. On the
rear panel the two UHF connectors, three
large feedthrough insulators and grounding
bolt with wing nut are mounted. The balun T1
is mounted next. The two taped leads are sol-
dered to a ground lug on the inside of the
chassis at the grounding bolt, and the two
remaining leads are attached to feedthroughs.
The roller inductor, and two variable capaci-
tors are aligned with and mounted to the
chassis and attached to insulated shafts that
fit through the bushings on the front panel. A
beveled nylon gear is first mounted on the in- Figure 10: T1 balun mounting, see text; from Heathkit Manual.

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

C1; another short piece of #10 wire connects

J2 to a lug that bolts to J3.

This completes the soldering. In all four

leads were tinned, four solder lugs were sol-
dered to the ends of those wires and three
other soldering connections were made.

Final Assembly:
After the “Blue Label” that contains the kit’s
model and series numbers is attached to the
inside rear of the chassis, the feet are in-
stalled. Heathkit offers a choice of the kit sit-
ting flat or tilted at an angle by adding ex-
tensions to the two front feet. Knobs are at-
tached, and after a thorough inspection the
cabinet is attached using eight black ma-
chine screws.

SA-2040 Circuit:
The SA-2040 circuit diagram is shown in
Figure 14 at the end of the article. It is one of
two popular design derivatives of the Tee-
matching network (Tee-Transmatch5). The
basic Tee-Transmatch network is shown in
Figure 10A. It does a good job of matching
even very high SWR loads (The W8ZR an-
tenna tuner6 can match up to an SWR of
16:1). What it lacks is good harmonic attenu-
ation, especially if improperly tuned. Figure
10B is a modification of the Tee-Transmatch
called the Ultimate Transmatch previously
mentioned. It adds another section to the in-
put variable capacitor to ground and was
said to have better harmonic suppression.
Later it was found that the extra capacitor Figure 10: Three Popular Transmatch Schematics:
added little if any performance advantage. A: Tee Matching Network (Tee-Transmatch Network)
An “improved circuit”, called the SPC net- B: Ultimate Transmatch Network
work, “because the word ‘ultimate’ had al- C: Series Parallel Capacitance (SPC) Transmatch Network
ready been used”, is shown in Figure 10C. In each schematic:
SPC stands for “series, parallel capacitance”. C1 (C1A/B) Transmitter Matching Capacitor(s)
C2 (C2A/B) Antenna Matching Capacitor(s)
The SPC did do a better job of harmonic sup- L1 Inductor (Rotary or Multi-Tapped)
pression and was described in the ARRL J1 Coax Input from Transmitter
Handbook for many years. It did have two J2 Coax Output to Low Impedance Antenna
drawbacks, the first being the tuning was J3 Feedthrough to Single Wire Antenna

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

very sharp, especially on the lower bands, ly high voltage. To properly tune-up using
and a vernier knob on the capacitors was the SA-2040, and most other antenna tuners,
needed to ease tuning. The second drawback an SWR bridge, placed between the trans-
turned out to be the one that killed the SPC mitter and antenna tuner is needed. Fancier
design. It was found to be significantly more tuners, such as the SA-2060(A), have this
lossy than the other two. Heathkit never capability built in. When using an external
used the SPC circuit; the SA-2040 uses the SWR bridge it should be dedicated to the
Ultimate Transmatch circuit and the later tuner if the setup will be used on a day to
SA-2060(A) and SA-2500 both use the Tee- day basis. Short lengths of 50Ω coax should
Transmatch circuit. Not shown in the Fig- be used to connect between the transmitter,
ures 10 is the balun often found in these SWR bridge and SA-2040.
tuners. It is shown in Figure 11.
In Lew McCoy’s article7, that introduced the
Using the SA-2040: circuit used in the SA-2040(A), he gave basic
Setting the three controls on the tuner prop- adjustment instructions, here is the author’s
erly is important. It is possible to get a low interpretation:
SWR at more than one setting, but the 1. Start with C1 and C2 at maximum ca-
wrong setting will reduce harmonic suppres- pacitance (fully CCW), and L1 at maxi-
sion, be less efficient and can cause arcing mum inductance for 80/75 meters, about
across the tuning capacitors due to excessive- half inductance for 40/30 meters, about
quarter inductance for 20/17 and about
eighth inductance for 15/12/10 meters.
From junction of J3 Single
2. Apply just enough power to get a full-
C2/C2A and J2 Wire
scale reading in the forward direction on
See the SWR bridge.
Note
J4 3. Set the bridge to read reflective power,
and slowly adjust L1. At some point the
reflected power will dip sharply; adjust
for a minimum.
T1 4. Now adjust C1 and C2, and touch-up L1
Balanced Feedline for a perfect match.
5. Now you may increase power to the level
desired. You may want to touch-up the
settings at the higher power.
J5 6. If you change frequency check the match,
and touch-up C1, C2 and L1 to correct
the match if needed.
Note: Install jumper between J3 and
J4 only when using balanced feedline. 7. More than one match often is encoun-
tered. Always select the match that uses
the highest capacitance settings.
Figure 11: A toroidal balun (T1) may be added to any of the
Transmatch networks discussed for a balanced feedline.

