Opinions on Autotuners

[k1par]

I am thinking about changing from a manual tuner to an autotuner. My rig is a Kenwood TS-830S with an MJF 949E manual tuner to a G5RV. I've had both the radio and tuner since the 80's when I got my general ticket. What is the opinion of the LDG Electronics Z-100 or AT-100Pro autotuners for this set up?

73
K1PAR

[W3MIV]

I use the MFJ 993B auto tuner and can recommend it. It works very well, has a wide matching range and is very fast. I use a "G5RV-style" antenna -- it is a 102' dipole fed with 300-ohm ladder line (not twinlead) and the MFJ tunes quickly and well, always giving me a fast match below 1.4:1 and usually flat. I particularly like the dual readouts: analog meter and LCD that shows forward power, reflected power and SWR at the same time. It will also read out the L and C values used if desired.

I don't know anything about the LDG tuners, so can't comment; what I have seen of some of their gear, however, leads me to believe they work as advertised.

[W4INF]

I served my time in the trenches with a 949E, so I can appreciate my auto tuner. I have an LDG Z-100, runs out the house on RG-8X (abt 12 ft) to a Spiro 4:1 balun, up 75 ft of 300 ohm Radio Shack twinlead to a 66 ft doublet, 30 ft AG. I tune all bands from 80 - 10 no problemo. Is a great tuner! hamcity.com and cheapham.net have them for $129, cheapham shipped mine with cables for Icom and Yaesue.

HTH,
Andrew

[KA4DPO]

The SCG 230 is a nice tuner, also the Icom AH-4 and the Alinco EDX-2.

These are the kind of autotuners that can be used with nearly any antenna setup and have similar impedance matching range to most manual tuners. You can't run high power with them though.

I can see an autotuner in a mobile or on a boat but not for a fixed station unless you just can't spare the 20 seconds or so to tune a manual one.

[wg7x]

As an owner of an LDG AT-200 Pro, I can say that they are amazing pieces of equipment!

Normally, I use mine with an Icom 706 for mobile and portable operation, such as last week-end's field day. Just give the tuner an antenna on one end, and RF into the other, and it does the matching.

It really does not get much better than that. Now, at the big rig, I use a manual tuner mostly because of its power handling ability, but since I have tried auto-tuning I have been on the lookout for a good high power auto tuner. The LDG unit is in the running, but I really like the big Palstar matcher.

I got the AT-200 pro not because I planned to run that much power, but because I thought that it probably has beefier components.

At any rate, I can endorse this tuner as a good product which does exactly what it is supposed to do!

73 Gary

[k1par]

I guess I should have given some reasons why I am looking at the autotuner.

A) The inductance knob on the 949E is getting hard to turn.

B) I am in hopes of picking up a second HF radio, smaller, lighter than my 830S to go in the field, i.e. field day, special event stations, ect. We all need more than one HF radio, right?

C) and finally I #guess it would be nice to jsut push a button and have the antenna tuned.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I appreciated it!
73

[N2RJ]

I have two LDG AT-7000's, and an LDG AT-1000. They are for the most part amazing.

[WA7KKP]

Knobophobia?

Automatic AT's are nice, but a couple (sometimes three) knobs do fine by me, as long as I have a cheat sheet to preset the tuner to the right settings. After that, it usually just takes a bit of a tweek to get my refelcted power down to nada.

I have a Motorola Micom AT that isn't automatic, but has the same basic RF design as the autotuners on the market -- just a bunch of mica caps and toroid coils with hefty reed relays switched in and out as needed. I'm looking at a PIC with enough I/O leads that I can remote with RS-232 from any computer serial port (and write software) to control the steps. Simple to just program in frequencies and the relay coding, and go from there. Or just read the frequency from the rig and do a look-up table.

In the end, I'll use it to feed a 30-40' vertical from 160-10.

Gary WA7KKP

[WB2WIK]

Any automatic tuner is only as good as its components and its algorithm (software). LDGs are very good.

Ten Tec chose LDG to make their tuners for the Jupiter and Orion -- if you order one of those with a built-in autotuner, it's made by LDG -- and they're excellent.

The auto tuner in my Jupiter can seemingly match almost anything and has thus far proven reliable. Due to cockpit error I have occasionally tuned up on 10m with an 80m dipole, and on 80m with a 20m beam, etc -- and the rig finds a "match" in 3-4 seconds, despite these terrible conditions. I can tell I'm on the wrong antenna by listening, but sometimes that's after the tuner already loaded the rig up just fine.

