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Reviews For: mercuryAT antenna tuner by KM3KM Electronics

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : mercuryAT antenna tuner by KM3KM Electronics
Reviews: 13MSRP: $ 795
Description:
Automatic antenna tuner to match the Mercury IIIs lineal multiband LDMOS HF amplifier. It covers from 160 to 6M
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.km3km.com/product/mercuryat/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
55135
N0JVW Rating: 2022-06-05
Beautiful and Easy to Use. Works Fantastically. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was one of the lucky folks to get an order placed last Saturday (~9:15AM CST) for the NEW Mercury AT, and it is fantastic! It lives up to all expectations so far.

The tuner arrived via FedEx on Friday 6/3/22. The packaging was absolutely excellent; the AT packed with care. The outer box was marked with a red and white decal, "Please handle with care FRAGILE **THANK YOU**." Opening the outer box revealed that it was snugly packed with large bubble wrap. The RCA PTT and DC power cables were visible through the bubble wrap which were both tucked in their own zip locked packs. Under the cables, was the separately boxed Mercury AT. Upon opening the inner box, there was a nice note from Kenny stating his enthusiasm, history of when/why the project started and to contact him with any problems. The AT is sealed in an inner bag of it’s own with protective film over the touchscreen. There is a foil seal over the rear corner (most likely to ensure it hasn’t been opened during the 1 year warranty).

I'm using the Mercury AT with ever popular IC-7300 (w/Radioanalog PTRX) and the LDG IC-PAC cable. I purchased the cable prior to realizing that they would be sold on the KM3KM website, or I would have ordered the cable from him. I didn't have a 4pin molex or 1/8 stereo plug in my spare parts inventory, so I bought the LDG. If you want to make your own, it looks like an easy build. Note: you WILL NOT want to use DC power through the Molex connector to the 7300 or with an aftermarket cable. Kenny sends you a separate power cable that requires 1.5A 13.8v power source.

I ran my first test using the MyAntennas MEF-110-3K 260’ (160M-30M). The antenna is already very resonant; however, there are some areas were the antenna goes as high as 2.5. With a press of the ‘Tune’ button and 2 to 3 seconds of clickety clack, the Mercury AT says ‘Tuned’ with a green banner. It’s that simple and quick. It’s basically as quick as the internal Icom tuner although louder. It can tune over a kW without fiddling with my big roller inductor tuner and without slowing me down to look at previously tuned values on a spreadsheet like my old trusty tuner.

I'm sure Kenny and Angel are continuing to crank these out, and it will be worth your wait. I don't see anything on the market with touch screen that handles 1.2kW at this price point + it matches their Mercury IIIS amp; which I'm still anxiously awaiting. It’s great to be able to support innovative HAMS building their business with a great product.

DE N0JVW 73 Joe
KP4F Rating: 2022-05-25
Good Job Kenny Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Hello and good morning everyone. This is KP4F who writes you a short summary of my experience as a MercuryAT beta tester. I am the only beta tester in my country Puerto Rico.
I want to thank Kenny KM3KM for the trust placed in me for this SUPER Antenna Tuner project.
I can tell you that, within my tests done with all my radios, together with the MercuryIIIs Amp. It has been very effective and efficient, I have used my JK Force 12 antenna, Sirio 827(10M Vertical) and my homemade bazooka for 80 and 40 meters, and all of them have been perfectly tuned in portions of the band where I have a high SWR. For example, and I believe that it is the most efficient test that I have been able to do with the MercuryAT, it was the following test, I used the Sirio 827 antenna which is adjusted only for the 10 meter band, in the 40 meter band. The SWR on this band (40M) with this antenna was greater than 5:1, when I used the MercuryAT it did an adjustment in about 2 seconds and lowered the SWR to 1:1 with an average of 10W in reflected power. This test was with the Icom IC7610, Icom IC7300 and Yaesu FTDX 101D with the same result on all three radios.
I hope this little summary gives you an idea of ??how efficient this Antenna Tuner works.
Luis, KP4F
73''
AD4C2006 Rating: 2022-05-24
A great tuner companion for M3s Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Altough this tuner is not for sale yet but it will be very soon, I am one of the few Beta tester in the US for three weeks now.
This tuner is designed mainly to extend the bandwith of your antenna to up to a maximun of 5 to 1 SWR.
Its tunning response is very fast, in less than 5 seconds it will tune down your high swr to a flat match or close. In my case I have never seen more than 1.3 in any antenna after tuned.
It covers from 160 to 6M.
How it works
First you press on BYPASS to remove that condition and then press on TUNE, as soon you do it two things are going to happen,one is to disable the PTT line from your radio to the amp, to avoy the amp to TX on high power to save internal tuner components, and second you will hear a tone advicing the tuner is ready to start tuning process, also you will see a horizontal orange color bar all across the display indicating tuner is ready to start tuning, then you send from the radio automatically a carrier if you have the interface cable connected but if like me I do not have that cable connected, send the carrier mannually with no more than 40W acording the mannual,recomended just 10W and you will see the tuner doing the tunning process and will hear the relays inside moving to get the best match possible, as soon it ends you will hear a tone in morse code sending out the letter "R" and a green color horizontal bar all across the display plus a sign saying "TUNED".
The tuner has input from three antennas, a small power connector to use 12 to 14V, I am using my own 13,8V that feed my IC7300. Also you will have to connect the PTT line coming from the radio to the tuner and from the tuner to the M3s amp to be able to disable it on the tunning process.This is very important to protect the tuner.
The higher SWR I have tuned from my dipole antennas is about 5 to 1 and it has tuned them in less than 3 seconds to 1.3 and when SWR is 3 to 1 it takes just 2 seconds to bring it down to 1 to 1 flat.
This tuner will be avaliable for sell very soon and you will have to order it at km3km.com web page.
Once again Kenny Martinez has designed and built a great product for the hams community.
Kudos for his company.