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

To aid initial opera-

tion, Heathkit pro-
vided a table of
starting points for
the initial settings
for 80 through 10
meters (non-WARC
bands only). For
each band, settings
are given for the low
and high end of the
band and a third
around mid-band.
This table may be
found in the manual.

Make note of your

settings for each an-
tenna you use so you
can make adjust-
ments quickly when
making large fre-
quency excursions or
changing bands. Note Figure 12: Interior view of the SA-2040. C1 is on the left, and C2 is on the right. Behind C2 is the
that things like mois- balun T1. The Inductor L1 is in the center. Photo by Bob Koller - KG7EMO; used with permission.
ture and obstacles
can cause you to have to adjust your settings antenna fed by parallel feed (such as twin-
somewhat. Sudden major changes warrant a lead) then a full-fledged antenna tuner such
physical check of the antenna before transmit- as the SA-2040 is recommended.
ting at high power.
From the Author:
Comments: Suggestions are always appreciated for kits
Today many solid-state radios come with of interest to research and write about. April
some sort of antenna tuner built-in or avail- will soon be upon us and, as some know, I
able as an accessory that mounts internally. often try to pick an unusual kit to write
These tuners generally provide only a coaxial about in celebration of April Fool’s Day. Sug-
output. They help match the transmitter to gestions for April are also welcome, though I
an antenna that is resonant at one frequency believe I have found an unusual one for
in the band by making the antenna capable 2020. Due to the holidays I probably won’t
of being resonant across the whole band, or have an article for January, which could
in the case of 80/75 meters across a larger make the April article #100.
part of the band.
In HotM #95 I wrote about the A-1 Audio
If you are using a non-resonant antenna Amplifier, the first hi-fi kit offered by Heath-
such as a long-wire or end fed antenna, or an kit. I’m still looking for any documentation

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

anyone has on that kit. I have not found the Notes:

original schematic, though one dated August 1. Discussed in Heathkit of the Month #13.
18, 1948 is on the web. Unfortunately this 2. Lewis McCoy W1ICP, The Ultimate Transmatch, QST
turns out to be a schematic later released by July 1970, p. 24.
Heathkit so users could upgrade their A-1 to 3. Paul Pagel, N1FB, Heath SA-2040 Antenna Tuner
the A-2. That schematic uses a 6SL7 pream- Product Review, QST November 1980 pp. 49, 50.
plifier tube while the original uses a 6SN7. If 4. ibid.
you have an A-1 or the documentation, 5. Lewis McCoy W1ICP, The 50-Ohmer Transmatch, QST
July 1961 p. 30. ‘[Transmatch is a] generic name
please contact me. You may email me by coined by the editors [of QST] to apply to any type of
clicking on the link at the bottom of the matching network inserted between a transmitter and a
copyright box. transmission line. There has been an obvious need for
73, from AF6C such a term, since “antenna coupler” is inadequate
both technically and psychologically.’
6. James Garland, W8ZR, The EZ-Tuner [Part 1], QST
April 2002, pp 40 - 43.
This article is Copyright 2020 R. Eckweiler, 7. McCoy W1ICP 1970.
AF6C and The OCARC Inc.
NOTE: This article was originally written to
Remember, if you are getting rid of any old
appear in the December 2019 issue of RF but
Heathkit Manuals or Catalogs, please pass
was held until January of 2020 due to cir-
them along to me for my research.
Thanks - AF6C cumstances beyond the control of the author.

Figure 13: Ad for the SA-2040 Antenna Tuner from the Fall 1980 Heathkit Catalog (#850)

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HOM rev. new Heath of the Month #097 - SA_2040 Antenna Tuner

Figure 14

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