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Reviews For: Youkits FG-01 graphic antenna analyzer

Category: Antenna Analyzers

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Review Summary For : Youkits FG-01 graphic antenna analyzer
Reviews: 59MSRP: 249
Description:
Antenna analyzer covering 1 - 60 mhz
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.youkits.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00594.4
HB9CPS Rating: 2013-01-23
Use it daily to tune my screwdriver antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Excellent tool! Shows instantly all you need to know about the state of your antenna. When retuning my screwdriver antenna I can see the resonance approaching and stop right on spot. Purchased mine a few months ago, but recently it failed apparently due to overheating. Ten-Tec support is outstanding! - A single call and they sent a replacement unit. Strongly recommend to keep the unit on for a short time only at any time as it tends to overheat within a few minutes.
N0IDX Rating: 2013-01-12
Great easy to use product Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Even after getting slammed $30 for shipping and slammed again $30 for a recharger and rechargeable battery pack, I'm still happy with this product. After all these years tuning an antenna with someone in the shack on the radio, and one on the tower or roof, or bringing the rig outdoors, I finally bought one of these. I'm happy with this choice since it's so easy to use and I can see a graph instantly of exactly what my antenna is doing on the bands. Even multi-band antennas across the bands can be seen so you can tell what effect your tuning has across all the operating frequencies. I can see it in bright daylight, and carry it up the tower in a pocket (with masking tape over the power switch to keep from turning it on by mistake). Simple to use and easily readable, I would trade this for a new antenna again. I'll have to wait a little longer for my new Yagi, but when it gets here, at least I'll be able to tune it with very little trouble, and quickly.
VE7LSB Rating: 2012-10-31
Bravo! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
With the exception of the VERY expensive batteries, this analyzer is right on!

Bought off ebay from yanjiewang7678 and the email responses were as usual , very professional.

Inexpensive and FUN analyzer!!!
K7CID Rating: 2012-10-11
Exceptional, small & accurage antenna analyzer. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What can I say. Tuning up wire dipoles is a cinch with this device. Easy to use and light on the pocket book. Highly recommend.
W2DL Rating: 2012-08-14
Why Do I Need This? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I used to think that an antenna analyzer was a nicety for real techies who design their own antennas. The FG-01, which I purchased from Ten-Tec, taught me in about five minutes why I was wrong. So you have a 40-meter dipole and figure you have a resonant antenna for the entire 40-meter band. Yes but. A few minutes with this very easy to use device shows you the lowest SWR "sweet spots" for your dipole. In no time, you'll understand how to tweak your wire antennas for maximum efficiency. I thought I was splurging on a luxury, but quickly learned what antenna analyzers are really all about. The color display is awesome and the ability to change center frequency steps (1K, 10K, 100K or 1MHz) a piece of cake. A really nice added bonus for me was that the black chassis with white lettering is a perfect match to my new Elecraft KX3! I'm amazed at the small amount of real estate occupied on my desk by my Alpha Delta ASC-4B coax switch console, KX3, Gamma Research HPS-1a power supply, and now this YouKits FG-01 antenna analyzer -- lots of space left over for the iPad!
KC3Z Rating: 2012-07-11
Basic design is fabulous Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
All of the previous accolades are true. If you forget to turn this little gem off the lithium batteries (NOT SUPPLIED) are ruined! I did it and I know. I was going to rate this high priced tester a 1 just based on that fact alone. But wait! There's more! I tested all of my short PL-259 cables (FEEL FREE TO BUY A BNC TO UHF ADAPTER 'CAUSE YOU WILL NEED IT) with a 50 MHZ sweep width and found 2 with RF shorts at odd frequencies. ADD 1 point. No load needed, just hook them up and look at the sweep signal, it should be flat. The output signal was so stable when not sweeping the far right digit on my freq counter NEVER changed. When connected to an O-scope, the sine wave is so good looking that the unit earned another point. What is not clear from some sales descriptions of this unit is that the supplied wall Wart is in fact a charger for 14500 lithium batteries when used with either the supplied battery holder or the battery pack (Sold separately). You need three batteries for this holder so buy 6 and have a spare set in case the unit is left on. Finally it irritated me to spend this kind of money on a piece of gear that needed batteries, an adapter and something to keep the supplied battery holder from rubbing on the surface mounted components. When Youkits adds a low battery shutoff for this unit it will become the new standard for antenna analyzers.
AK4SK Rating: 2012-07-10
A great little analyzer! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my first and only analyzer so read this review with that in mind. I have had mine for a few months and I love it. To me the graphical LCD display of SWR and impedance is worth the price alone. You can see resonant points without looking for dials to move as with traditional analyzers. It is very easy to use and gives me an instant picture of my antennas when I make changes. The only things I would change are to increase its frequency range for VHF and UHF and to have a larger screen. I knew of these limitations when I bought it so I'm not going to ding it for that.
M0CFM Rating: 2012-06-06
Fantastic, but........ Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Purchased this Analyzer (my first ) and found it to be very easy to use! Although a very basic Analyzer it did everything I wanted it to do!
The screen displays all the information you need!
Lasts for ever on optional rechargable battery pack , and charge time very quick! Small enough to put in your pocket too, but I wouldn't!
However the reason I give it a 4/5 is because on opening the box found the knob flapping around, shop was fantastic and replaced it, but over the 6 months of fair use the knob on the new one started to come loose and eventually broke, I must add that I've treated it with care and not been heavy handed with it, always putting in in a hard plastic box with lid and wrapped in bubble wrap after use!
Beware those who put it in a pocket!
Youkits use the same type of pot/knob on HB-1B which I also have, but no problems yet!
I will be replacing it with something else!
Maybe I was just unlucky, who knows
K6ACJ Rating: 2012-05-30
Eliminates most analyzers Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading the various reviews I bought a FG-01 from TenTec and am I every happy with this device. First off I do a lot of ham radio in the field setting up dipoles, loops, rhombics and vertical antennas fed by coax or balanced line and use many different mobile antennas. The FG-01 has proved to be a work horse, daylight readability is excellent, controls are excellent and the feature to store the current settings is well thought out to allow returning to the last settings after a power off. I am using the rechargeable Lithium AA batteries described in the user manual and find the first charge was good for 1-1/2 hours or more of almost continuous power on. The provided wall wart re-charged the batteries rapidly without heating but I failed to time the recharge, perhaps 2 hours.

I use a 12" commercial RG-174 pigtail with screw SMA connectors at each end where I can attach what ever coax adapter required for testing. I think a pigtail of this type should be an available option so stiff RG-8 is not attached to the FG-01 BNC and adapter.

Another option should be a carrying case for the FG-01 and power wart plus space for a short coax and accessories.

This piece of gear should provide many years of easy and meaningful adjustments. Long Live MFJ, hello beautiful & readable color graphics.

144/440 version someday ?????

k6acj

K1FPV Rating: 2012-05-16
Teriffic Bang For The Buck! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Up until now, I've used my trusty old MFJ-259B and had good luck with it. My main complaint with the MFJ-259B was that the battery life when used without a power cube was very short, and it was a bit bulky....especially when working on an antenna up on a tower. When working out in the middle of the yard or up on a tower, you can't afford to have the batteries die on you.

The FG-01 battery life is excellent. The graph is terrific in quickly finding the resonant point of the antenna. Yesterday, I stuck it into my pocket, climbed my tower and adjusted the antenna in about 10 minutes.

YouKits hit a home run with this product.