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Reviews For: SGC SG-237 "Mini" Smartuner

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : SGC SG-237 "Mini" Smartuner
Reviews: 41MSRP: $339.99
Description:
Antenna Coupler
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.sgcworld.com/products/sg237/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.4
W9CN Rating: 2008-09-21
Great tuner for mobile use Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I am running the SG-237 into a 102 inch whip on my trailer hitch with a Yaesu FT 857D. This weekend I worked an EA8 (Canary Island) and Bosnia-Herzegovina on 20 M from Denver Colorado.

Yes it took some work to land both of these but the SG-237 performed flawlessly. Tunes up quickly and hold the tune just fine.

And yes you have to strap and bond everything on your car, including the truck lid, hood, exhaust system (in a couple of places), engine block and just about anything that might not have a solid ground and yes you have to have a very solid ground to the SG-237 to the chassis (more than a hunk of wire) and yes you have to use lots of braid to do this and you know what? If you do it right can can work and EA8 and Bosnia-Herzegovina on 20 meters with 100 watts from your car.

100% happy customer who would buy it again.

Mike Pappas
W9CN
VE3XDB Rating: 2007-08-25
Good tuner - better than 239 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

I have had my 237 in operation in its permanent location since early July, following its portable initiation at field day at a campsite.

The current antenna is about 60' long, in an inverted L, with ten 20' radials and one 70' counterpoise. It's only about 12' vertical, with the remaining 48' sloping upward to a tie off point on the back of my house, just under the eavestrough, about 18' up. The orientation of the antenna is NS, with the feedpoint at the south end of the antenna. The coupler is in a plastic container hung on the fence at the back of the yard. The coax and power cables are strung through the fence from the house to the tuner. Very modest setup.

Since July 2nd, I have had about 160 QSO's, all CW, on 80, 40, 30, 20 and 17 meters. Most have been on 40 meters. Power has ranged from 3 watts to 50 watts, with most at 40 watts.

DX has included:
UA3KS 20 meters 50 watts 579
EA2DR 40 meters 50 watts 599
HA1ZY 40 meters 50 watts 559
F3NB 40 meters 50 watts 579
RV3MA 20 meters 50 watts 559
EA6UN 20 meters 50 watts 599
LZ1JZ 20 meters 40 watts 559
LZ170VL 40 meters 40 watts 599
6W1SE 20 meters 40 watts 599
EI6IZ 20 meters 40 watts 559
YVAGZ/7 40 meters 40 watts 569

The rest of the contacts are North American, including the Carribean. I should do a more formal analysis by band to see the actual prorogation characteristics, but here are my perceptions. On 40 meters, the antenna tends to favour NS, with contacts into Europe, and along the eastern seaboard. On 30, it seems to be more
omnidirectional, and on 20 it seems to favour N, which is good for Europe.

As for the coupler itself, the 237 has been very well behaved, very different that my experience with the 239. It tunes everything from 80 to 10 meters, although I have seen a bit of retuning on 10 and 12 meters, during testing. SWR has been typically less than 1.4:1. On 80 through 15 meters, it's solid. I still have my old homemade
Smartlock that I used with my 239's, but haven't needed it, at all, with the 237.

Overall, the tuner is good, and the antenna is ok. I think my dipole had better ears. But for a single wire, this is fine for now.

Doug VE3XDB
KG7AMV Rating: 2007-02-28
Thanks, KP4DAC Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Thanks, KP4DAC for all the great advice I have Uploaded Your PDF File to a Server On Installing This Tuner with the Icom 706 In An Airplane Hope It Helps Others Thanks Again, http://72.232.98.98/~aircraft/ferrypilotforms/706_In_Airplane.pdf

