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| Reviews Summary for Elecraft T1 Miniature ATU for all Low-Power Transceivers |
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Reviews: 35
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Average rating: 4.7/5
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MSRP: $135
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Description: This may be the world's smallest high-performance, stand-alone ATU. At just
4.4 x 2.5 x 0.9 inches, and weighing only 5 oz., it's about one-fourth the size
and weight of other compact automatic antenna tuners.
The T1 has 7 inductors and 7 capacitors to provide a wide tuning range. It
can be used with any 0.5 to 20-watt transceiver or transmitter, and can be
tuned in any mode, even SSB voice. Many L-C settings are saved in the unit's
EEPROM for quick re-tune (typically 1 to 2 seconds).
An internal 9-V battery powers the unit, and battery life is excellent thanks to
the use of latching relays and auto power-off after each use. There's zero
power consumed except when actually tuning.
There's a "smart" adapter cable available for the Yaesu FT-817. This
convenient accessory allows the T1 ATU to track band changes made at the
transceiver, recalling per-band L-C settings without the need to transmit.
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More info: http://www.elecraft.com
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FROMABQ
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Rating: 2/5
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Jul 1, 2006 15:01
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Well made but doesn't work very well
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought my T1 assembled from Elecraft. It seems to be well made but, in all honesty, it doesn't work very well.
I typically use it to tune twin-lead-fed doublets on multiple bands during portable ops. When tuning, it often cranks and cranks away for quite awhile without finding a match. Apparently tuning attempts are time-limited since, after two or three successive attempts, it will often come up with an acceptable match.
Unfortunately, your rig is transmitting into a high SWR during the long period it's searching.
This all might be OK once but apparently it doesn't save info about settings once it's found them since, after changing away from then back to a band, it usually ends up cranking and cranking through multiple lengthy tuning attempts to again find a match.
The antenna's I've used it with aren't difficult to match -- I can match them in no time with my manual tuner.
I own some other Elecraft products and have been very happy with them but can't say the same for the T1.
Mike - ke5akl
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NS6Y_
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Rating: 5/5
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May 29, 2006 13:07
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Elephant-Craft Never Forgets
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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That it's a tuner! Which the LDG AT-897 sure did, most of the time it seemed to think it was a rock. So I returned it, and put in an order for this kit right away. The kit arrived a few days later (ordered on friday, arrived the following tuesday).
Now, if you lack time or quail at building a kit, you can get this already built by the factory for about $50 more, and they earn that $50. It's a good deal. There are about 10 toroids in there to wind, and one uses 2 cores stacked up, which it's best to epoxy together.
There are a bunch of relays too, and they have you install them after installing some other parts, some of which stick up higher than the relays, making their suggested method for installing the relays moot. So, I used to one-at-a-time method, holding each one down with my finger, tacking one leg in place, then checking and soldering them all. One row of relays has .1uF SMT capacitors between the legs, so solder those carefully! In fact, solder everything carefully, and use a small iron. A pointed tip 700 degree iron is perfect, and an 800 degree wider tip for the BNC connectors.
Now, for the toroids, my preferred method is the burn the enamel off of wire with a soldering iron. Since the 700 degree tip is a bit cool for this, it would make sense to wind all the toroids at one step, and strip the wire with your 800 degree tip. I've found you don't need to strip the whole length of the wire tail, just the inch or so next to the toroid - you can leave the enamel on the ends, since they're just to stick in the hole and go on through. I try to get the stripped area right up to the core, since in installing relays you pull on the wire a little to get them seated on the board so they don't rattle around. There's one, the smallest value, that's wound left-handed and only has a few turns, that one will be a little bit loose when installed but that's minor.
There are a couple of parts that are installed on the bottom of the board, I didn't have any trouble with those although one cap is kinda big and I just made sure it didn't stick out too far off the edge of the board, and it was no problem when the board was put into the case. It can stick out a little!
