Harris RF-601 Coupler
Rated at 1 KW, key down, all day, every day. It's the ultimate remote antenna coupler!
A good number of years ago my only rig put out a paltry 20 watts of power. I wanted to run multi-band and had to go stealth with my antenna. So, I ran 200 feet of LMR-400 low loss coax cable out into the forest behind my house and put up a full size 80 meter Windom antenna. It was a true Windom, with a single wire feed. The antenna was pretty much invisible. Of course, I knew I would need to do some impedance matching and it occurred to me that one of the little SGC auto tuners would fit the bill nicely. So, I planted an SGC-237 at the feedpoint of the Windom where I had already laid down thirty 33 foot radials attached to an 8 foot ground rod. I fed 12 VDC down the coax with appropriate decoupling of the DC and the RF at each end.
This system worked extraordinarily well and I managed to work the world with that setup. That experience got me hooked on the idea of using a remote antenna coupler at the antenna feedpoint. It just makes so much sense..
So, when we moved to our present QTH and I decided to put up a vertical antenna and I finally had enough room to run some power I knew I would need something a bit more robust than an SGC coupler. Having been a Radio Officer on ships I was familiar with the Harris RF-601 coupler. There are (or, were) a kazillion of these couplers installed on both US Navy and US Flag commercial ships. I have used them and have always been impressed with them. So, I started keeping my eye out for a good one.
Eventually, this one found it's way to me:
That's the coupler on the left (duh..), the interconnect cable and the Mackay Marine version of the coupler controller on the right.
It was a great coupler and it served me well for years. But, then I put up a new antenna, Sky Hook-II and I no longer needed to use my little vertical on 160 or 80 meters. So, with some regrets I sold the RF-601 and replaced it with a homebrew antenna coupler. So, now, Sky Hook-I is being used for only the frequencies it was designed for: 40 Meters through 15 Meters where it continues to give excellent service.
It's a thing of beauty, but it had to go. Sold it in 2010.