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Reviews For: LDG AT-1000 Pro II

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-1000 Pro II
Reviews: 66MSRP: 539.00
Description:
Building on the success of the AT-1000Pro, LDG Electronics has refined and
expanded its flagship 1KW tuner. The new AT-1000ProII keeps many of the
same features of the previous model, but simplifies the operation. With the
two position antenna switch there are 2,000 memories that store tuning
parameters for almost instantaneous memory recall whenever you transmit on
or near a frequency you’ve used before. Just key and it tunes! The AT-
1000ProII will operate at any power level between 5 and 1,000 watts peak RF
input.

The AT-1000ProII has a large, easy to read bargraph with two selectable scale
ranges (100 and 1,000 watts) as well as SWR meter. The AT-1000ProII will
interface with many popular transceivers, enabling their TUNE button to
control the AT-1000ProII’s operation. Dedicated control buttons allow you to
fine-tune capacitance and inductance on those rare occasions when the AT-
1000ProII can’t find a perfect match by itself.

The AT-1000ProII will tune from 1.8 to 54.0 MHz continuously, and will
match an amazing range of antennas, from Yagis and dipoles to inverted-Vs
and slopers; virtually any coax-fed antenna from 6 to 1000 ohms impedance
(16 – 150 ohms on 6 meters). Tuning time is usually under 10 seconds. If
you’re transmitting near a frequency with stored tuning parameters, it will set
those parameters in under 0.2 seconds. Longwires or antennas fed with
ladder line require an external balun.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com/c/252/products/17/67/1
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
44.3664.3
KD1GA Rating: 2018-07-18
Good Tuner Great Price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently purchased this tuner and I really like it. Once it has memorized a frequency it tunes pretty fast, although initial tuning is pretty loud. Tunes my off center fed dipole and 160 meter inverted L on all bands. Works well with my 7300 and AL-80B. Initially, I was a bit leery to purchase it, as some folks feel its impossible to use without the (discontinued)remote meter. I didn't find this to be the case; very easy to use once you understand the how the function button works and the LED power and SWR meters are fine. I do use it with a separate in-line analog SWR meter that really is needed for fine tuning. I did speak with LDG and asked why the remote meter was discontinued. They said they are working on a free firmware upgrade and a remote meter jack to USB interface cable to utilize computer based control and metering software. They said it should be released this fall. I need to add Gigaparts offers this tuner for $499.00 with shipping. I called DX engineering and they beat the price....shipped 489.00. You simply can't get a better 1000 watt auto tuner at this price. IMHO
N2XPM Rating: 2018-02-27
BEST TUNER Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have read the reviews prior to purchasing and I must say that this is by FAR the best tuner that I have owned in along time. My MFJ 939 auto tuner smoked a week or so ago. Having had a LDG tuner for my Yaesu FT 897 sometime back, I decided on getting the best of what LDG had to offer. KUDOS to LDG for putting a TANK of a tuner together. For the money, It's hands down the Best of the Best....
N4DJT Rating: 2017-12-15
Okay..not great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this tuner for two years and it does work but.. there are a few problems.
#1 you can't set the swr threshold below 1.7:1 and it seems to get confused with loads that are between 2:1 and 1.5:1
#2 The external meter, is good but the connector on the back of the tuner is WEAK - be careful.
#3 1000 watts PEP - Cw and Digital modes much much less. you can smoke this puppy.
#4 It does make one hell of a racket and can take quite a long time to tune high SWR's
am I happy with?.. meh
I bought a palstar manual tuner. but if you are tunning 500-800 watts SSB it works mostly as advertised.
Also was easy to make it work with all my Icom rigs right out of the box.
K2GAV Rating: 2017-12-15
Great value - automatic - space saving Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This tuner has worked flawlessly for me for about 3 years. I like the 2,000 memories and automatic tuning over a wide range of mismatched impedances. While the operation is not intuitive due to having multiple functions per button, once you learn how to operate it, you're good to go. The multisegment LED meters are a bit dated and I'd have used different colors as the scale increases. However, they do the job. One thing I don't like is how if you go into bypass mode, then back into operate mode, it drops out of automatic recall of tuned settings. You don't know that unless you click the two function switch to turn on auto mode. The various LED display patterns indicating issues are cryptic. All in all, I'd buy it again. Which I could have given it a 4.5 star rating.
N6KP Rating: 2017-11-10
Great BUT Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After downsizing shacks I decided to look at automatic tuners. I have had MFJ,Palstar mechanical tuners and decided to treat myself.
First thing, BUY the meter! The mumbo jumbo series of LED's are a nightmare to decode. LDG should look at the many alfa numeric displays for less than $5.00.
The unit does what it is supposed to do. Tunes quickly and remembers settings. Just remember to keep the amp in standby otherwise it might smoke if it tries to tune 800 watts.
The meter is great to look at but remember to keep the meter in the FWD mode if in the SWR mode it will show zero and this might startle you on the air as it did me. For the price it is less than the big MFJ and Palstar units.
KR6AUL Rating: 2017-11-06
Tuner Good, Customer Service Great Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have owned this tuner for a few months. It has been passed down from 4 different hams. Right after I got it, it froze and would not tune. I sent it in to LDG and they fixed it for free. Say what you will about the item but any part that has the manufacturer stand behind it and fix it for free after a few years of use is great in my opinion. I would definitely but an LDG product in the future. The only reason I did not rate a 5 is due to the noisiness but other than that, it is a great product.
K6YEK Rating: 2017-10-10
Bad Choice Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought tuner in Aug 2013. Sent it in for repairs in early 2014 as it wouldn't tune on 10m - LDG found nothing wrong. Sent it back for repairs again in Aug 2014 for the same issue. LDG again didn't find anything wrong, but sent back a new unit. This replacement unit worked ok for 3 years.

