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Reviews For: Vectronics VC300DLP

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Vectronics VC300DLP
Reviews: 25MSRP: 159.95
Description:
"T" Antenna tuner with dual movement SWR meter and dummy load.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.vectronics.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00252.3
W7NVQ Rating: 2008-01-18
It's Junk! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This one goes beyond belief. The thing burned up on less than 20 watts of power on 80M into a G5RV antenna in less than a week. Called the factory and they took care of the repairs in a timely manner after paying the cost of shipping it back to Mississippi. The unit came back and was used on a loop antenna. It burned up again withing a few a weeks on low power on 80M. Called AES where I purchased it to see if they would give me any back up. Of course not...Bye AES...and MFJ...
I will now follow the actions of one of the other reviewers and enjoy smashing it with a hammer.
Oh, and one other thing...RESONANT ANTENNAS RULE!!

W7NVQ
IW1DFU Rating: 2007-06-29
Wasted money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've bought an used one and after few time I've dicided to sell it. You'll not be able to tune everythings as other ATU. It's nice to look but really not good to try to tune a random wire or somethings similar...
It has a lot of function (3 ant in, bypass, dummy load...) but wont tune what ever you need.

N3ATS Rating: 2007-06-23
FIRE! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Used it today during Field Day. I was running 50 watts on PSK when the SWR started jumping around wildly and fluctuating.

I tried to retune my antenna, and noticed I couldn't get the SWR anywhere close to where it was, (flat). No matter where I set the inductor or the vari-caps, nothing improved my match.

Then I noticed smoke coming out of the tuner.

Long story short? I lifted the lid to see where the smoke was coming from... The switch for the inductor lit off.

See the pic... TOAST!

http://n3ats.com/gallery/photos/Tuner_2.jpg
EI2HPB Rating: 2007-02-26
Works for Me !! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm using 100w into a full size G5RV and a Sirio 827 5/8 wave groundplane vertical and the VC300DLP will tune both of them down to a very low SWR ( less than 1.3 ) on all bands. You need a little patience but with that you should be able to achieve good tuning wherever you wish, the biggest surprise was the vertical which is really only meant for 26-28mhz....great performance and 1.1 SWR everywhere between 10m and 80m, who needs an expensive multibander ??
PW614 Rating: 2006-12-11
not bad but not good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had mine for about five years now and it does the job I have a 20m dipole fed with 300ohm ribbon feeder and also a vertical I use for 10m and 11m (yes I know naughty) and find it tunes the dipole very well but when trying to tune the vertical on 11m I found I needed to hold the inductor between 2 positions so I did a modification I shorted the 2 possitions together by soldering a piece of wire between the 2 and this solved the problem and caused no problems when trying to tune my dipole.
I would not buy another one but will not replace it until it develops a fault or a cheap MFJ tuner comes my.
So in short do not buy one but if someone offers you one for nothing take it.
VE6RTR Rating: 2003-12-11
Basic unit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have owned one for 9 yrs, had to get inductor switch replaced (fried when I tried to tune 160 m), a while after that the meters stopped working, the diodes in the sensing circuit went. Since then, 8 yrs now, it has worked okay. The unit has gotten a lot of use, but I notice it can have a narrow tuning range on 160 to 40 meters on a 120 ft long loop (have to adjust tuner if I move frequency within a band). Not a bad one, but not a great one either.
N1IDU Rating: 2003-10-10
Earns a 5 in my shack.. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Mine's been thru the mill, on camping trips, field day, and assorted portable ops. It's a bit scratched up- after 10 years of faithful service.
The only repair it ever needed was the output select shaft coupler needed to be tightened. It's a well made unit for the price- fit and component quality seem better than the mfj counterpart (which I also own). And if you buy one on ebay, it's probably repairable.
DG7JX Rating: 2003-10-10
Garbage! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought mine via ebay and found out that the tuner wasn't able to match any antenna to a good SWR!

Only by holding the inductor switch BETWEEN 2 positions and holding it there with the one hand, I could match the antenna with the other hand...

My MFJ-971 "Portable Tuner" is much better, matches almost every antenna to a 1:1 SWR.

So, don't buy the Vectronics VC-300 DLP!
S57LWE Rating: 2003-09-25
MY IS OK Time Owned: N.A.
My tuner is working very good noth have some problem bicos have :Power ,SWR meter...ect is nice for portabel work or for the home.
NA4IT Rating: 2002-09-25
Good tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought mine at a hamfest used. The inductor switch was burnt out. Got a replacement from Vectronics free of charge. Was a fairly easy fix. Then, I burned it out again tuning with 10W on 160. Come to find out, some of the instruction books are written wrong. Proper tuning procedure is to turn the TX and ANT knobs to "6", then begin with low power to tune. Make sure the knobs are at "6" each time you switch the inductor switch. Also, don't switch it with the power applied.

No more problems with my tuner. Dummy load works fine, tuner tunes a 160 dipole fed with coax on all bands, and a 10M rigid dipole on 10-20. Just wish the face was black...

Been using it daily, have a chart made out for the setting, works right everytime!