| N1YQE |
Rating:      |
2020-07-22 | |
| Great tuner! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I have an open wire 80m doublet hidden in the trees at my house, so this tuner was the perfect solution for burying coax out to the antenna with a Balun Designs 4116 hybrid balun. It matches any frequency between 3.5 and 54 MHz, mostly with a 1.1-1.3:1 SWR. The only minor issue I experience is it doesn't seem to remember the match on 30m and 15m. So it has to go through a full tuning cycle every time I switch to those bands, and sometimes I have to force the cycle, almost like its stuck. Also, the full match time is more like 10-15 seconds. Other than that, this is a great tuner and I haven't experienced any of the issues in other reviews. |
|
| AJ6PM |
Rating:      |
2020-06-22 | |
| Matches well with a properly setup antenna system |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Running the LDG RT-600 for over a week now with a DX Engineering 4:1 current balun on the output side of the tuner to extend the tuning range. Works very well to 60M for my long wire vertical which is only about 40 some feet long. Also there is no common mode on the 50 ohm side of the balun to the tuner which is a good thing. Using a short 3 foot LMR-400 cable between
the balun and tuner. The balun is DX Engineerings 5KW dual core current balun. Did notice that when I tuned up on 80M, the tuner would tune ok, but when I started to call CQ on 80M the tuner wanted to re-tune. I put an antenna analyser on the 50 ohm side of the 4:1 balun to see what the tuner is dealing with on 80M and found the SWR to be 20:1 or greater simply because the wire vertical was too short for anything below 5 MHz. This problem was fixed be adding some loading inductance
to the hot side on the output of the balun. At that point the tuner tuned 80M to a flat SWR and remained during normal transmissions on the 80M band. This happened simply because my antenna was too short for the tuner to reliably tune on 80M even with the 4:1 balun. It wasn't the tuners fault. Another thing that was noticed is when I had an external SWR meter inline from the tuner controller to the tuner itself, the controller was not able to activate the tuner. Most likely the SWR meter disrupted the DC power from the tuner controller to the tuner. Would be better to place the SWR meter
between the radio and the tuner controller. Other than that the tuner works as it should unlike some of the other reviews. |
|
| NI0C |
Rating:    |
2020-03-17 | |
| Works well, not quite what I needed, though |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I purchased this unit for use with the N6BT Bravo V8 vertical dipole. It has a nice waterproof enclosure, which survived a lot of rain during the time that I used it.
I used it with up to 500 watts from an ACOM 1010 amplifier. It worked well with the Bravo V8 until I decided to add a 1:1 common mode choke at the tuner input to prevent my 300 ft. coax line from acting as part of the antenna. On 40 meters, I found that I could only run about 20 watts or so without SWR drift caused by heating of either the common mode choke or components inside the tuner. I tried two high quality CM chokes rated at multiple KW power, and experienced the same thing. It worked okay on higher frequency bands.
I replaced the tuner with the MFJ-998RT (rated at 1.5 Kw), and am much happier. The MFJ unit tunes much faster, and gives me stable operation, with no SWR drift. |
|
| K1GUY |
Rating:      |
2019-06-17 | |
| LDG WOW GREAT |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a really great company. The service is the best there is. Years ago I had one of their tuners, and it's summer time..antenna time. So, at the very strong recommendation of my friend, Randy (W9RTB) I bought the 600 RT. I run no more than 250 watts digital and 500w SSB thru this tuner. I respect the manual. Read it ! Now, this tuner is at the end of 300 feet of 7/8" hard line and then into 150 ft LMR400. It matches from 1.1 to 1.3 on a 43 foot vertical...almost instantly without fail once it learns a frequency.