On the Control Board, the parts leads need to be trimmed pretty close, just solder "the Elecraft way" without leaving big fillets and it will be no problem. The goal is for nothing to touch the top of the CPU when the kit is all assembled and my parts all cleared it nicely. The 3 LEDs for some reason gave me some trouble, I wonder if the LED standoffs, being an odd sort of rubbery plastic, swell under heat - that could account for the LEDs ending up sitting crooked at first. I just reheated their pins and got 'em right, and clipped off the resulting extra lead length.
On the CPU, you're putting it into a high-reliability type socket in a tight space, so make sure you have those pins at a nice 90-degree angle and make sure all the tips of the legs go into the holes in the socket naturally before you start pressing down. DIP chips can occasionally fold a leg, which will make contact ok.... most of the time. It's a devilish bug to debug. So take care, and don't trim the CPU socket pins! It' a low-profile type and those pins are hollow, holding the legs of the CPU.
This took me a couple of evenings, and when it was all put together it worked just fine. Its simple language of LED blinks and 2 button presses is easy to learn and understand, and it tunes things up just fine. I went to the park with my FT-897 and put 12-ft of wire in a tree, with a counterpoise, and talked to some folks in Minnesota. This is on 20W. This was a welcome change from last week, which consisted of lots of calling and no one hearing, with the LDG tuner. The thing with this tuner is, it will tell you your approximate SWR, power out, and how well it's been able to tune. Since this tuner will work at very low (sub-watt) power levels, it will tune even if the original match of the antenna isn't very good and the rig is using its foldback. At 20W I'm operating at the maximum rating for this tuner, but I'm not too worried. And it's simple enough that if a part fails, I feel it will be easy to fix. I'm just very, very, impressed with this tuner.
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KC2GYP
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 28, 2006 05:00
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Amazing lil tun-r
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I built this tuner over the last two evenings and all I can say is "WOW!" what a great little tuner. I bought it to use with the FT-817 to make a nice compact station (even more compact than the FT-817 LDG Z100 combo). I built a VERY simple center fed Zepp (using very efficient 450 ohm ladderline to keep losses as low as possible) and Erickson Engineering's 10w 4:1 balun (http://www.geocities.com/qrp_baluns/ which he sells on Ebay) and the combination is killer. First time out I sent an incredible signal to Jupiter Florida from New York on 20m. The guy in Jupiter was really impressed with my 5w signal.
Tuning was simple and quick. Although you have to hum or mumble into the mike to set the unit in motion.
I was able to tune to less than 1:1.5 or better on all HF frequencies no problem.
As for building it, well I've had some experience mostly with Elecraft kits which I think are superb. But this one presents a number of toroids to wind. They're really simple to do, you just have to make sure you tin the leads properly. They use enameled wire to wind it and there's a tricky tecnique that's not all that hard to 'bubble' the paint off while tinning the leads. Just make sure you double check by using a DMM for 0 resistance after you've installed it to insure you've done the tinning right. Other than that, there is a warning about static charges frying an IC. So be careful with that as well. But don't panic, most people should have no problem. The chip is really robust. They just want you to be aware of the possible damage if you handle it with high static around (just touch any screw on a wall light switch to discharge yourself like I did). The kit for the most part goes together VERY easily. The directions are superb.
Of course if you don't want to build it, Elecraft also has 'assembled' models as well for a slightly higher price. It runs on a common 9v battery used in smoke detectors everywhere.
In short, a great tuner. A great kit. and I think if it was presented the load it would tune a paper clip.
Highly recommended.
73
Peter
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W8HQ
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Rating: 3/5
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Dec 13, 2005 11:24
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Very Small, power frugal, unique and expensive
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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A simple fun kit to build, but you better have a good magnifier !
Overll the smallest, best and lowest power tuner on the market for 20 watts of RF.
The relays are amazing and fool proof to install.
Through hole parts are getting rare these days so it is amazing that they can still provide them.
Case and packaging seem poorly designed and not up to Elecraft standards....for a $135 kit you would expect better than a Ramsey style plastic case.
Electronic's design and the simple operation and firmware are delightful.
Elecraft needs a good mechanical and packaging designer that can deliver as well as their electronic designs.
