| W0SGR |
Rating:  |
2021-03-30 | |
| Great for my radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought this unit when my FTDX1200 internal tuner didn't like certain frequencies on my 10-80 OCF dipole. It did a bit better than my rigs internal tuner. I no longer needed it once I upgraded to a different LDG tuner for use with an amplifier.
Solid tuner with a great amount of memory.
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| G7ILZ |
Rating: |
2021-02-12 | |
| Does the job well on a FT-450D |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this to match a long wire to my FT-450D. The internal tuner was able to match all other bands except 80m.
Only had it for a couple of months but use it on a daily basis and it has not had any issues matching and does recall frequencies I have previously tuned. Just a short press of the button on the front of the tuner and it recalls the previously tunes frequency and tunes within a second.
I am running firmware version 0252 on the FT450D
If anything changes I will update my review over the next few months.
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| GW4DVB |
Rating: |
2018-10-19 | |
| Poor Support |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I bought this to help with the inadequate internal ATU fitted in the FT-991A.
OK- It's better than the internal one on the 991A but it is not without it's bugs.
I have had two problems:
The main one being that when tuning other bands it resets the frequencies that I have bee using on other bands - On 40m it reverts to whatever VFO 'B' was last set to.
It also struggles to store the settings to memory which means I have to do a complete re-tune when changing bands..
I have contacted LDG support to try and fix without any luck !!
Again - Hugely better than the internal ATU on the 991A but needs further work to make it seamless to use. |
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| K5YNC |
Rating: |
2017-10-30 | |
| Worked great until today! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Great little tuner for my Yaesu FtDX1200....until today!!! I installed firmware updates on the radio, and hooked the tuner back up to the radio. Now, the tuner cannot communicate with the radio. I have done a radio reset, and all recommendations suggested to get the tuner to communicate with the radio. My thoughts are now with the radio firmware updates, the tuner not longer "sees" it as the same radio. Now the tuner is nothing more than a big brick. Hopefully LDG will be honorable and come up with a solution to this issue!!!!
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| KN6Q |
Rating: |
2017-07-05 | |
| Update after 1.1 Firmware on the FT-991 |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I thought I would update my review of the YT-1200 on my FT-991 after the 1.1 firmware update.
At Field Day, a friend of mine who also has a YT-1200 (for his FTDX-1200) told me he got a free firmware update for his. I checked the internet, and sure enough 1.1 firmware had come out in March and it seemed it was all about fixing the FT-991(A) support.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn't eligible for a free upgrade because I bought mine before May 2016. This was seemed kind of crazy to me, because at the time I bought it (March 2016), the YT-1200 was the only auto-tuner that advertised FT-991 support -- but it never worked quite right so they eventually removed all reference to FT-991 support on their website. Twenty dollars wasn't worth arguing over to me, so I just went on their CheapHam website and ordered it.
First let me say if you have an FT-991 and the YT-1200 1.0 firmware chip you should definitely upgrade to 1.1 (even if you have to pay).
The way it works is slightly different, when you hit the tune button it now switches to FM (used to be AM) and runs through the tuning cycle, switches you back.
But the biggie is the memory function finally works! I can switch bands, power cycle, do whatever - and it remembers the the setting for the frequency I tuned.
So now, after more than a year, I can say it operates as it was advertised when I first purchased it. Don't get me wrong, it still works well, handles a wide range of mismatch and tunes everything from 160-6m on my doublet. Not having the memory work was never a deal breaker for me, just annoying.
Honestly, most people I know with a FT-991(A) now use the MFJ-939Y. It's $100 cheaper, handles 200 watts (so it doesn't have the 30 watt cap for PSK), and has more than one button and LED for an interface (I still dislike this on the YT-1200).
But the MFJ doesn't do 6 meters. So if you need 6 meters or strongly dislike MFJ, this is the tuner for you.
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Earlier 3-star review posted by KN6Q on 2016-03-31
I bought this for my FT-991. The internal tuner in the 991 would only work if the SWR was already below 3:1, which is only useful up to a point.
The Good- The YT-1200 does a good job tuning, I can get below 3 SWR on every band (except 160, but my dipole is not nearly long enough for 160). It uses the CAT control of the radio to switch to AM, changes the power to 25 Watts, does it's thing and then switches it back to your settings. In the end this is the most important thing, and it does it well.
The Bad - the user interface is one button and one red LED which you have to count the number of blinks to see what it means. I mean, all that they would have had to do would be to add a couple more LEDs and you would have way more information all the time. Two more buttons and you wouldn't have to hold down the button for different amounts to time to do different things. It truly boggles my mind, how much cost could they possibly have saved by omitting two LEDs and two Buttons?
The Ugly- it seems to have no memory - it only seems to remember the tuning setting if you stay on the same band, otherwise it goes through the full tuning cycle. I can go through the full tuning cycle on 40 meters, switch to 20 meters (and go through the full tuning cycle), then flip back to the same *exact* frequency on 40 meters and it will go through the full tuning cycle again.
That's the biggest problem, because it isn't what they advertise - they advertise it having 2,000 frequency memories for the tuner. That either isn't true or it just flat doesn't work.
