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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
KT9O Rating: 2006-12-22
Heavy duty..... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a well designed unit that is beefy and rugged. I bought it for use with my 600 watt solid state amp. It does well on all bands except, in my case, 160 meters. My trapped dipole is outside the range of the tuners ability which tops out at around 800 ohms. This is typical for the older hi-power tuners. Its a great value as a used item and might be great value for you in your shack.
KN4JX Rating: 2006-11-26
You can not find a better 1000 Watt autotuner for the price. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my AT-1000 for about four years now. I think it is great!

When I bought it, it did not yet have the memory board installed. When I called to see if I could get the upgrade I was treated very well. They installed the upgrade for free. I have been very pleased with its performance.

I use it with a TL-922A running about 900 Watts into three antennas, a TA33 Beam, a Windom, and also a 320’ Zepp using open line and a 4:1 balan.

It has tuned most bands down to a 1:5:1 SWR or better.

I will say on 160m it is not as good as on the rest of the bands. It is a little slow there but it will bring my Zepp that has a 4:1 SWR down to a 2:1.

The relays are heavy duty and make some noise when tuning. This is shortened after you have tuned on that frequency before and it is put into one of it’s 100 memories.

Overall you can not find a better 1000 Watt autotuner for the price.
WR5RR Rating: 2006-11-19
AT 1000 and 160 Meters Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

Remarks: AT 1000 and 160 Meters

I am very disappointed in the 160-meter performance of the AT-1000. The ARRL testing indicated their was a weakness in the 160 meter performance, but this was with very high SWR. With a 4:1 SWR the tuner will not tune below a 3:1. My antenna is resonant at 1.947, and the 2:1 bandwidth is + or - 18 kc. This tuner will not tune down to 1.892 or up to 1.970 with a usable SWR. The main reason I wanted the tuner was for 160 meters. It works great on the other bands, but it is lacking on 160 meters. I guess I am asking too much of the tuner, but my TS-2000 will tune a greater 160 range, but I need a tuner because I use an amplifier on 160. Of course my manual tuner works just fine on 160. Maybe it deserves more then a three, but if you need it for 160, it's not the tuner you need.

WR5RR
WB5TTY Rating: 2006-11-18
Buyer Beware Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had the KW Tuner for less than a week before it burned a relay. The dealer sent it back for credit and LDG ignored the written request for credit to the dealer's account. The KW Tuner was "fixed" and returned. I paid $600 for a new tuner and got a bum tuner which has a burned board that cannot be fixed to new spec. I will never buy from LDG gain. They are over priced and don't stand behind their product. Burning a circuit bard leaves carbon trails in the board which is very bad news in a high power RF system. I don't think LDG is ready for high power. As I said, buyer beware!
KJ5XF Rating: 2006-10-26
Quality Control Problems? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After owning an LDG AT-11MP (which worked flawlessly!!) for many years, I decided to purchase a brand new AT-1000 for a QRO station that I set up. Unfortunately, the tuner had a defective relay and wouldn't handle more than 400w CW on 20m. The net result is that I returned the tuner to AES......
KA4SSH Rating: 2006-10-23
UN HAPPY Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I BOUGHT THIS TUNER BECAUSE I HAD READ GOOD THINGS ABOUT THERE SERVICE AND THE UNIT WAS VERY GOOD- I HAD IT 3 DAYS AND MANY E-MAILS LATER I RETURNED IT TO LDG AND IT WAS RETURNED TO ME AFTER TEN DAYS WITH NOTHING THAT I SHOULD CHANGE THE CABLES- WHICH I DID- WITH MY CAROLINA WINDOM AND ALS 600 AMP AND IC-756PROII IT WILL ON 80 MTRS 1.8 SWR ON 40- 17- 15 1.6 SWR AND ON 20 MTRS KICKS MY AMP OFF - SO I CALLED LDG AND NO TECH PERSON THERE TO TALK TO THE MAN I TALKED TO - I ASKED IF THESE SWR'S WAS ACCEPTABLE - "HE DID NOT SAY THAT" WAS HIS ANSWER
THAT IS THE SAME ANSWER I GOT TO ALL THE OTHER THREE QUESTIONS I ASKED= I THANKED HIM AND HUNG UP- GREAT SEVICE FOR A 500.00 DOLLAR ITEM !! NOT GOOD FOR ME!!
K8QT Rating: 2006-10-07
Nice - Real Nice Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
If you use a tuner and run an amp that is 1000 watts or less then you need to get one of these.

I switch between a "G5RV" or a "Carolina Windom" and run a small amp. The LDG AT-1000 is just so easy to work. Once it is initially set up for your favorite frequencies they are then stored in memory and each tune thereafter is fast and accurate.

Forget those manual tuners. You don't want to be one of those operators that tune on the band taking forever while interferring with the very net or frequency they want to operate on.

Manual tuners are simply slow, take too much time and annoy everyone that happens to be on or near the frequency. You don't have to be one of those operators.

After using this LDG for several months I can say that I would "NEVER" go back to a dial. My only regret is that I did not make this purchase earlier.

"This IS the way to go!!!"
WA7SCH Rating: 2006-07-27
Works fine Now. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased mine from HRO looking forward to expanding the capabilities of my vertical.
When it arrived it behaved very irratically. Power go on and off, meter lightning would go on and off, all with no RF present.
Sent a note to LDG and they suggested I check my power source. Did that, changed power supplies, and the problem persisted.
Sent it back to LDG and it just came back today. Now that I see how it works, it works great. I'm able to tune my Hygain Hytower on all bands 160 to 6 meters with no problems.

It's really loud when it tunes but it works great. Hope it stays that way. If so, it will be a long standing part of my station. Nice job.
K5HSV Rating: 2006-04-16
Memory Upgrade - Big Difference Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned the LDG, AT-1000 for over two years now. Last month I replaced the EPROM chip with the latest version. The upgrade gave me 200 memories for frequencies to tune. The nice thing is, it takes half the time for the initial tune and only a second to snap to a frequency that is stored on the chip. This upgrade makes a great tuner into an awesome tuner. My AT-1000 had a hard time tuning the outer band of 75 meters of a 160 meter half wave dipole prior to this upgrade. Now I tune it with no trouble and it snaps into 1:1 VSWR in less than a second. The upgrade is a must have if your not up to date. One other thing I had to replace was the lamp. The total cost of every thing was less than $30.00 with S&H.

73s
Paul - K5HSV
KC4CP Rating: 2006-04-01
GREAT TUNER Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have LDG AT-1000 in line with Ameritron 811 amp. It works great! The key is storing tuner settings in memory. Once this is done, it only takes a fraction of a second to tune! And with 200 memories, there is plenty of storage.

I have a new model, with latest upgrades. Noise while tuning is very minimal and brief. After setting is stored, all that is heard is a "click" and it is ready to go.

The only negative that I can think of ... is that you have to learn to speak the LDG language. All communications from the tuner to the user is via different "meter bounces." For example, if (while tuning) both meters bounce slow and high, this means that SWR is too high for power setting. However, the manual is excellent. And the manual provides a quick reference guide for all communication codes. But this is a weakness. Nonetheless, price + performance = a 5 rating.