[PVRCNC] Furuno 1503 autotuner

[Jim Jordan]

If you ever have any doubts about what a great group of knowledgeable, 
resourceful and helpful folks we have in PVRC, think again!

I sent this email out last night as almost a last resort since I had googled 
the subject every way I could think of without any useful results--just 
dozens of folks wanting to sell me new equipment or stuff totally unrelated.

I said, "Please reply offline" but really expected nothing.

Well, within minutes I had some responses and by noon I was off and running 
on my holiday project to put together a reliable marine SSB setup for a good 
friend in South Africa I visited in November, retired and on a limited 
budget, who at present has only VHF capabilities on his 36' sailboat which 
he sails in some very stormy blue waters off the southern coast of Africa. 
During my visit we determined that his old ICOM transceiver had fried final 
transistors and was not worth repairing and I got this radio set "as is" on 
eBay within his price range.

Jack, W0UCE, a retired Navy salt with years of experience as a radio op on 
ships and in shore stations had some good ideas on an effective counterpoise 
to be sure the short random wire had something to "push" against.

Chet, N4FX, has used the exact same radio while a merchant marine radio 
officer and also had some antenna ideas plus a tip for adding a key mod for 
the cw capability I had lamented was missing.

Then Eric, W3DQ, forwarded my email to some friends in the Coast Guard who 
forwarded to some more friends including someone in a marine electronics 
contracting firm. By early afternoon I had some more suggestions and PDF 
copies of the installation and complete 135 page Furuno service manual for 
my radio and antenna tuner! Plus a resource I can exchange emails with for 
additional help.

Is that great or what?  I just want to publicly thank and recognize these 
guys for their knowledge and using their contacts to help me out. While of 
course we focus on contesting, the depth of knowledge and resources in this 
group has to be seen to be believed.  And I just seen it!

Best wishes for the holidays.

73,

Jim, K4QPL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Jordan" <k4qpl at nc.rr.com>
To: "'PVRCNC'" <pvrcnc at mailman.qth.net>; "'PVRC'" <pvrc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:52 PM
Subject: [PVRCNC] Furuno 1503 autotuner


>I know this is probably a very long shot, but I'm always amazed at the 
>knowledge base within this club. Anyhow, here goes:
>
> I bought a used Furuno 1503 marine 150W SSB transceiver, 1.6--26.0 mhz 
> continuous coverage, on eBay for a friend in ZS. It comes with a separate 
> fully automatic antenna tuner that is designed for use only with this 
> radio. Everything about this top quality radio works perfectly with a 
> dummy load and on ham bands with normal ham antennas that roughly match 52 
> Ohm. (Gets good signal reports, but alas, no key jack).  However, the AT 
> doesn't even try to match to a random wire (which is the only tuner 
> output). I've tried different frequencies, different random wire lengths 
> within the specified range, different ground connections, etc. and of 
> course checked the connecting cable. Looking under the hood it has about 
> 20 relays plus coils, capacitors and a logic board similar to what one 
> finds in a ham auto tuner. No signs of smoke having escaped from any 
> components. Lifting the shield on the CPU section of the board there's a 
> 3-prong jumper strip with two jumper positions, "Self-test"
> and "tune". Moving the jumper to "Self-test" and hitting the tune button 
> on the radio it goes through a lengthy procedure in which each relay 
> closes and opens in turn and at the end the radio display says "OK" which 
> is what it's also supposed to say when it finds match. But in "tune" 
> position it simply times out and sends a dididididididit error message 
> back to the radio. There is an initial relay click, but no multiple 
> clicking to indicate searching for a match. I'm wondering if there's a 
> "system reset" command.  I've ordered a service manual from Furuno but 
> that will take a while. And the radio alone is worth far more than what I 
> paid for the full set so it's not like the end of the world but would be 
> nice to get it working so he doesn't have to use the existing manual tuner 
> on his boat. A new tuner is $500 which is also more than I paid 
> altogether!
>
> Does anyone have any ideas, or heavy-duty troubleshooting skills for this 
> type of equipment?
>
> Reply off line, please.
>
> 73,
>
> Jim, K4QPL
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