[FARC] Antenna Tuner

[M and J Gillespie]

Kirk,
Give me a call and I can help you I think with your antenna set up.

Jim, K3DQ (301) 668 2190



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kirk Talbott" <KirkTal7237 at msn.com>
To: "Frederick, Maryland ARC" <farc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:32 PM
Subject: [FARC] Antenna Tuner


>I recently bought a Vectronics VC300DLP antenna tuner and I am using it 
>with an ICOM 718 transceiver. My antenna is a hy-gain model 18 AVT/WB-S 
>vertical. I bought an antenna tuner based on a consensus of other 
>experienced hams that if I used the ICOM 718 I would probably need an 
>antenna tuner regardless of what antenna used.
>
> I am new to ham radio, HF, and antenna tuners in general and that is 
> mostly the problem,   however I am having specific problems with the tuner 
> and am ready to pitch it into the street!
>
> The instruction manual for the tuner is essentially useless due to many 
> typos and obvious errors in English translation.  I was able to divine how 
> to hook it up to the transceiver and to set the defaults for the 
> transmitter, antenna, and inductance controls on the tuner for a 
> particular band.  Since the labels on the tuner's controls didn't match 
> the labels in the manual, it's a toss-up as to whether I had things set 
> right from the get-go.
>
> Now to transmitting.  Do I have it tuned?  Probably not.  Both the forward 
> and reflected power needles dance back and forth wildly to the lows and 
> highs of my voice during SSB transmission, making it nearly impossible to 
> read the SWR at the intersection of both needles. The tuner has a dummy 
> load built-in which is convenient, but remember, there is no carrier in 
> SSB transmission, so you can't just hold the PTT switch down while you 
> simultaneously fiddle with the three tuner controls.
>
> Put the transceiver in FM or AM mode so you have a continuous carrier you 
> say?  Nope, I tried that.  The transceiver has no FM, and using AM pegs 
> both needles to their stops on the tuner with some erroneous indication.
>
> After much fumbling I was able to finally coordinate mike, talking, and 
> twiddling the controls but to no avail, adjusting the controls did nothing 
> to change tuner meter needle indications.  As a matter of fact, the 
> controls on this tuner will turn past their stops  infinitely, giving you 
> what tuner setting as a result?  One ham said, "After you tune, write down 
> the settings."  So I would write down, 20 turns to the right past "6" on 
> the antenna knob?  Or 5 turns to the left past "1" on the transmitter 
> knob? This can't possibly be the way it works.
>
> Now, fortunately the transceiver has an SWR meter so I could use that 
> maybe as an indicator of getting close to doing something right, and not 
> burn up a transmitter in the process.  Nope again. The transceiver's SWR 
> meter varied between 1:1 to 9:1 depending on the highs and lows of my 
> voice during transmission.  If I spoke softly, it would read 1:1 all the 
> time.  Raise your voice, and it would peak out at 9:1 then drop back to 
> 1:1.
>
> Anyone up for some antenna tuner 101?  Or better yet, would someone like 
> to purchase an antenna tuner, cheap, that is before I reduce it to its 
> elemental parts with a sledgehammer? You don't have much time.
>
> Plodding along blind
> KB3ONM
> Kirk
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