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N1KSN
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 13, 2005 10:41
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Excellent, as expected
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I built the kit version, with no problems except for one 330pf cap I broke trying to mount it to the bottom of the main board (and which Elecraft quickly replaced). The instructions were what I've come to expect from Elecraft.
My home antenna is a 100' multiband inverted vee fed with 300 ohm twinlead via a 4:1 balun. I could not tune this antenna with two LDG autotuners I own (one in my Jupiter, the other a Z-11). As a consequence I had built a manual Z-match tuner for regular shack use. However, while performing the final tests on the T1 I found that it could tune the antenna just fine on 80, 40, 30, and 20 meters.
This is more than I expected, so needless to say, I am most pleased with the unit. I can hardly wait for warm weather so I can try it in the field with my favorite portable antennas plus a short end-fed wire I've been planning on experimenting with as part of an ultra compact station.
Bravo Elecraft (again).
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K7VO
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 23, 2005 10:06
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*THE* antenna tuner for the QRPer
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought the factory assembled version of the T1 directly from Elecraft at Dayton. Over the past six months I have been very impressed with the little tuner. It seems to tune anything I throw at it with no problem. The small size, low power consumtion (the 9V battery lasts a very long time), and ease of operation make it ideal for portable operation. It is also just fine as the tuner in the shack.
I've used the T1 with everyting from a Mizuho P-21DX (500mW CW rig) to the Ten Tec Argonaut V (20W out) and it can handle the 20W as advertised. 500mW is enough to tune with as well.
The fit and finish of the tuner is very professional and it looks really good in the shack. I have no complaints.
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AK2B
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 23, 2005 08:08
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Great!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I confess to being an Elecraft Junkie. Elecraft kits always supply the necessary fix whenever I am in building withdrawal.
I bought the T1 because I have a few QRP transceivers without ATU's. The T1 works like a champ with just about any antenna arrangement I can cook up. It's small, lightweight and seems to run forever on the 9 volt battery - I use it a lot.
Construction is Elecraft as usual, great manual and absolutely no problems, in fact, a pleasure to build. In all of the 8 or so kits I have built, including the K1, KX1, and K2, I have NEVER had a missing part.
Tom, AK2B
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N6PEQ
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 22, 2005 15:12
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Good but buy it assembled!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Very nice tuner, but I made the big mistake of purchasing the kit version of the tuner. The assembly instructions provided were incomplete and lacked many necessary details to assemble the unit properly, plus one component was missing from the kit as well (which I found at a local source). Went back and forth with Elecraft several times. The Elecraft people are very nice and responded quickly. The unit works very nicely, but I strongly recommend purchasing the unit already assembled, and save yourself the hassle.
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K0NEB
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 7, 2005 17:01
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Great tuner!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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As the moderator of the Dayton Hamvention Kit Building forum, I always like to try different kits and enjoy the process of putting them together. So, taking my time, I took about 7 hours to put this little gem together carefully. It pays to follow the well-written directions step-by-step carefully as they give advice that MUST be followed when installing each component. There is really no room to spare, but if you follow the directions, everything fits together nicely and easily. I strongly recommend using the smallest size soldering tip you can and small gauge solder to have the best experience with this kit. When done, I powered it up and it worked 100% the first time! It tuned my 80/17M shortened dual band dipole very quickly to any frequency in the 80M band even though the antenna's 2:1 SWR bandwidth is only about 60KHz on 80M. My G5RVjr tuned up just as easy on 40-10M, and my TH3Jr didn't tax it at all to tune in less than 2 seconds on any part of 20-15-10M. This shirt-pocket sized wonder will be in my FT-817 carrying bag ready for QRP portable/mobile operation! I also plan on using this tuner with a number of other QRP kit and homebrew radios. Hats off to Elecraft for another OUTSTANDING and well-engineered product! Now, if only I could afford a KX-1...
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VA2VYZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 5, 2005 14:14
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Another excellent product !!!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I received the kit, built the kit easely. Again, some fun building good and well documented kit. It works like a charm. Very small and convenient. It replaces my LDG Z-100, because I only need a QRP antenna tuner running with my FT-817. Space, weight and effective are important... like all Elecraft products.
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