Yaesu tune control for Icom AH-4 Tuners

[KW2K]

Good stuff!

The Yaesu 857D has more features than the 706 MIIG and the Yaesu sells for less money
The Icom AH-4 Auto tuner Outperforms the Yaesu FC-30 auto tuner hands down!

So what is a ham to do? Get the 857D and the AH-4 Tuner! You will save money and have the best of both worlds.. (Yaesu and Icom)

To do this you will need the Yaesu tune control made by better rf. Price = around 40$

The Yaesu Tune Control Made by better RF works/functions great!

The workmanship in the tune control is not the best... The plastic box that it has been housed in is a bit cheap and the internal circuit board is only mounted by 2 anchor points instead of a more stable 4..... HOWEVER the function of the product does what it is supposed to do.

This Little box will enable you to use your Yaesu 857D with the more versatile Icom AH-4 tuner. Push the tune button on the front of the Yaesu tranceiver and the AH-4 drops the radio to low power.... tunes in seconds or less.... and then returns the radio to normal power... it just works!

One area for improvement in the tune control is that the instructions that come with it are unclear.... so you will need to know the following to get it to work!!!!!!

1. install your AH4 as you normally would

2. do not connect the tune control to the radio while the radio is on... turn it off while you make the connection and then turn it back on.

3. MENU item #20 in the radio MUST BE SET TO "TUNER"

4. MENU item #85 in the radio MUST BE SET TO "TUNER"

5. Menu item "K" will show the "tune" button

Please do post your comments.... My experiece has been great... I would like to know of yours

[KU5Q]

Good stuff!

The Yaesu 857D has more features than the 706 MIIG and the Yaesu sells for less money
The Icom AH-4 Auto tuner Outperforms the Yaesu FC-30 auto tuner hands down!

So what is a ham to do? Get the 857D and the AH-4 Tuner! You will save money and have the best of both worlds.. (Yaesu and Icom)

To do this you will need the Yaesu tune control made by better rf. Price = around 40$

The Yaesu Tune Control Made by better RF works/functions great!

The workmanship in the tune control is not the best... The plastic box that it has been housed in is a bit cheap and the internal circuit board is only mounted by 2 anchor points instead of a more stable 4..... HOWEVER the function of the product does what it is supposed to do.

This Little box will enable you to use your Yaesu 857D with the more versatile Icom AH-4 tuner. Push the tune button on the front of the Yaesu tranceiver and the AH-4 drops the radio to low power.... tunes in seconds or less.... and then returns the radio to normal power... it just works!

One area for improvement in the tune control is that the instructions that come with it are unclear.... so you will need to know the following to get it to work!!!!!!

1. install your AH4 as you normally would

2. do not connect the tune control to the radio while the radio is on... turn it off while you make the connection and then turn it back on.

3. MENU item #20 in the radio MUST BE SET TO "TUNER"

4. MENU item #85 in the radio MUST BE SET TO "TUNER"

5. Menu item "K" will show the "tune" button

Please do post your comments.... My experiece has been great... I would like to know of yours

Sometime back I had the 897, and yes, this interface from better RF worked very well.

You know the AH-4 (as with many other similar unit) can be made to work with almost any HF radio with the correct interface.

[K5BDH]

Wonder what all you would have to do to get the AH-4 to work with a kenwood ts480 sat. It sure would make it easy to run a simple antenna in my subdivision. Am thinking it might would work better than weaving a small dipole around my attic.

[KU5Q]

Wonder what all you would have to do to get the AH-4 to work with a kenwood ts480 sat. It sure would make it easy to run a simple antenna in my subdivision. Am thinking it might would work better than using a simple

There are some simple interfaces you can make to use the AH-4 with different HF xcvrs;

http://www.k2.dion.ne.jp/~sradio/AH-4En.htm

http://ham-kits.com/Tuner1.htm

This one takes a little more work;

http://home.comcast.net/~hamlakemn/AH-4_Universal_Interface_files/ah4-manual-5.pdf

http://home.comcast.net/~hamlakemn/AH-4_Universal_Interface.html

I've interfaced the AH-4 w/FT-950, my Orion II, and the TS 2000.

There are other simple interfaces out there as well.

Probably has been posted here in QRZ before.

[KH2BR]

I have the Icom IC-746PRO and the ah4 works great on all bands.
I got a new yaesu ft950, and the better rf tune control and it seems kind of flakey at times. It will not tune 80 meters. I have to use a match box to trick the ah4 into working. when I remove the match box the tune control works ok on 80 unitll I switch to another band and then back again. It could be a simple problem but after looking at the schematic, and timing signals, I am feeling that it could be a timing issue in the pic.
Any one have the same problem?