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KG7AMV on 2007-02-25

Just got the SGC SG-237 will be trying it out soon with my IC-706MKIIG so far it seems to be awesome little unit. In reference to KP4DAC, I am also a North Atlantic Ferry Pilot have any contact info? mine is ferryservice @ ferrypilotservice.com
VE7AFZ Rating: 2006-02-02
Nice tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've been very pleased with my SGC 237. It appears to perform as advertised. I have had good results on 160M thru 15M using it to feed a 40-foot sloping long wire antenna suspended from two poles on the roof of my house, with a counterpoise consisting of several hundred feet of wire in various lengths laid out on the roof. I would have been happier if SGC did not find it necessary recommend that this tuner have additional protection from the weather when mounted outdoors. In fairness to SGC this recommendation is well documented and I was aware of this prior to purchasing the tuner so I can't really complain. I would have been prepared to pay $50.00 or so more for a tuner that could be mounted outside without extra weather protection, or perhaps they could consider selling a supplemental housing for this tuner. All in all I am pleased and I would purchase another SGC 237 tuner in the future.
K3CLT Rating: 2005-07-11
Very nice tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I wanted a tuner for my pick up truck that would be easy to use and cover 40 through 10 meters. I talked to the people at HRO and they suggested the SG-239 because it was inexpensive and would cover the bands I wanted. I got a waterproof box from a sporting store and mounted the tuner in it. I installed the tuner in the bed of the truck under my toolbox. Results were not good. It would tune my hamstick across a band but would not tune a 9 foot whip.
I called SGC and talked to some great people up there. He suggested that the SG-239 was not a good choice for mobile operation and that I would need a lot of ground straps to get it to work. He suggested the SG-237.
I removed the SG-239 and found that it had flashed over on the circuit board. I contacted SGC again and again he stated that the 239 was not a good choice for the mobile.
We had some conversation about the manual and lack of discription of installation in it.
He suggested that I return the 239 to HRO and that his sales staff would contact my salesman from HRO and verify the information.
I called HRO and talked to the salesman. He agreed and put a SG-237 in the mail to me right away. I received the unit the next day UPS. I was suprised that I received it that fast.
The installation was a breeze.
The 237 comes with a 9 foot cable with a pl-259 connector on it. I ran the cable to the radio and installed a ground strap (Braided) to the lug on the unit and a short piece of 12 gauge wire on the other lug to the antenna.
I connected the battery leads and we were up and running
The tuner worked right away. It tunes a 9 foot whip from 80 through 6 meters.
The band conditions have not been good but there was a contest over the weekend and I made many contacts.
It was fun to make contact with a group on 40 and then switch over to 80 so they could get the points for another contact. I received many comments on the quality of the signals.
Its only been a few days but things are good.
Many thanks to HRO and SGC. Two great companies.
M3GID Rating: 2005-05-09
Super Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought the SG237 at the same time as I bought a Yaesu FT1000MP Mk V about 18 months ago. I put them both straight into action with barely a glimpse of the manuals (alright, I know......!) a 30 foot length of wire at head height and a 2m length of copper plumbers pipe for a ground spike and away we went! I was absolutely amazed at the performance of the tuner, and boy did i confuse it when I left the inboard ATU on my rig on, but it tuned everything all bands and no problems. I now tune a 10m home made vertical antenna with it, I have woeked 100 DXCC entities (+) with only my 10 watts, I regularly break thru the pile-ups and am 110% satisfied with the tuner. so much so that I am going to buy a second one for my parents QTH where I have another identical vertical antenna. It will tune all bands including top band! I did buy a SG211 for my parents QTH but it is not nearly as good! 237 it is for me and I'm definitely buying another! They're fantastic, I can't vouch for the customer service cos I've never had to use it!!

73's de Geoff
N8FNR Rating: 2004-09-28
Amazing product! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought an SG-237 at last Dayton last year and have to say that it is one of the best ham radio items I have ever purchased! Not being able to put up a tower left me few choices. On the other hand I have a ¼ acre suburban lot with a lot of trees, some over 100 feet that I can string wire in. I looked at various verticals but the SGC products looked like a lot more bang for the buck plus I could experiment with different configurations (long wires, loops, verticals, etc).

It is mounted around 100 feet from my rig in a waterproof electrical box that I purchased on ebay. The tuner is fed with Davis RF Bury-Flex and the DC is provided via a bury able AC line that carries DC. Even though the 12 volts have a long run I found that it had very little voltage drop.