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| KK2U |
Rating: |
2017-06-21 | |
| CAT A MESS!!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The manual is explicit in stating that CAT settings for the FT-950 do not matter. Any Baud rate, any TOT, etc., and the tuner will connect.
NOT TRUE!
I figured the tuner was just broken. I found recomended CAT settings in an old manual for a YT-450, and figured I'd give them a shot. Voila, and the tuner talks with the rig, and now tunes. Go figure. Settings below for reference:
With “CAT BPS” showing on the screen, rotate the CLAR/VFO-B knob fully clockwise until “384H” is showing. Rotate the SELECT knob one click clockwise until “CAT TOT” is showing. Now rotate the CLAR/VFO-B dial until “100” is showing. Rotate the SELECT knob one more click clockwise, until “CAT RTS” is displayed. Now rotate the CLAR/VFO-B knob until “On” is displayed. Finally, press and hold the MENU button for 2 seconds so that these new settings take effect. Also, be sure to set your FT-950’s AM CAR menu per the FT-950 instruction manual, to select 25 watts as the AM carrier level. |
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| N9EU |
Rating: |
2017-05-10 | |
| It stopped working |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
After the initial troubles with the YT-1200 auto-tuner, not being able to make it work with my FTdx3000 transceiver, finally I was able to make it function reasonably well. I operated with it for months, with no major issues, using a Windom antenna from 80m to 10m (well not much on 10m, anyway). The initial problem was, that during the tuning cycle, it reset the transceiver leaving it in AM mode.
I also own an LDG Z11II-Pro, which I use with my Icom746. It works as a charm. I never had problems with it, and changing bands to already tuned frequencies is no more than a click or two by the relays. Similarly the AT-897 that I also own from LDG, works as expected. I owned both of these auto-tuners for over some years now, and I am quite happy with them.
I cannot claim the same for the YT-1200. It shook my trust in LDG. First of all, the YT-1200 is a step back in technology, as it requires a manual intervention each time tuning is required, as opposed to the LDG Z11II-Pro, which detects RF and initiates tuning automatically.
I noticed that it never appeared to be able to hold the memory either, and it always seemed to rattle the relays (rather noisily) for more than 3-5 secs when changing bands.
When I contacted LDG multiple times, I received no response. Someone suggested checking my junk box, but no, a reply never arrived. Such customer care is quite disappointing.
As I said earlier, the unit functioned reasonably well, up until a few days ago, when I noticed that the tuner no longer finds a low SWR point. It keeps rattling until it stops and indicates high SWR (LED indicator). Of course, the first culprit was the antenna. I hooked it up to another transceiver with the AT-897 tuner, and the antenna is fine. Then, I hooked up a manual tuner with the FTdx3000 and it also worked, just fine.
I ended up trashing the YT-1200 (it is a new addition to my collection of broken devices shelf in my garage).
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Earlier 0-star review posted by N9EU on 2017-01-22
I bought a YT-1200 autotuner to improve the tuning range of the internal tuner of my FTdx3000. Unfortunately, when I press the button on the unit to start tuning, as the relays start rattling in about 5 sec, the radio powers down, then it comes back and stays in AM mode. I tried with different bands, but fearing that it destroys my radio, I stopped experimenting with it. Of course, the internal tuner tunes the antenna OK on all bands, where I tried the YT-1200. I must have bought a faulty unit. It happens. Anyway, I contacted LDG before Xmas, than early January, but so far no response. I own two other types of LDG tuners, and I am very happy with them. I hope to have this replaced soon and enjoy it as well. |
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| N1LL |
Rating: |
2017-02-28 | |
| FTdx1200 update |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Some firmware revisions of the radio will not work with the tuner; some will. LDG does not know which ones do or do not and apparently Yaesu is not much help there either. I've tried to find out what the changes are and no is able to help. The distributor could not say if the latest would work or not so all I can say is good luck and hope the next person has better luck. Sad that the two companies can't get things straight.
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Earlier 0-star review posted by N1LL on 2017-02-14
Recently received the YT-1200 for use with my FTdx1200 and it does not work! Tried to call LDG and all I get is a message to email them and then they hang up. Survey on the web page is not active either. It appears that LDG can't get the tuner to talk to the radio. It does work with a FT-950 but not a newer radio. I was informed by the distributor that LDG claims to not be able to keep up with changes by Yaesu. Strange being my radio is not new and my CAT control works just fine per the Yaesu manual. |
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| WR3V |
Rating: |
2016-10-28 | |
| Does what it claims to |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Using my yt-1200 with a Yaesu ft-450d into a Dxtreme 88' end fed (w/ 9:1 unun). Tunes one flash (less than 1.5-1) fron 6m all the way down to ssb 160, two flashes 1.5-3.0) at cw end of band. Works for me, and easier and faster than my mfj-941e. And icing on the cake, I got it for a good price used from Universal Radio, who, BTW is a pleasure to deal with and has an awesome web site to research any ham product. |
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| AC8YJ |
Rating: |
2016-05-24 | |
| good value |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| Tuner designed for 6-160 meters, works as advertised, tunes my antenna to below 1.5 swr 10-160 meters, 2.1 on 6. Sure it makes some noise when tuning, it is not a Palstar; I do not expect it to be as quiet, for the price it works very well. |
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