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write your own review of the ICOM AH-4 auto tuner.
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NY4DX
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 2, 2011 09:56
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Works Very Well
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Works well on both OCF and Vertical Antennas.
You will be happy with this unit.
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KK7XE
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 2, 2011 05:26
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Very nice tuner.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I received my AH-4 Wednesday and today in some cool WX and in the snow got it set up with my new IC-7200. What a great combination. I had a vertical at one time and had some cable buried in some pvc from the back yard and it comes along the east side of the house to where the cables come in. I am using it as a ground connection to the radial plate along with a good ground right out the window here and it's working very well. The tuner likes what it see's when I push tune and tunes from 10-80 flat with no problem. Have not tried 6 meters yet as most of my time is on 40, 30 and 17 meters. I lost one of the tiny screws in the snow when putting the lid back on and hope to find a few extra some where. Easy to set up. My single wire goes up 20' over to a 30' mast where the vertical used to be kind of SW, then due north to a tree out next to the street. About 140' of wire. Had some great advice from the AH-4 Yahoo users group. The counterpoise of my buried radial system along with about 45 ft of coax acting as part of the counterpoise is really doing the job. Not a single problem. Thank you Icom and thank you to those who shared some good advice. God Bless.
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EA7AQV
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 24, 2011 11:48
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It works better that I expected
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I have used it to couple my IC7200 (25 to 100 w)to my homemade vertical (8,45 m telescoping aluminium tube 28 to 8 mm diammeter, guyed at 2 levels with 2 mm nylon rope to ensure that "any" wind could take it down.
The counterpoise are 18 radials 6 m long 1,5 insulated wire on the roof of my atico, and I am very happy with the results in all bands 80 to 10 m. Band change takes only a couple of seconds.
The next step: To double, at least the number of radials. You will know the results...
See you in any band PSK31, CW or SSB...
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KI5SO
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 3, 2011 20:11
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Not just something to get by
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is my second review. Wow, wow. I moved to a new location and can put up any antenna I want. I am using an end fed 130 foot long wire that is thrown over a very high branch forming an inverted v. One side of the v goes over a valley. Anyway, I am working it against the copper water piping in the basement. I am being told there is no way without power to improve my station. My signal was beating out a regular dipole and 160 meter G5RV. I can tune any band from 160 to 6 meters. I hear everything and I can work who I hear. One little hint: get the center of your wire up as high as possible (which may be 50 or 60 feet in most cases as highest). I'm roughly 60 to 70 feet. The center 60% radiates 80% of your signal. Don't think of an end fed tuned with an Icom AH-4 as just something to get by on until you can do better. You may not be able to do better with a 100 watt radio. I want one for my car now.
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WA7ZBO
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 3, 2011 18:44
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Read the Instructions Plz
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had an AH-4 in my truck since 2005 with very few problems. I had it mounted under the fender with 6 inches of RG-8 center conductor feeding the whip. The only problem I had was sometimes it wouldn't tune up on 40. I was running it into an AH-2b ( the icom 8' whip that looks like it's off a tank). Switching gear to a newer truck I decided to switch to one of the small tuners and coax feed back to the antenna. I was thinking about sending the AH-4 back to ICOM for service but I thought I would give it one last shot.
Benching the unit and hooking up a 706 I connected it first to a dummy load then a long wire with ground. In both cases it worked perfect. breaking out the manual I read over everything and found this info: The unit comes with 3 feet of wire to feed the antenna. It says I can shorten it but not any shorter than 20 inches. I thought I was really being smart with 6 inches of feed cable and so must others reading their reviews.
I just installed it under the new truck bed only this time I used the full three feet. I used the RG-8 minus the shield and wrapped it with some of that pipe insulation noodle stuff. First 1/2 inch then one inch so it can't come close to the truck body.
Results; Perfect tuning not only on 40 but now it locks in a tune on 75! Never did that before.
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N0FPE
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 12, 2011 15:47
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A+++++
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Mine is going on 9 years old and has worked perfectly with my 706 in my truck for that long. would buy another one in a heartbeat if need be!
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G4XRO
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 12, 2011 07:20
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Superb
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought this tuner 2 years ago, I use it to tune a 7 meter length of wire in my roof space in a inverted L configuration. This will tune from 80 - 6 meters with a 1:1 SWR on all bands. I use the IC-7000 with 50 watts output and have had excellent results. See my QRZ Log.
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W4LI
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 17, 2011 17:19
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Frankly, Great!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I purchased the AH-4 a few months ago. I use it to tune my rain gutter system on the lower bands. The tuner will tune my rain gutter system from 160 through 6 meters.
My gutter system has a few bends and turns that don't help, the ground system is marginal, but this tuner got me on the air. The integration with the icom rig is seamless. The tuner gets to a 1:1 match (no movement on the SWR meter) very quickly, anywhere I go.
Since you need to open the unit up to connect control/coax cables, you get a good look inside. This is a solid piece of gear. Although reasonably priced, it is constructed well.
I plan to migrate to other antenna configurations, but look forward to having this tuner as a tool in my barefoot arsenal for the long run.
Great work ICOM!
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N4KZ
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Rating: 5/5
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May 27, 2011 07:55
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This tuner works
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought my AH-4 nearly 4 years ago when they were on sale. But I didn't install it right away. It sat in its box in my ham shack for nearly two years before I decided to install it in my car. Thus, it joined my already installed IC-706 MKIIG in the car. I put a mobile ball mount on the side of the SUV. I installed the AH-4 in the rear of the vehicle and that allowed me to use only 6 inches of coax from the tuner's output to the base of the ball mount. On 40 meters, I use a Workman 40m whip, a knockoff of the Hamstick. I don't really need the AH-4 on 40m but it allows me to QSY from one end of the band to the other. I get great reports and have worked a substantial amount of DX on 40m SSB from the car. Meanwhile, on the higher bands I take off the Workman and replace it with a 8 foot stainless steel whip that easily loads from 30 through 6 meters. Actually, the 8 foot whip also works on 40 m but the signals are about 2 S units weaker than the Workman. Reports with the 8 foot whip are excellent from 30 up to 6 meters. For years, I was on the hunt for the "perfect" HF mobile antenna but once I installed the AH-4 with the super short feedline (to reduce losses) I just decided I already had a good setup and my search for "perfection" was over.
73, N4KZ
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