Now the unit won't consistently tune in Auto Mode, won't initiate a Manual Memory Tune at all and the L/C Up/Dn buttons only work sometimes. Also, the Auto Threshold never did work - set it at 1.7 and tuner would not re-tune unless the SWR was >2.5 when in Auto Mode.

During all this time, I have consistently tuned only at 20 watts with amplifier in standby or off and had the unit in semi-auto mode when using an amplifier (900 to 1000 watts). Also had a RF choke on the power lead based on suggestion from LDG.

My LDG tuner used with my mobile rig works great.

Now looking for a tuner that will work.

AK9S Rating: 2017-08-09
Very Pleased Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Highly recommended...

PROS
- economically priced
- small footprint (not too tall)
- remembers previously tuned frequencies
- faster to tune from memory than a Palstar HF-AUTO
- second to none customer support

CONS
- will not always tune to lowest SWR, but close

I used mine for 2.5 years and accidentally ran a 600W dead carrier into the tuner on 160M during a QSO. The electronics failed in the tuner, but in doing so, it still kept a flat match to protect my amplifier.

After sending it for repair and knowing most LDG repairs do not exceed $50, I was pleasantly surprised LDG sent me a brand new one in a sealed box. Their Technician wrote "unit unrepairable" on the zero dollar invoice.

The warranty had expired several months prior. Do I need to say more about this exceptional Company?

----------------------
Earlier 4-star review posted by AK9S on 2014-08-16

I agree with the positive posted comments concerning the performance of this auto tuner.

However, there appears to be an inherent design flaw with this unit.

If the DC power to the tuner is accidentally disconnected, or your external power supply goes into fault mode, fails entirely, or your neighborhood experiences a general power failure, the tuner will revert to bypass mode.

What does this mean?

If you are running an expensive amplifier, it may see significant SWR's and become damaged, unless it has SWR protection. Same for your rig.

The design of this auto tuner should have been provisioned so that the last used tuning settings remain in effect during power failures.
N8JBR Rating: 2017-07-01
Would not tune 6 meters Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The LDG AT-1000 Pro II failed to tune an SWR just below 3.1 on 6 meters. Two separate units were tried. They were able to tune a high SWR on 80 and 160 meters with no issue.

Both LDG units were returned and a Palstar AT2KD tuner was purchased. The Palstar had no problem tuning to 1:1.
WW8X Rating: 2017-02-19
A Learning curve – but is works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The change from using a Drake MN-2000 to the AT-Pro II was a learning curve. Without the four-part series of helpful videos posted on Youtube.com, I’d probably be still struggling to figure this thing out. So far the unit performs as it was designed. The AT-Pro II tunes my multi-ban, end-fed wire and multi-band trapped vertical quite easily. And yes, it recalls the frequencies it has already tuned on each antenna very quickly with a button push – amazingly cool.

When using amplifier power you need to use Semi-auto mode vs. Automatic mode to insure the tuner doesn’t begin an auto tuning cycle in high power. It’s important to keep the amplifier in 'stand-by' until all tuning in low power is complete. The optional ICOM interface cable allows my icom and tuner to work together – very handy. As others have said the optional analog meter is great and you should purchase it as well!

On the negative side, the owners ‘manual’ is disappointing, being nothing more than some single color printed sheets stapled together and not really user-friendly (You'll need to watch the Youtube videos if you’ve never used on of these devices). I also wish the AT-1000 Pro II had an extra antenna port to connect a dummy load to allow peaking the amplifier off air.