Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna - Elmers Forum at eHam.net

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Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N4NDX on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Do I still have to have a antenna tuner to connect my dipole antenna to my radio even though the radio has one incorporated in it? 73`s David/N4NDX

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by AA4PB on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If its a resonant 1/2 wave dipole and fed with 50 ohm coax then the SWR should certainly be low enough to be handled by the internal tuner - and probably even without the internal tuner activated. Internal tuners will normally handle an SWR up to about 3:1.

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N4NDX on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I have an inverted V 80m-10m. If I don`t have to use a external tuner were would I connect the wires to the radio or how? David

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by WB2WIK on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If you're using a single band dipole cut to resonance on the band you're using, you wouldn't need any sort of tuner except maybe if it's for 80m or 160m because those bands are so "wide" it's impossible to maintain a good match from band edge to band edge. On 40m or "above," no tuner needed. On 80m, with a full-sized (125' long) dipole, the tuner in the Yaesu should handle it okay. You can't use a single band dipole on multiple bands (other than a 40m dipole used on 15m) without a very good tuner -- even a wide-range external tuner may not be adequate in some cases. WB2WIK/6

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N5LRZ on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
As stateed previously unless you want to use the dipole as a multi-band antenna you will not need an antenna tuner and you tune the dipole to lowest SWR. Multi-band antennas are a completely different story. in that case you will probably be using ladder line and will need an good external tuner. But to asnwer your specific question, the internal tuners as mentioned are in general not good for SWR of over 3 to 1. The ARRL Lab people did a comparison of internal tuners for the various radios and found that with the exception of one radio (a Ten Tec I think) the internal tuners were useless above 3 to 1. Bottom line, a good external antenna tuner if cared for properly and not abused will last you a very long time. Be prepared so spend anywhere between $175 on the low end to up to $600 on the high end.

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N4NDX on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
My dipole is multi-band. I thought about adding a tuner as you mentioned, but if I`m running ladder line all the way to the rig can I just add a balum at the end and run coax from one end with a connector and connect it to the radio and probably solve that problem? David/N4NDX

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by K7UNZ on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I have two FT-990's (bought the first "new" in 1991) and they both will tune well in excess of a 3:1 SWR, more like 6:1. However, my newer rigs all have a hard time doing anything over 3:1. Smaller box, smaller tuner inside. Having said that, if you're gonna run open line to your antenna, and use it as an all-bander, then you WILL need an external tuner. 73, Jim/k7unz

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N4NDX on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I just sold a yaesu FT-101E almost the full station and had it connected to my inverted v dipole, worked OK for me and had a tuner with it, I guess I`ll have to get another one. I recently bought but not yet set up a Yaesu FT-990 and this is the reason for my questions. Even though I`m going to invest on a vertical antenna due to space limitation and I live on the mountain so imagine that and my real is estate does not have much flat land, my dipole is limited to space due to too many trees around the property but I was squeezing the performance out of it as much as I could. 73`s David/N4NDX

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by WB2WIK on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
>RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna Reply by N4NDX on April 24, 2009 Mail this to a friend! My dipole is multi-band. I thought about adding a tuner as you mentioned, but if I`m running ladder line all the way to the rig can I just add a balum at the end and run coax from one end with a connector and connect it to the radio and probably solve that problem? David/N4NDX< ::I would not even venture a guess about this unless I knew everything about that antenna. Is it commercially made? If so, what is it? If it's homebrew, tell us more about it (every single detail, including length and what makes it "multi band"). No way in the world to predict performance or anything else without knowing all the details. WB2WIK/6

RE: Yaesu FT-990 and a dipole antenna	Reply
by N4NDX on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
My question at the beginning was just how to connect the ladder line to my radio a FT990 with an internal tuner. And to answer your ? I do not recall exactly the length of the dipole I/V but I used the Dipole and Inverted V Antenna Calculator from Homeuniverse, it seemed to work very well with my Yaesu FT-101E and like I said prior the calculations came up to 80-10m. Hardly use the lower bands much but in the winter did fairly well in the upper bands just used 20m most of the time and 10m occasionally when lucky. 73`s David/N4NDX

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