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Reviews For: LDG AT-600ProII Autotuner with M-600 Meter

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-600ProII Autotuner with M-600 Meter
Reviews: 29MSRP: 369.99/129.99
Description:
The LDG AT-600ProII Autotuner is an addition to the LDG processor-controlled Switched-L tuner family providing two antenna ports (each with their own memory bank) and an interface for the new M-600 meter, supporting up to 600W SSB and CW.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com/index.php
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
10293.8
VE3BXG Rating: 2017-08-11
Tuner doesn't work, and neither does LDG customer support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have an LDG Z-100Plus tuner that works very well. But when I purchased an amplifier I needed a new tuner that could handle the higher power so I ordered an AT-600ProII. I read and followed the instructions. Right out of the box the thing would not work. My antenna is resonant at 40m. The Z-100Plus tunes it for 20m to an SWR of 1.1. The AT-600ProII could do nothing at all. The owner's manual says "LDG customer support staff is ready to answer your product question by telephone and by e-mail." But no telephone number is provided in the manual or on the website. I managed to get a telephone number for LDG from Gigaparts (thanks!). I called the number, got a voicemail and left a message. No response. I e-mailed customer support. I got a response suggesting that my amplifier might be causing the problem - which is not possible because the tuner would not function when the amp was disconnected. I asked to be contacted by telephone so that I could do some live troubleshooting before going to the trouble of sending the unit back. (Who knows - maybe I made a silly error that could be corrected over the phone.) The support person said a phone call could be arranged. But he never followed up. Next thing I hear form him is an e-mail saying I should return the unit. Wow. LDG seems to have a good reputation for its tuners. But this experience has put me off ever considering another one of their products. I appreciate that electronics are complex and can fail. But I want to feel that the vendor is interested in making me happy and doesn't take me for granted. I will ask for a refund and look elsewhere for a new tuner.
WA2TGE Rating: 2016-11-29
Expensive Failure Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been running LDG tuners for years and this is the first difficulty I have encountered. I am running it in a configuration including FT950, an ALS-600 amplifier, and the LDG AT600ProII tuner. The antenna is a Carolina Windom 40-10. The finals blew on the ALS 600 the first time and I had noticed the SWR would briefly go high and return to normal. I did wonder why the ALS-600 didn't fault. I changed the coax to some LMR400. The ALS 600 finals blew a second time (same symptoms) and again I wondered why the amp did not fault. This time I switched the antenna from a home built Windom to a commercial one from Radio Wavz. When the finals blew a third time I looked and all that was left and not replaced in the circuit was the tuner. I have tried to contact LDG support through email to both ldg@ldgelectronics and support@ldgelectronics and thus far have had no response. By the way, all failures were on CW at 400 watts. Never had a problem on SSB. I operate the tuner in the mode that requires me to supply a carrier and press the tune button. I hope this helps
W4JDY Rating: 2016-11-27
Faulty Design Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I agree with all of the reviews. This is not a tuner for the truly amateur, amateur radio operator.

But aside from bad engineering, those in this thread whining about "...The one person complained about a 1.7 to 1 SWR on 160 meters." are examples of operators woefully in need of a new hobby. 45 years with electronics, communications, radars and surveillance design and as a tech in the Navy sees these purist as why some never join our ranks. By the way, you need to measure VSWR not SWR if you want to talk about antenna efficiencies with professionals. Be happy with 1:7 as my antennas range from the humorous 1:1 claims to 1:8, and get me around the world on 160m just fine from 100-600 watts.
ON4XA Rating: 2016-09-12
After 1 week in bad condition: great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi all, like a lot of OM's said, first read the manual.
Never tune with the lineair "ON".
It's now 1 week I have mine with my IC-7300, and as antenna a MTFT 9/1 and 16m wire and as 2nd antenna a Eurocom Sigma HF-360. I tune both antennas on all bands without any problem. Even 60m on the vertical. Tuner do his job. 20w tuning, then control at 100w. If SWR is 1:1,5 for example, I tuned it manually. After that no problem to put a big 500w in the air with my HLA300V+
Hopefully I will be able to say the same in a couple of monthes.

About principal antenna, no need tuner with the SP7IDX Hexbeam antenna. SWR perfect on all bands and I use the SPE 1K-FA lineair with it.
73's
KK4MEO Rating: 2016-02-24
difficult Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My XYL gifted me this tuner for Christmas and purchased it in late November 2015. I opened this nice gift up on 12-25-2015 and set it up according to manual.After just a few hours of operation the tuner wouldn't power up or worse, when I was on air it would attenuate almost the entire signal, until I cycled thru power off, on several times! It did tune my dipole nicely most times, however it would power down during MARS transmission which has become very annoying and embarrassing! DX Engineering told me it was over 30 day warranty so LDG needed to fix and I would be out a tuner for MARS frequencies. Called LDG and got voice message, no humans. Wrote to DX Engineering president and got no reply. Will say that it's solidly builtin Taiwan, RC
UNCLEIKE Rating: 2015-12-08
M-600 meter Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought the tuner without the meter over 6 months ago, no problems if you learn how to use the tuner. Finally bought the meter to go with it and eliminated one leg of coax running to an old meter, the M-600 uses data cord to communicate with the LDG AT-600 Pro II. I gained about 10 % output not running through that other meter. Only negative is that while the meter is dimmable the led lamps on the front are not and I wish I could turn them down.
K0NGO Rating: 2015-11-09
Problems Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had an LDG AT-100Pro tuner for years, and it has worked perfectly. I got the 600 after getting an 600 W amp. The meter is cool and works very well. Too bad that the tuner itself failed after three weeks. So I sent it back to LDG for warranty repair. Second problem - they will NOT communicate with you - even to say that they got your package. My first query about the package delivery went unanswered. After two more weeks I sent another e-mail asking about the status (or even if they got the tuner) - this one got a curt "In progress." reply. This aspect of their customer service needs repair, too. It is on the way back now ... so we will see. Meanwhile, I bought a superb Palstar AT-500 manual tuner. I might just stick with the Palstar.
K6RWM Rating: 2015-04-05
Very Good Auto Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This tuner has worked very well for me. The radio is a Yaesu FT-2000D, and I have the cable that interconnects it with the tuner. One push of the tune button on the tuner and it tunes at less that 20 watts and then returns the radio to the selected mode. It memorizes freqs well, and when you return to a memorized freq, it may click one or two times or sometimes not at all and you are ready to go. I use with with an Ameritron ALS-600 solid state linear with no problems. The optional companion M-600 meter is a nice add-on, with a large display that appears to be accurate.

73-K6RWM
WD5FUN Rating: 2014-10-17
Works Great for Me Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My antennas are pretty much resonate but I have a couple of solid state amps that can be pretty particular when running full power, so a simple touch to the tuner and all is well. Once the tuner has memorized the frequencies that you use it is just a simple click and you are tuned. The led meter is quite accurate and I find the unit to be very attractive.
NQ3M Rating: 2014-07-10
Unreliable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The first week I received it from HRO it failed. LDG repaired it, but they're communication during repair was much slower what I would have thought. When it was returned it was never 100% as it seemed to take much longer than I thought it should to tune, based upon another LDG tuner I had. Today it will/would not release the settings when placed into Manuel mode. The unit had to be de-powered each time before changing bands/freqs ect. I am done with auto tuners, and have ordered a second ATR-20 to replace this one that is in the truck for stationary antenna use when the ALS 500 is being used.