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Reviews For: SGC MAC-200 Master Antenna Controller

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : SGC MAC-200 Master Antenna Controller
Reviews: 34MSRP: 319.95
Description:
The new MAC-200, the Master Antenna Controller from SGC, is the answer to multiple antenna matching. The MAC-200 allows you to control 5 antennas, 3 fed by coax, 1 with balanced line, and 1 random length line. The built-in antenna tuner provides a match automatically on all antennas.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.sgcworld.com/products/MAC200/MAC200Info.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00342.7
PA2AD Rating: 2005-12-07
Fine Tuner, Bad Manual Time Owned: N.A.
Good looking, good tuning.

But.
Absolutely no instruction how to tune your Mac-200 in the manual. The manual is loaded with general ham tips, sorts of antenna's, how to build a dummy load and so on.
But they don't tell you how to tune.

Do not tune with 100 W power; tune with not more than 10W. Is is not in the manual, but I repeat, use less than 10W power while tuning.

W0DKM Rating: 2005-07-29
Works Very well! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Mine works good. At first it acted up. But it was not grounded well enough. After running a fresh ground, watchout, it works like dream.
I run a 210 foot wire up 20 foot. Then use the chainlink fence as a ground. Mommy, it works Great. I use the manual mode, so as not to mess up.
KI4GTJ Rating: 2005-07-24
DISAPPOINTING Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
AFTER READING THE REPORTS ON EHAM I BOUGHT THE MAC 200. MOST OF THE TIME THE TUNER WORKS FINE,BUT SOMETIMES YOU HALF TO TURN THE TUNER OFF AND BACK ON TO GET IT TO WORK.IT"S NOT RELIABLE.

DON
N4DMW
W8LM Rating: 2005-05-28
To add further insult they lowered the price Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought one Last August at the ARRL New England CONVENTION. About a week after I got it it crapped out and I returned it. While it was being repaired, they lowered the price. To add insult to injury, On their web site I commented about the scratch in the case that came from the factory... How did I know it came from the factory???

It was painted over!!!!

So after 3 weeks they lowered the price I believe $50-80, gave me a scratched unit that lasted a week, and at the end of 3 weeks it was back to the factory for 2 of the 3 weeks.
I have used it with an FT-100D and an 756pro2...
It hunts around and many time just quits playing. SGC's answer is to use an undocumented reset ...hold the 1 button down while turning it on. Then it erases all the memories and you start over.. The power meter and swr meter are not accurate and cannot be adjusted. I know it's time for the undocumented reset because it indicates 200 watts forward power and 1:1 swr on my FT-100D or 756pro2... both are 100 watt outputs...100% error?!?!? then the power output meter goes negative and pegs in the negative region till I thump it with my finger...Why is the meter going negative???

I'm ready to send it back yet again as I'm tired or having to "train it" over and over.
I'm going back to my MFJ Versatuner II because this thing can't even remember which antenna I want for 80-40 versus 20-15-10.

I'm especially disappointed when I contacted them; notified them it was bad after the first week, had a scratch on the case painted over and they returned the unit with the scratch I complained about. They did not take the time to address the scratch or the price drop. Like all of a sudden they decide to drop the price? QST needs lead time to publish a price drop, so the day I bought it, the new lower price had to of been submitted to QST just not published. My contention is that SGC knew of the price drop, knew of the scratch as they painted it over and failed to address either. I had to ship it from sea to shining sea and their answer is "use the undocumented master reset"

SGC wake up and make it right! And I'm not talking about me paying to have it shipped back a second time because you didn't address all issues the first time. In my business a new tested unit would be shipped out, a refund check issued to reflect the new lower price and funding to ship the old one back would be done in a heart beat.

Larry W8LM
ARRL LIFE MEMBER

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Earlier 1-star review posted by W8LM on 2004-09-14

Bought the unit after returning a MFJ auto tuner that sucked. Out of the box, the case was scratched. It came from the factory that way, because the scratch has been painted.
The MAC-200 out of the box showed 200 watts out of my Yaesu FT-100D.
I posted a message on their web site to see if there was some sort of adjustment. None was the reply.
Next visit to the ham shack I found my 1 amp in line fuse blown...
Replacing the fuse... I get zero output and zero tuning, even though other push buttons do some things.
Requested a RMA twice to return the box..Shipped the unit back. I'm a mile from the Atlantic Ocean they are Pacific ocean..
They were much faster sending me my $25 rebate... It paid to send the thing back for warranty repair/replacement/refund.
Who knows what it will be?
1st month of warranty... I don't even have it.
They better restart the warranty clock upon it's return.