The antenna currently in use is a huge delta loop with an apex around 80 feet above the ground. I estimate the loop to be around 200 feet of total length. The SG-237 matches all HF frequencies without any problem except for 160M. For that band I have to use the built-in tuner in my TS-850SAT to do a final match. Before getting the SG-237 I had never been able to hear any activity on that band. One extra thing that really helps a lot on 160 is my SGC ADSP2 filter. It really knocks the noise down on that band as my rig does not have DSP.

Another antenna that I have up is an 80 foot vertical that has 8, 80 foot radials. However I find that the loop has far better performance.

If you are considering buying an SGC tuner and need to get your wire up high you really should buy an EzHang. With a few tries I am able to get wires over the tops of trees with little effort. It is not cheap but well worth every penny. For more info on the Ezhang see http://www.ezhang.com/.

Would I buy one again? Yes. The only thing I don’t like is that it is only designed for 40 watts of continous duty cycle so I am considering replace the SG-237 with the SG-239 so that I can run RTTY. On the other hand I consider it to be a miracle worker in my shack!
N0EW Rating: 2004-05-04
SGC 237 Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is an OK tuner, but don't expect it to tune anything. In this regard their sales fliers are misleading. Certainly consider the _smartlock_ because this will keep you locked to a given tuning and this is especially important if mobile.

Regarding their staff I have mixed feelings. On the one hand they are willing to offer advice and they will look at faxed sketches of your set up when trying to resolve a problem.

[Insert deity] help you if you have a problem! It is like pulling your own teeth! I can not get the device to tune up a large loop antenna. I sent drawings, talk to their staff, ran numerous tests both on my own and on their recommendation. Even after failing their tests they would not believe it was malfunctioning.

Bottom line: I rate it as an average tuner, but the sales information over-rates its abilites and the staff will give you months of run-arounds if you do have a problem. For these reasons I only rate this a "2." Buyer beware.
W9DJ Rating: 2004-03-02
The Almost Magic Box Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The SGC 237 is an incredibly useful device. It will match a wide range of loads, and I have used it on flagpoles, loops, dipoles, verticals, you name it. Yes, it won't always find a match, and it loses tune sometimes (when working on REALLY weird loads), but I wouldn't part with it. The new SGC tuner with built in batteries and very low current drain sounds wonderful (except for the 60 watt limit) and would overcome the problem of running separate dc lines to the tuner.

It doesn't violate the laws of physics, so a really short, low, or shielded antenna still won't get out so well, and verticals usually need counterpoises.

A telescoping fiberglas pole, some wire, and an SGC tuner can actually be a "DX machine."
WA4PTZ Rating: 2003-07-08
Better than I expected Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I first purchased the SG-237 for my truck, so
that I did not have to take my eyes off the road
when I changed bands or frequencies. I was not
expecting much but after using it for a while I
continued to discover that I had underestimated
its capabilities. I started with a screwdriver
antenna, on which it worked great. I began to
have problems with the acetate coil covers on
the screwdriver, water leaking into the sleeve,
so I coupled a hustler mast and the 60 inch whip
from the screwdriver antenna and set about
testing how many bands I could work , using the
SG-237. I was greatly surprised to see that it
would tune almost the same as it did , 6 - 80.
I just could not work 160 meters. I didn't work
160 mobile anyway. I now enjoy the ability to
press the mic PTT, which sets the tuner to the
memorized band tuning, and begin working
contacts. No more "Close Call" or "Near Miss"
accidents while driving. Thank you SGC.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by WA4PTZ on 2002-08-14

I've had my SGC SG-237 for more than a year and
I have been delighted. I use mine mobile , with
my Screwdriver antenna . I have only 2 antenna
positions : (1) 40 through 6 (2) 80 and 160
I field tested it last year at Field Day and
it worked well on an 800 foot long wire.
I did make one important discovery... Use a
large ground (chassis or other), #8 wire or
larger.
73 - Tim WA4PTZ