| W0FM |
Rating:      |
2001-10-29 | |
| A Perfect Addition |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I bought my AT-11MP (in kit form) about a year ago to replace my MFJ tuner for use with my IC-706mkIIG on trips to Grand Cayman (ZF2FM). I had found that I spent way too much of my valuable time in the Caymans trying to tune the less-than-optimum antennas I was forced to use there. Since I'm not exactly "big gun" DX from my Caymans hotel room, I do more "band hopping" operation in order to put QSO's in the log. The AT-11MP tunes virtually everything I've used very quickly, keeping the QSO count up.(I also bought the LDG Balun kit for those instances where I need to use a long wire) Having been building Knight Kits and Heathkits since 1960, I must say that I personally would have paid a "premium" to build this kit. Excellent instructions and easy to build. The only construction problem I encountered was my not paying attention to the toroid winding directions. Mr. "I-know-how-these-go" wound every last one of the toroids... BACKWARDS! At least I was consistent! When I had a little problem with unit's tuning stability on 10M, a call to LDG resulted in Dwayne suggesting that I try a slightly different length of coax between the rig and the tuner. I went to a piece of RG8-X that was about 6" longer than the first one and everything now tunes perfectly. Great product and great support from Dwayne and Jennifer and the folks at LDG. I'll bet you see more fine products (kits, hopefully)from them in the future. 73, Terry, WØFM |
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| W8BYH |
Rating:      |
2001-10-29 | |
| Great Tuner! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Got mine just in time for last weekend's CQ DX Contest. First thing that must be stated (and has been noted by other reviewers) - while working to find a match this tuner literally makes a noise that sounds like marbles being shaken around in a tin can. If you operate from a quiet or common location (like a living room) the noise is an intrusion, but you do get used to it. Now, having said that...
My tuner is hooked up to an ICOM IC-718 using the Icom tuner interface cable. Antenna is a VanGorden G5RV fed with mini-RG8X coax. The tuner found quick matches on all bands from 10 - 80 meters. Matches on 18 meters took a little longer and were not a 'stable', but that's a problem with the antenna, not the tuner. No match could be found for 160 meters. Again, the antenna, not the tuner. In all cases the SWR as measured at the tuner and at the radio (the IC 718 has a built-in SWR meter) were well below 1.5. In most cases the match the tuner found was stable across the band. Only on a few bands (18 meters, as mentioned, and 10 meters) was retuning required when moving across the band. The AT-11MP handled it with no problem. Tuning took only a second or two on each band.
The radio-tuner combination workes great. With the radio properly configured tuning is initiated one of three ways: 1. when the 'Tune' button on the keypad is pressed, 2. when bands are switched, 3. when the measured SWR in a particular band exceeds 1.5 and you press the PTT switch on the mic. This makes operating a lot simpler than using a manual tuner.
No fiddling dials when you hear the DX station - you are already tuned and ready to pounce!
The radio-tuner-antenna combination allowed me to capture DX from Hawaii to Poland, Canada to Brazil during the contest (I'm located just south of Atlanta). All-in-all, the AT-11MP is a great piece of gear and well worth the money. If you have an Icom 718 or 706 I strongly recommend you get the interface cable and make things even simpler.
73
Brian |
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| N5RL |
Rating:      |
2001-09-30 | |
| Outstanding tuner! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have been a ham for over 35 years and used many types of manual tuners (heathkit, johnson, drake, millen, mfj). I recently purchased the AT-11MP and am thoroughly enjoying it. Frankly, it matches most anything I have thrown at it. In one case, I tried a discarded antenna that was comprised of coax, ladderline, and unequal amounts of wire on either side of the center insulator. At the time, one side was lying partially on my roof and over onto the ground. The feedline was compised of about 15 feet of RG-8X and 20 feet of 450 ohm ladder line simply spliced together. 70 feet of insulated wire on one side and maybe 45 feet on the other. This in fact tuned out from 160 through 10 meters with a SWR of less than 1.5:1, mostly flat at 1:1. Now, I'm sure at best this would have been a very poorly radiating antenna but surely a good test of an impedance matching device. One short tuning period was all that was needed. In my mind, that tells the whole story. A great tuner with a little price tag. |
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| KD7KGX |
Rating:      |
2001-09-06 | |
| It works, and very well |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have little to add to the previous reviews, except to note that this is one noisy tuner! When tuning, it sounds like there's a bunch of BBs being shaken around in an aluminum canteen! Thank goodness it tunes quickly, because at first the noise is surprising. I have an Elecraft K2 with the internal KAT2 auto-tuner, and it is as fast but FAR less noisy. I'm sure that the noise is a product of the relays used, and since the AT-11MP is rated to 150w while the KAT2 is limited to 20w, the AT-11MP's relays are larger (thus the increased clatter). I run the tuner in the AUTO mode and find that the minor improvement of manual 'adjusting' after an auto tune is not worth the effort. As someone pointed out, you can buy the assembled tuner for $20 over the kit price (with free shipping) from HRO so buying the kit and paying shipping is really not worth it unless you really like to build... I do, but I'd pay someone $10 to assemble the tuner (and I did -- the factory). Suggested improvements: QUIETER relays! storage of tuner settings on a per-band basis so that there would be less tuning required... other than that it works really well. I use it with my Ten-Tec Omni VI/Option 1, and it works seamlessly with the Omni's TUNE button as long as the power is above 10w. I'd buy this tuner again. |
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| W2VD |
Rating:      |
2001-08-07 | |
| Does A Good Job |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I've owned my MP model for some time now, but have only recently been back on the air. I initially used it to load an off-center fed short dipole fed with 50 ohm twinlead (I'm using the LDG balun). It loaded nicely on 80, 40, 30, 20, 15 (I didn't try any other bands).
