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Reviews For: LDG AT-1000

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-1000
Reviews: 63MSRP: 599.00
Description:
This is an automated antenna tuner capable of 1000 watts SSB, 750 Watts CW, and 500 watts digital.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00634.3
W1JUS Rating: 2007-07-08
Junk Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Never worked -

----------------------
Earlier 4-star review posted by W1JUS on 2006-07-14

This is a nice box-HOWEVER it will not hold tune
over 5:1. So be careful and you will find it works
very well.
My Z 100 tunes over a wider range (10:1) because it
has latching relays. 73's Ray
K7WFR Rating: 2007-07-01
Would not recommend Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Out of the Box, the meters were not sitting on zero...that should have been my first hint.
The unit has a terrible time tuning a 102' doublet where the SGC-230 I have and the manual MFJ-941E do not have any trouble. It seems to be unable to retain a memory and trying to clear the memory to go to a better setting (lower SWR) just does not work.
It constantly has to find the same frequency over and over again and the noise it makes scares the dickens out of my cat. I wrote the company for a return refund and did not receive any communications back from them at all. There are times when it just will not do anything when I push the buttons. I have to power it down and turn it back on to make it do anything. Although it is claimed to be "Automatic", it is nothing more than semi-automatic. So, I am very disappointed in it. I give it a 1 because it does look nice.
I would not recommend this tuner to anyone. I'd really like to horse trade it for something but would feel guilty letting someone else be disappointed too! Today, I was on the phone helping a fellow get going on Winlink. He asked me what the gawd-aweful noise was....and I told him it was this junk tuner. Sounds like my kids battery powered D9 Cat coming through the house!
AF3Y Rating: 2007-06-26
Need better QC Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The unit works well, as expected, however, one minor thing keeps it from a 5. The feet are unlevel (easily corrected) and the thing rocks when I touch it. Inspector "CE" must have been finishing up his/her coffee and doughnuts instead of checking it for the exterior items. I called them, just to tell them about it, and the person who answered the phone seemed a little miffed that I would call about such a minor thing. Heck, for the price, I expected better quality of construction on the exterior. After all, LDG is not MFJ... right??
ON4XA Rating: 2007-05-25
iafter 4 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After 4 years, mine works perfectly. Can even tune my Mosley TA 33 JRN WARC on 40 and 80. Without any TVI.
This tuner is a miracle.
former_K4PDQ Rating: 2007-04-30
Nice Tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was looking for a tuner to work with my Ameritron AL-811H amp. I had a used MFJ roller that had major problems and I didn't want another MFJ tuner. I really didn't want to spend almost $500 for a tuner, but after reading the reviews on this Auto tuner, I purchased it. So far I really like it. It tunes my Carolina Windom 80 with no problems. After the initial tune up on each band, it takes less than a second to retune when you swap bands. The meter is a little hard to see especially if the tuner is placed below eye level, but the meter is pretty acurate. All in all, this tuner gives you a "lot of bang for the buck".
EA2FL Rating: 2007-04-28
Small, fast and runs 1kw !! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Everybody needs tuning sometimes and most people run more than 100w, specially on lower freqs. Power tuners are BIG and auto tuners work no more than 200w. This is the only one, as far as I know, that is both: Power and Auto. Just for this reason it deserves a high note.

I see that some people had problems with this one, but looks like they have used it badly. Poor thing! Manual says (not big enough sign, I must say) that you cannot run more than 200w if you cannot get less than 2:1 SWR. It will burn relays!!!

Unit can handle almost 10:1 SWR (from 6 to 800 ohms) which is more than built in tuner with Icom PW1 (just 3:1), and you cannot have the amp away from desk and this little tuner just in front of you, if you have a PW1! But tuning that much does not mean it will tune anything! Besides one can have an error and transmit high power before tuning with just less than 120w, which is a need to.
This new version 2.5 has 200 memory positions and will not tune if you send too much power, but still you can have an error...

I find it very GOOD for the price. I don't give it a 5 because I would like it to be fool proof, have a little better look and have some more features.

Heavier duty: Yes, possible but it will cost twice or more and then will manage 5 or more kw.
Look: LED is too bright when powered at 13.8VDC, meter is too much inside the box, so upper part does not show well.
Features: It will be nice to have a power switch, besides on/off button (easy to add if we want), remote control and being able to work outdoors, but will again make it more expensive. Last two are very nice features that not everybody needs.

I want to insist that is a very good item, but needs to be treated well. Handles 500 continuous carrier, 750 CW and 1KW SSB, 1.8 to 30MHz. Besides it will take 200w SSB on 50MHz. Not bad!

Using it could not be easier. Just press 2 seconds the tune button while apply medium power, 20 to full 100w, carrier from exciter. It will do the rest very quickly (less or much less than half a second) after learning your antenna/s and frequencies impedances (it can take up to 8 seconds to try the 128+128 combinations of 7 capacitors plus 7 coils).

If you want you can play more: switch tuner to by-pass, manual fine tuning and storing in memo. Also has infos like telling you are sending too much or too less power to be able to tune. For all this you need a chart to understand the meaning of those up&down needle bounces. Not that you need to play more really, just learn to push TUNE 2 secs. Manual is available at LDG website.

N6BIZ Rating: 2007-04-09
I LIKE IT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
just got mine does a better job than the 897 tuner if it breaks heck its got a 2 year warranty and u cant beat that
N2NEH Rating: 2007-03-22
Love it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had initially purchased an LDG-AT200Pro for travel and loved it so much that I bought an AT-1000 for home station use. The AT-1000 is a bit slower on the tune than the 200Pro but I love it just as much. This beastie is built like a tank and easily tunes every antenna combo at any frequency that I throw at it...even with my amp @ 600 watts. Now, you can't beat that....
K2GW Rating: 2007-01-29
Instant Blast Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my AT-1000 for a year and love it. It replaced a Murch AT-1000 which I needed to tune my Alpha Delta through all of 80 meters.

Tuning is just a two second push button operation instead of the two minute operation of cranking the roller inductor.

Coupled with my ALS-600 4 FET linear amplifier, I can now tune a frequency and be ready to go with a full 600 watts in two seconds if needed.

73

Gary, K2GW

K3TLP Rating: 2007-01-25
As Advertised Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I acquired a LDG AT-1000 7 months ago from a local
s.k. I have been using it with a R-7 vertical, a quarter wave 40 meter vertical, and a long wire. It is a bit noisy when it first tunes. After that it takes a fraction to return to that antenna and frequency. I have used it with 3 different amps - up to 900 watts. It works quickly and works very well. I'm very satisfied with it.