I have a SGC-239 and that's fine, but it was bought before the price reduction.
PE1RLN Rating: 2005-04-16
Very complete and good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If there is one thing special about this tuner, it is that it is absolutely complete. It does not only tune antennas, but it also goes up to 6m and has the possibility to switch between 5 (!) antennas and remembers the settings.

I can recommend this tuner above many others. I had � 300 to spend and there was the possibility of MFJ crap or the best there is. SGC it is.

And about those reviews that say it is bad: the writer shows to have no idea of how antennas work and is not able to use the antennatuner as it was meant. Shame on you!
M3SKF Rating: 2005-01-25
go for gold Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
great price in the uk at the moment so picked one up to give it a try.Works fine on long wire,vertical & my beam can be a little loud when tuning.Good construction very solid looks great next to the 2020 trx.Great tuner & switcher Well worth the asking price in the uk at the moment
2W1AED Rating: 2005-01-07
spot on!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
im very pleased with the mac 200, i was worried at first with how noisy it was while it was tuning, but now its sorted its memory bins its very fast and silent. it has done everything i have asked if it so far, i would recommend it to all especially now the price has dropped!
KB0XR Rating: 2004-12-17
A Few Quirks Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is in response to the previous review. I had a similar problem the other morning. I emailed SGC regarding both meter leds being on and the unit was stuck on the 20 watt range. They advised that I do a "master reset". This means holding down the #1 antenna selection button and then powering on the MAC 200. Worked for me and it's cooking along again. This "master reset" is not noted in the terrible manual that comes with the MAC 200.

Hope this helps.

I really like my MAC 200.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KB0XR on 2004-10-26

I just bought this tuner online from SGC because the price has been lowered from $349.95 to $249.95. It arrived in 6 days via UPS. It's a nicely constructed unit just a bit larger than my SGC 2020ADSP2.

I hooked it up and was not particularly impressed with the performance. Then I figured out what was wrong. I own a townhouse and have an indoor dipole strung north to south through the building. I had connected the coax from the dipole to #4 connector on the MAC-200 and had selected #3 via the front panel and the unit was trying to match an open circuit. Once I selected #4, a good match.

I have not tried the auto antenna selection function because I only have one antenna right now. The swr and power meters are nice although I have a feeling the power meter is not particularly accurate. It's all relative to me. On the 20 watt selection, the power meter is pegged by my 2020.

The operating manual stinks, in my opinion. Very little about operation. Just a bunch of kindergarten illustrations of types of antennas and circuit description(which I don't care about-just so it WORKS!).

I replaced my LDG Z11 auto tuner with this unit. If you want clanking relays, sparkling led's, and bunches of toggle switches, don't buy this unit. It's simple, quiet, and it works.

Typical high quality SGC product.
G1BND Rating: 2004-12-16
Not amused Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First impressions were good, though it seems critical of wire length on 80m. Worked the CQ WW SSB contest and it worked like a dream with ease of switching between the vertical, wire and dipole. Tune up was fast. However, the other morning switched on and all the panel lights lit up. I was also unable to switch it off unless I pulled the power cord out of the back of the unit.
SGC were very quick to respond to my query, I tried their reset but damn thing still does not work and now on a few months into ownership it needs to be returned....slap bang in the middle of holiday season.....not very amusing!
NB7I Rating: 2004-12-12
Beware the Balun Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have a 160 meter dipole fed with 80 feet on ladder line that I have used with great success on all bands. The SGC refused to match this antenna on 160, (probably due to balun core saturation at the 5 watt level), and struggled to do it on 80. When power was increased over 25 watts, the SWR would creep up and the tuner would begin an endless cycle. What was happening is the small core of the internal balun was immediatly heating up. Some heating occurred on all bands; heavy duty cycle digi modes were out with 50 watts. I was forced to wind my own external balun which now allows operation on 160 to 10 meters, and doesn't overheat.
The Goods - Small size, attractive design. When all memorized, a single dah on a paddle generally sets the tune.
The Bads - Small size, can't build an effective balun inside. Initial tuning on a new frequency takes longer than a few seconds in many cases; there can be alot of grinding and clicking. Sometimes you have to force it to find a match more than once to get a proper match.
The manual is pretty lame.
The case had small scratches on it, right out of the plastic wrap.
This unit really appears to be a match for the SGC 2020 rather than a 200 watt tuner.
In short, I shouldn't have had to build another balun to either run 50 watts or match a 160 meter antenna on 160 meters.