How To Use Automatic Tuners for High Power Amateur Radio Operation

Dave Jensen, W7DGJ, and Steve Bennion, W7DJ are part of a
growing trend in the amateur radio community who licensed more than 50
years ago, came back to the hobby during the pandemic. They don't
regret it.

Despite the improvements from our current solar cycle, an increasing
number of operators are looking for additional power and have acquired
linear amplifiers. There is a large and growing wave of operators
powering up to an average of 800 to 1000 watts.

Of course, in that process, all the other elements of your station
must line up to achieve the benefits of this increased power, and that
may include new antennas that then require an antenna tuner. Dave and
Steve found out that despite how nice it is to have an antenna that
works on multiple bands, none of them are perfect, so they
investigated the market for automatic antenna tuners that will handle
a Kilowatt. We're not talking about tuning up a coat hanger or trying
to send RF into a 10-to-1 mismatch. The goal of this session is to
review the market and discuss three major sellers in the category and
how they have performed in two shacks at a Kilowatt.

This presentation was made at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo. For
more information go to: https://qsotodayhamexpo.com

Also visit the QSO Today Podcast for 1 hour interviews of ham radio
operators who make these presentations: https://www.qsotoday.com

 

73 - K1LKP

 

Nice presentation, Thank you. I have been using the Palstar HF-AUTO for the past 3 years, love it.

73-N9ZX

 

Very informative video, thanks lads.

I run a Kessler Engineering AT-AUTO - 1500w continuous and tunes from 160m to 6m. I've had this tuner for a few years, never so much as a hint of issues.

https://kesslerengineeringllc.com/tuners.html

 

Great presentation!!! Meat and potatoes!!!!! Love straight shooting info.

 

Thank you very much for the positive comments on our presentation. Steve and I also did a QSO today webinar on Linear Amps, and focused on the Mercury IIIS kit and our building process (now discontinued -- only available for sale as an assembled unit). If you like straight shooting info, please read the column on QRZ's front page entitled "Trials and Errors -- Ham Life with an Amateur" as there is more where this came from! Thank you, W7DGJ

 

Super tuner . . . while Steve and I were preparing for the QSO Today video that you commented on, I called and spoke for quite some time with Mr. Kessler. He was very nice, really helpful and patient as I asked him some very dumb questions. I love being able to reach "innovators" like that in the ham radio business . . . Dave, W7DGJ

 

Our presentation focuses on "affordable" . . . We love that tuner also, but the cost is about 3 times what the others are (or more). So, it didn't get into the presentation, being so much more than the budget mentioned in the video. Dave, W7DGJ

 

To be fair, it's also of a completely different design, based on continuously-adjustable variable inductors and capacitors, rather than relay-switched components.

 

Yes, true Jon! We weren't focusing on which technology is best, we were focusing on budget and "doing the job," Dave

 

Nice presentation, one way to make the AAT work is turn the output power down, To much importance has been placed on High power, QRP operators have demonstrated this time after time. What happens if you have a room full of people, all are talking and the speaker with th Mic is giving a speech, and the speaker has realized no one is hearing him because everyone else is talking, so what does he do, he turns up the volume, the people then start talking louder , you get my meaning it then becomes a competition of who can talk the loudest, and soon it becomes so loud no one can communicate. and the people in the next room have a hard time communicating over the noise coming from the next room.

QRP operators do what? well instead of running high power they concentrate on a more efficient antenna and learn to narrow the width of the band they are listening to from the neighbors next door. So if you all would turn your power down , work on your antennas, and learn to tune your receiver, I think you will find out what QRP operators are having so much fun with.

Oh for myself I do not use a Match Box, they do nothing to tune an antenna. The Antenna tuner just makes the radio and you think you have a well tuned antenna when you don't, so what you do is to feed in more power to compensate for a untuned antenna, and pretty quick you find that your AAT will not withstand all of that energy, after all you can only push so much air thru a tinny straw.

I know I know I am ready for the hate mail, bring it on. TU 73'

 

Hey Ken - I don't think you'll get any hate mail on this. People are on one side or the other of this, but that doesn't mean it's like Red States and Blue States. Nope - I love QRP radios, and I love high powered linear amps. That's the beauty of the hobby, eh? I just had a QRP issue to the Trials and Errors column on QRZ, and have a Mountaintopper review coming up soon . . . When you don't have the space or the XYL agreement on yet-another-antenna, and you want to get on a band where your antenna is just out of whack, sometimes that tiny straw is your only gateway. Thanks Ken, Dave

 

Well said, I have my base station I guess you could say high power 100 watts, all perspective I guess, but 99% of the time The TS590 is set at 5 watts, somewhat higher than my portable QRP rig powered with 6 Volts puts out 1.5 watts. I enjoy both , Glad so far I haven't made anyone upset.

 

Certainly true; the term "antenna tuner" is really misleading! Maybe we can get a movement going to start calling them "transmatches" again.

 

Great presentation ... thank you!!! I have used antenna couplers (Yep, I agree with K1RFD, but I've had military training) for a long time in barefoot operation ... I only use higher power on fixed frequencies and even then only on 80 and 40 meters, so it's manual operation for me. If I ever DID go full-auto with QRO, my choice would be the Palstar HF-Auto for antenna coupling. Paul and Eva are wonderful people whom I've talked with personally .... I don't even know Mr. MFJ ... but then, at QRO in that price class, I'd probably have antennas cut to length. Being a poor ham has absolutely NO advantages, does it?

Loved W7DGJ's comment about "affordable" - that's really the name of the game here at K9CTB!!