If you are even thinking about it, GET ONE ! GREAT PRODUCT, and GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. Great job LDG, now make a 1k remote PLEASE.. |
|
| K5ALU |
Rating:   |
2019-05-27 | |
| Poor For Wires |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I use end fed Inverted "L" configuration when / from my RV. Recent;ly purchased a RT-600 to use when my new MFJ 993BRT arrived DOA. I found the RT-600 must be designed to be used with balanced feed antennas. I placed a 4:1 Balun in the line after the RT-600 and only then would it tune the wire, but very poorly.
Thanks to Richard with MFJ my replacement 993BRT arrived, so I decided to compare the two. The 993BRT tunes perfectly and very fast.
Observation --- if you are going to try to tune single wires buy the MFJ, the RT600 obviously does not do the job
de
RED K5ALU |
|
| W9RTB |
Rating:      |
2019-03-12 | |
| Survived -28F No Issues |
Time Owned: N.A. |
Going into 3yrs and no issues with my Zero Five 33' vertical, tunes 10-80m and works great with my new SS amp. It survived 4 days and nights of -28 air temps this winter in Chicago. The only protection was a heavy duty bag covering the base of the antenna that was buried in snow. Worked with no issues.
Randy
W9RTB
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by W9RTB on 2018-07-08
I have been using the RT-600 for almost 2 years with no issues with my Zero Five 31’ vertical. I had the RT-100 for a short time, but went with the RT-600 due the fact that it has a higher power rating for digital modes. I like that it can tune at 100w (per manual).
I have tried it on two radios an IC-7300 and TS-590SG. The TS-590SG tuned the best, pretty much a perfect match 10-40M (1.1 to1 match) on 80m it tune to 1.3 across the band. The IC-7300 would not tune as well. I added a 4 to 1 unun between the tuner and the antenna to get it to match as well 10-40M. I had to shorten the Zero Five from 31’ to 28’ to equal the tuning abilities of the TS-590SG.
I spoke with Icom tech support and LDG tech support and found out the SWR protection circuit is more restrictive than Kenwood’s design causing the difference in tuning ability. I also tired it on a friend’s FT-3000 and almost the same results as with the Kenwood.
It does what it is designed for and does it well in my opinion. Tech support was very good from LDG and yes they did return my calls and emails, know that Mark is back.
Randy
W9RTB
|
|
| K4LLE |
Rating:      |
2018-08-01 | |
| First digital QSO on FT8 to Italy |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The LDG RT-600 tuner arrived two weeks ago. After connecting it to my Myantennas 80-10 long wire it did not work. I called LDG and talked with Mark, he determined that the Polyphaser lightning protecting device I have in the feedline has to come out because the RT-600 can not tune past it. So I pulled it out.
Now the RT-600 works perfectly, very fast tune on freq’s that it has already tuned up. I have read the prior reviews and the one I got holds the tuning config in memory WITHOUT power so I think if yours does not do this then it is broken. Tuning on freq’s it has never tuned on takes up to 10 seconds but my antenna is pretty close on all HF bands 80-10 so I think it would take longer if your antenna is way out on SWR and Z.
This tuner and my Apachie ANAN 7000DLE are a very good match indeed.
I started looking at a remote tuner because I put an SWR meter after my MFJ manual tuner just to see what was going on and found on 10watts (tune) I was getting 3 watts reflected and the SWR was 4, that’s 4 to 1….so I decided to clean this up. A few hours after I got the RT-600 up and running (troubleshooting with Mark) I made my first digital QSO on FT8 to Italy from South Carolina (@ 00:24Z on 20 meters). To say I am happy with this tuner is an understatement .
Regards, Pete K4LLE
|
|
| KD4S |
Rating:     |
2018-07-08 | |
| Good tuner after simple modification |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Had very good performance with old LDG remote tuner. It was RT-1000, I think. It had latching relays which remembered tuner when power was off. When the box seals became old, water accumulated and destroyed the tuner.
So, I replaced it with the RT-600 which worked well. It was a pain to retune the memories any time power was removed. I added a separate "wall wart" power supply so I could shut down rest of station power while retaining power to RT-600.
