Issue #4 - Tuning Up a Kilowatt

Good comments, thanks. Of course, you are correct about digital modes and so on. They will handle far less power that way, and each of these three Mfg's report different numbers. Dave

 

I'm not sure I'd trust any of them to run high power, high duty digital without watching very carefully for SWR changes and heat buildup. One thing that Mercury has to its advantage is the warranty -- they will not charge you labor, just parts, even outside of warranty period. Dave

 

After a long hiatus I am back on the air with an Icom IC-706 MKII with an AH-2 tuner I had gathering dust. I love the one button tuning. No grid peaking and plate dipping anymore. I can hear a lot of SSB stuff I can’t work so an amp is on the menu, and with that a high power tuner. This article was very helpful.

 

Well, I have had the MFJ 998 for 3-4 years now running it with an AL80B. Have not had any problems. Also like you mentioned in your article, it can probably tune up a coat hanger.

Before that I tried the LDG 1000, which could not really handle the power.

That Mercury sure is a fine looking tuner.

 

Sounds like a nice shack. Yes -- you've experienced two out of three of the tuners I wrote about! Thanks for the comments, Dave

 

Thanks for the article.

 

Hi Tom, thanks for the nice comment. Please keep coming back! I have an amp article coming out sometime soon, Dave

 

I definitely will. I’m not a fan of the bloated bloviation in most content-free YT videos. I like to read stuff. Thanks for doing this.

 

Just please make sure that you do not ask if the frequency is clear and, instead, just start tuning up in a location that "sounds" clear. And do not identify after you've tweaked your plate and grid to get he most out of your amp.

 

I had an AL-80B amp, so did not need a tuner. When I switched to the Mercury IIIs solid state amp I matched it with the Mercury AT and it has worked well for me. I can bypass the tuner on 40 meters and once I tune it on 20 meters that same tune works for 10 meters.

 

I have a Mercury IIIS also, and enjoy it a great deal. Dave

 

I'm running the Palstar LA-1K when I need a little extra juice in the wire. Most of my antennas are resonant so when I do have to use my LDG-AT1000 p2 it's a close match to begin with.

 

Having built and used many Antennas and Amplifiers over my years as a Ham since 1963, I have found the best solution to antennas for high power is NOT an Antenna Tuner. Resonant Antennas for each band are much simpler, match over greater bandwidth, and can even be cheaper if you build them yourself. Multi-band wire dipoles, or beams or vertical antennas are great solutions. If you do some Googling you can find all kinds of antennas you can build. We have become an appliance operator hobby, rather than the experimenter community that Ham Radio is supposed to be. If you build it rather than buying it, you will learn something and find you enjoy the results much more. Good Luck.
73, John, K9KA

 

Hi John - yes, you're right, lots of fun to build stuff. But I'd disagree with you on one point. Ham radio is not SUPPOSED to be any one kind of hobby. That's what I love so much about it. It's actually six or eight hobbies rolled into one. One of those is building stuff and so on . . . Even the dipoles I built for myself had band edges that needed tuning, and when you are running at legal limit, those built in tuners don't do the job. Dave

 

Issue #4 - Tuning Up a Kilowatt

Again, what specifically are you referring to?

With the title, I thought you were talking about tune and load a 1kw Amplifier.