Cushcraft
| Cushcraft | |
|---|---|
| Type | Brand of ITU Corporation (since 2026) |
| Founded | 1949, according to business directories |
| Headquarters | Originally Manchester, New Hampshire; later Starkville, Mississippi; production moving to Linton, Indiana |
| Former owners | Laird Technologies (2007–2009); MFJ Enterprises (2009–2026) |
| Amateur radio | |
| Known for | A3S and A4S tribanders, R-series multiband verticals, VHF and UHF Yagis, Ringo Ranger |
| Status | Being relaunched by ITU Corporation in 2026 |
Cushcraft is an American brand of amateur radio antennas, known for HF tribanders, multiband verticals, and VHF and UHF Yagis. For decades the company was based in Manchester, New Hampshire, where it also made antennas for commercial wireless systems. Its amateur radio line was sold to MFJ Enterprises in 2009. Production stopped when MFJ closed its factory in 2024, and in 2026 the line was bought by ITU Corporation, which is moving its manufacturing to Linton, Indiana, alongside Hy-Gain.
History
Cushcraft was founded in Manchester, New Hampshire; business directories give 1949 as its founding year. Over the following decades it built antennas for both amateur and commercial users, and by the 2000s commercial products, including antennas for Wi-Fi networks, WiMAX, in-building wireless and RFID systems, made up a large part of its business. The venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners took a majority stake in September 2003, and in February 2007 Laird Technologies, part of the British Laird Group, bought Cushcraft from Polaris and merged it into its wireless infrastructure antenna business.
Effective July 31, 2009, MFJ Enterprises bought the Cushcraft amateur radio antenna line from Laird. MFJ founder Martin Jue said it added more than 50 products to the company's range. MFJ said at the time that Cushcraft antennas would continue to be built in Manchester, with service and technical support from Mississippi; production was later carried out at MFJ's plant in Starkville, Mississippi.
MFJ ended all on-site production on May 17, 2024, which stopped the manufacture of new Cushcraft antennas. In April 2026 ITU Corporation, an engineering and manufacturing company based in Dugger, Indiana, announced that it had bought the Cushcraft and Hy-Gain product lines, including their designs, tooling and manufacturing rights. ITU is consolidating production of both brands, and of the Ameritron and Mirage amplifier lines it bought in June 2026, at a former National Guard armory in Linton, Indiana, with full production scheduled to begin by the end of 2026.
Amateur radio products
- HF beams: the A3S, a three-element tribander for 20, 15 and 10 meters, and the four-element A4S; the A-3WS for the 12-meter and 17-meter bands; add-on kits that extend these beams to 30 or 40 meters; the compact MA-5B five-band minibeam; and the D4 rotary dipole.
- HF verticals: the R-8 and R-9 multiband verticals, the R-9 covering nine bands from 80 to 6 meters, and the MA-160V for the 160-meter band.
- VHF and UHF beams: Yagis for the 6-meter (A50 series), 2-meter (such as the A148-10S, 13B2 and 17B2), 1.25-meter and 70-centimeter bands, and dual-band 2-meter and 70-centimeter Yagis on a single boom.
- VHF verticals: the Ringo Ranger II (ARX-2B), a 2-meter base station vertical.
Cushcraft also sold stacking kits for pairing its larger 2-meter Yagis in arrays for weak-signal work.
In the hobby today
Cushcraft beams and verticals are common on the used market. ITU has said it intends to keep the line made in the United States, and it lists Cushcraft products on the Hy-Gain website.