After a while, the RT-600 became intermittent and unusable. A phone call to LDG just said something must be loose -- which was correct. When I opened the plastic case, I discovered the ground connection between input and output was only one little wire and the screw to the wire solder lug was very loose. So, the repair was to tighten screw and improve the ground connection. I added three more wires. If you have the tools, it would be wise to make a sheet metal connection with holes to fit the spacing of the coax connectors.
After repair, the unit has been trouble free. After performing tune cycle at all frequencies of interest (like 25 kHz intervals across band), the tuner is very quick to recall tuning at frequency of transmitter. Typically, I tune with about ten watts. I added a 500 watt amplifier several months ago with no problems.
I use the tuner with an end-fed wire and balun. One side of balun to ground and other side to the antenna wire. The wire is cut for 80 meters (about 75 feet). I have found the tuner allows me to operate all HF bands and six meters as well.
SUMMARY: very good tuner after improving the ground c0nnection and adding a separate power supply to retain power. |
|
| KC6ZKT |
Rating:    |
2018-07-05 | |
| Works, but finicky and unstable |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I am using this tuner at the top of a 20' mast, below an N6BT V-8 vertical dipole, an antenna designed specifically to be used with remote tuners. The mast is bolted to the corner of my house against a stucco and steel-wire-lath wall, and the ground radials of the antenna are about 22' above usually-dry earth, about 4'-8' above the sloping composite-shingle roof.
I installed a Balun Designs Model 1161 (1:1 ATU Current Balun) between the LDG RT-600 and the antenna after experiencing SWR varying with transmit power immediately after installation. Also, to resolve the varying SWR problem, I installed a ground rod at the base of the mast, and connected it to the grounding point of the tuner by #10 solid copper wire.
I bought the RT-600 after an excellent experience with the RT-100 on a 62' end-fed inverted-vee. The RT-100 just works, and I never have to think about it. I use it on 80M, 75M, and 40M, and occasionally on 160M (also on 30M and 20M before my RT-600 was installed). I would recommend the RT-100 to anybody.
I have more reservations about the RT-600. I use it on 15M, 17M, 20M, and 30M, and occasionally on 40M. I use it frequently at up to 200W on FT8 and CW, and up to 500W-PEP on SSB.
The first thing I noticed is that it takes quite a bit of power to get it to tune. While I'm able to tune the RT-100 on as little at 0.5W, it takes at least 10W to tune the RT-600; I can sometimes get an even better tune when I feed it 25W.
One night after running 175W on 40M, FT8, the RT-600 started retuning even though I had not changed frequency. My amp went into fault and shut down. After power cycling everything, I couldn't get the RT-600 to tune on 40M at all, and on 15M I got SWR widely varying with output power.
I sent the RC/RT-600 back to LDG and waited four weeks. Eventually, they said they could not find a problem, but they shipped me a new unit anyway. After installing that unit, almost two months later, I could get it to tune on 40M, but cannot get SWR below 2.0 on 15M or 12M.
On the plus side, from my modest suburban lot I've made contacts with all 50 states and about 30 countries. It does work with if I'm careful to tune up before changing frequency every time.
I'm trying to decide whether to replace this RT-600 with another brand--perhaps the MFJ-994BRT. The RT-600 doesn't quite work like I want it to. It's too bad. If it worked as well as the RT-100, I would give it 5 stars. |
|
| KQ6IG |
Rating:  |
2017-01-07 | |
| Avoid This Tuner |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I second GW4PJQ's review. I purchased this tuner to use with a 16-32 ft mobile antenna. It was one of the most unpredictable problematic pieces of hardware I have used. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it would not work. Sometimes it would match quickly, sometimes it would tune endlessly with the same antenna and frequency and fail to match. The trouble seemed to increase the longer it was bouncing around the back of my Jeep. I eventually gave up on it, put it on the shelf and replaced it with an SGC SG-237. The 237 has worked flawlessly tuning my verticle from 160m-10m, everytime. |
|