WB2WIK/6

[WA2ZDY]

I have an older (20+ years) SGC230 thatt works great. The price was right so I use it. It worked great mobile, it works great at home. I had to hang a pigtail and SO239 on the end to connect my balun, but the tuner doesn't care what's on the end.

Since I've never run more than 100w out and never will, this is all the tuner I need. And no pushing a button to tune. It tunes immediately when I first hit the key.

[N2RJ]

The benefit of LDG tuners is that they have memories. Once you "tune" your antenna and tuner to a particular frequency, then QSY to another band (or portion of the band) as long as the antenna doesn't change significantly, if you go back to where you were, it recalls the settings from memory.

This is much better then my Icom's built in tuner which seems to go through the entire tuning procedure every time I retune and doesn't remember anything.

Oh, and I have a manual tuner (MFJ 941E), but nothing beats the convenience of an auto tuner.

[kn4ds]

In this case, we're talkin' about someone who's wanting to move on to an auto-tuner from a manual tuner...

I think it's important for those who are reading this thread who have not used a manual tuner to do so... learn the reasons that the various controls work as they do.

Too many hams these days are completely lost with a radio that requires tuning and an antenna tuner.

[KB1KIX]

As someone with two wire antennas that I use portable (G5RV and a shortened dipole) and an Icom 706MKIIG - I can say the LDG AT100 PRO works extremely nice.

I got the 100 because I don't plan on running an amp with this radio, and I use it in the field A LOT (I often operate 2 weekends a month portable) and the combination is great.

Plug the AT100PRO to the radio with the supplied cable and you're good to go!

Works very well and I'd do it again.

As Steve mentioned above - Ten Tec uses them and I played around with a Jupiter and an Orion for a bit last year and they were superb - which made me buy the LDG in a heartbeat.

I can't speak for MFJ - but I have had no luck with their "semi-kits" and refuse to give them much of my business until their quality control gets much, much better (not to mention customer service, I got burned on a small antenna rotor, bigtime).

So... LDG it was.

Jonathan

[N2RJ]

Quote[/b] (KE4UWL @ July 01 2007,22:25)]In this case, we're talkin' about someone who's wanting to move on to an auto-tuner from a manual tuner...

I think it's important for those who are reading this thread who have not used a manual tuner to do so... learn the reasons that the various controls work as they do. #

Too many hams these days are completely lost with a radio that requires tuning and an antenna tuner.
Well, with LDG autotuners, there are buttons where you can vary the inductor or capacitor value, manually.

So it's not just a box where you push the "tune" button and let it fly.

You can tune it manually too. I often make small adjustments when moving up and down 40m instead of retuning.

[kr9d]

I do a bit of both. I routinely use my LDG AT-100Pro between a Kenwood TS-430S and a G5RV. And I use a manual Dentron Super Tuner when I'm running power. With the Dentron, the first thing I did was hook up my MFJ 259 and make a table of settings every 25 KHz in the ham bands.

The LDG is great for field conditions where it's not practical to make up a cheat sheet. The only time I haven't been able to match an antenna was when I accidently switched to the empty antenna connector.

With the AT-100Pro, you don't even need to press the tune button. Just transmit, and it will tune automatically.

It's good for battery operation, too, because it only draws significant power when the SWR bridge senses high enough SWR to engage a tuning cycle.

Rick "who wishes it would handle 600 watts" Denney

[KB1JCY]

My LDG AT-11MP totally rocks! I tend to move around the bands frequently and a manual tuner is a total buzzkill.

[KB1KIX]

Quote[/b] (N2RJ @ July 01 2007,23:31)]So it's not just a box where you push the "tune" button and let it fly.
But it can be!

I'm discovering other things I can do with the AT100 Pro.

I do like being able to hit the tune button on the Icom and I'm ready to run.

Also.... the cost of the tuner - I was going to buy a switch - good one costing a few pennies.

The 100Pro has input for 2 antennas.

So.... that factored into the cost for me.

Jonathan

[N2RJ]

yes, absolutely, it is full auto, but you can use it in manual mode as well.

[KB1KIX]

I'm still trying to get used to the "Knight Rider" lights!!!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Forget CW - there's a code in there!