At this time, I have a 51' mini G5RV up about 65 feet. The AT-11MP loads up nicely on all of the previously mentioned bands, and I work DX with QRP power levels without difficulty. I must mention that in order to tune, I have to feed the AT-11MP with greater than QRP power level (about 10 watts or so) in order to get it to auto tune. This is not a problem; LDG has a QRP tuner available as well. Buy it, you'll like it! |
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| VE3DMJ |
Rating:      |
2001-08-04 | |
| Excellent Alternative. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have used the LDG AT-11MP for 3 months. While I have had no problems with the unit, I did do the upgrades and software revision which I found the support and customer service of LDG to be excellent. The tuner works almost flawlessly with my IC-706 and a Hustler Mobile antenna setup with the exception being on 80m which the unit has problems tuning on a couple of freqs other than that it works perfectly on all other bands from the mobile. The interface for the IC-706 is a great idea and works great. I will certainly buy another product from LDG. |
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| N4TXI |
Rating:      |
2001-06-04 | |
| Fantastic tuner - the growl will surprise you |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought my tuner kit about three weeks ago and built it while listening to the live Kenwood webcast from Dayton. It is a fantastic kit which went together with only one problem - pay careful attention to the direction you wind the torroidal inductors!! Lets just say this wasn't the frist time I realized I was lefthanded in a righthanded world. With a little banding of the leads this crisis was averted.
I now use this tuner on my IC-706MKIIG. I even wired the tuner up such that it is powered from the tuner connector on the ICOM. It works like a dream.
73s, Gary - N4TXI |
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| KD5ODR |
Rating:      |
2001-06-04 | |
| Fun Kit for Experienced Builder |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought the MP kit from MorseExpress for $199 as it was back-ordered from LDG. THEN discovered the assembled unit can be had for about $220 from AES.
I have some good kit building experience (e.g. my first PC in 1984 was a Heathkit). If you enjoy kits, and have some experience, this is a VERY fun one to assemble and is HIGHLY recommended. However, DO NOT buy the kit ONLY to save money, 'cause the assembled version is a much better deal.
Instructions are above average, but not quite up to the old Heathkit standards (I suppose only Elecraft comes close nowadays). Build sequence is very well thought-out, and winding the toroids (which I thought would be awful) was actually quite entertaining. Start to finish was about 8-9 hours with dinner in the middle.
Some caveats: If your eyes are over 40, get a magnifying lamp (usually about 4x). You will ALSO need an additional hand-held magnifier for some of the parts (!!!). If you don't already have one, buy a soldering station with a very small spade tip (the cheap Weller is <$50 and works great.
I was pretty careful and methodical in assembly, but that wasn't a chore with this kit. Unit fired-up perfectly the first time and tried tuning a home-brew Texas BugCatcher which I have stuck in the ground in our tiny backyard (w/ three 12gauge radials of random length). On 20M got SWR 5-6 down to about SWR 1.1:1.
First QSL 10 minutes later was Czech Republic on 20M (mediocre conditions) with about 90 watts net from my ICOM 706. 5-7 both ways. As I told the XYL, that's not too shabby for a $20 "broomstick" antenna made with plumbing fixtures, wires stripped from old ROMEX, and some vinyl tape.
Note that the LDG will NOT work miracles; on a dual-coil Bugcatcher-type antenna you do have to tune the antenna reasonably well (I would guess SWR<5), or the LDG will just sit there "hunting", making its sewing machine racket for as long as you hold the key down. If you get reasonably close, however, the LDG makes it's clattering for about 1-2 seconds. After a little experience with the machine, you can almost "read" the relay clattering to get a feel for the tuning algorithm. Terrific little machine.
My favorite feature is the semi-automatic mode. Tune in the middle of the band using auto tune, then find a target of opportunity someplace and check for fine tune with the semi-auto mode. If you want, you can "bump" the capacitance or inductance up or down a notch to check the tune, but I haven't yet found a tuning that could be improved upon. I CAN imagine however that this feature will be REAL handy on 80M with a short dipole.
Sure am glad I didn't get the ICOM "accessory" tuner. As soon as I "graduate" to a real base transceiver and take the 706 mobile HF, this puppy's going with us. |
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| DL1DBY |
Rating:      |
2001-04-20 | |
| Very good |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I use the LDG AT-11 for almost one year. I have assembled it on my own, because I wanted to practise before building my Elecraft K2. It went smoothly, execpt for mistakes I made. The manual is very good. I had to send the unit to LDG to fix it. The support and customer service of LDG is excellent.
The LDG works flawless with my IC-706Mk2G and a G5RV. Only on 15 mtrs I sometimes have do a little manual adjustment because the IC-706 stops the automatic tuning procedure too early (there is a special interface for the IC-706 which I use). While just sending a carrier with the IC-706 and pushing the "tune" button on the AT-11 it never fails to find a good match on its own.
The tuning range seems to be broader than of those tuner build into HF rigs. So you might use everything you want as HF antenna, except maybe your fridge. If I need another HF tuner in the 100 watts class, I will certainly buy another one from LDG. |
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| W0LPQ |
Rating:      |
2001-04-18 | |
| Nice Little Box |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have the original, with remote head. tuner is mounted under the house at my antenna matrix. Tunes long wire for 160 to dipoles for rest of HF. Never hear the relays, but after working for a firm with lots of relay tuners (airborne) this "noise" does not even compare. All in all, I'd do it again. Great stuff LDG!!
73
Bill, W0LPQ
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