Jonathan

[nq3x]

I know several amateurs locally who have LDG tuners in various flavors, and those amateurs are very satisfied. Our club as a Z-100, and it is a fine tuner (though it does lack operator-manipulated controls).

I have an SGC SG-239 and am very satisfied with it. At the moment, it is installed at the end of a relatively short run of coax, feeding a run of 40+ feet of 300-ohm twinlead into a doublet cut for 75m. The SGC tunes the doublet on all bands with no effort on my part. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

For your purposes, one of the LDG tuners, with the appropriate balun at the transition point between the coax and balanced feedline - should serve well. (At least that's my opinion; YMMV! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif )

[vo1ja]

I switched from the MFJ 949D last year to the LDG AT-200Pro Autotuner. The difference is remarkable: no cheat sheet, no tuning three separate knobs. Instead, the autotuner responds to a change in frequency by self-adjusting. A note of caution, this can be VERY NOISY the first time a match is sought on a new frequency, but after that, the tuner "remembers" the match. I have used the AT-200Pro with both my rigs, a Kenwood ts-50 and an Icom ic-756Proiii, and both radios worked well with it, tuning a G5RV.
I would strongly recommend the LDG AT-200Pro.

[K0RGR]

I've seen my LDG AT-7000 match a shorted piece of coax. That's not a great feature, but it demonstrates the range of the tuner, which has rarely failed to match about anything - it is supposed to handle a 10:1 SWR.

[KB1OJU]

i used to use an MFJ 945E manual tuner, and it worked excellent, and the z-100 is doing just fine for me, so it should most definately be just fine for you to http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif going from a manual tuner to an auto tuner was night and day, so it is definately worth the money. payed 150 for the z100 form HRO

[PA5COR]

Using the MFJ 993-B version here, 20.000 memories for 2 antenna's will sort it all, 300 watts easy handling, the only drawback was the pilot light that went south after only 3 days use, replaced it with an new one with resistor that limits the voltage to 8 volt, that will last forever, at least the 18 months i have the tuner now.

I also use it on our hollidays, to test the homebrew wires, it has not only coax but balanced output as well.

Cross meter for forward/SWR, and an LCD display giving lots of info about the C an and coil added to get an good matc, manual override to adjust the setting of the C and Coil to your preferrence.

an good product of MFJ, but the choice is your's

73,
Cor

[KD6NIG]

Quote[/b] (KB1KIX @ July 02 2007,07:33)]I'm still trying to get used to the "Knight Rider" lights!!!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Forget CW - there's a code in there!

Jonathan
"Good Morning John. I tuned your antennas and the DX is nice this morning."

If you hear this, back slowly away from the radio and RUN!

[ab9lz]

Something is amiss here.... you probably don't actually need a tuner with a TS-830 running into a G5RV, since you have to do the "dance" when bandswitching anyway why bother, the 830's tank will take care of it.

I used to run my 830 tunerless into a windom on almost all bands (it didn't like 17 very much)... swr was 2.5 : 1 or better, worked great.

BTW once you switch to a rig with an internal tuner, like the TS-850, you'll never go back.

73 m/4

[k1par]

Thanks for the input everyone. I have purchased a Yaesu FT-100 and will be adding an LDG AT-100pro autotuner. This is a secondary rig for me to use in the field for field days, special event stations and demos.
73

[ka4pne]

I suppose you could say that I am from the 'Old School' and prefer thoroughly enjoying the hobby by "doing" rather then the equipment doing it for me. #I have two MFJ Deluxe Versa Tuner II 949C Antenna Tuners which I use on the boatanchors: #Swan 400 and Hallicrafters HT-40

I also have a complete Icom set up, both in the home QTH and in the mobile: #IC 706MKIIG, and use the Icom AT-180 ($369.99) Automatic Antenna Tuner in the shack. #The tuner in the SUV is the Icom AH-4 ($259.99). #Both of these auto tuners are expensive but they are very proficient. #I am busting through DX pile ups with only 100 watts. #The home QTH antenna is an inverted vee G5RV @ 30 feet. #The mobile antenna is the Icom AH-2B eight foot whip.

I believe the investment has paid off substantially. #And, when you evaluate the specifications and the specialized functions on both of these Icom tuners, you may be impressed. #

I am sure others have personal preferences but these I have had great success with and am well pleased.

73 # # KA5PNE # # #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif