| NO9E |
Rating:     |
2004-05-22 | |
| Good after fixes, some quirks |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I experienced many problems that AE7Q experienced. Firts, there was inconsistent tuning followed by turning off at power > 50W.
Messages to the vendor, W4RT, were never answered. However, a message to LDG on the weekend was answered by David the same weekend. He promised to send mods, which arrived in about 10 days (after I was pissed off as I expected them in max 5 days). The mods fixed turning off but tuning was still inconsistent, e.g., a resonant quad with SWR of 1.3 was tuned to about 3.0. In some cases the radio showed power but there was no power getting out. A W9INN dipole resonant on 1.83 could not be tuned over 1.88.
The tuner went to LDG, which found no problems but updated the code.
After the update, the tuner stopped working altogether. I wondered whether to demand to refund or junk the unit, but ended up replacing the batteries. Now, tunning is quite good. With 2 x 12f wire directly attached to the tuner, 20,17,15 and 10m were tuned to SWR <=1.3 and 12m to about 1.8.
I noticed a few quirks. The tuner often tunes differently each time, and a couple of attempts are needed for a tune with low SWR. Tuning at 100W appears more succesful than at 10W.
Perhaps the tuner is confused by common currents or high RF around. I am still deciding whether to take it on an overseas trip or rather stay with a manual tuner. Anyway, it is good to see that LDG is responsive. |
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| KM5JH |
Rating:      |
2004-05-21 | |
| Money Well Spent |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I picked up the Z-100 Ultra at Dayton and this little box performs as advertized. I have been able to tune my Carolina Windom 80 Special from 80 up to 6 meters with no problems at all. Initial tuning time averages 3 seconds and memory tuning usually much quicker. It is a great piece of equipment and is hard to beat for the money if you are needing an inexpensive auto tuner. Perfect to take out camping or QRP because of the latching relays and internal batteries. 73 de Tony KM5JH |
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| AE7Q |
Rating:  |
2004-05-19 | |
| Doesn't work for me |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
With all the good reviews and the price, I figured, how could I go wrong? Here's how:
1. The tuner box is plastic (not shielded).
2. The tuner usually came up with a worse SWR than when it was out of the circuit, especially on 20m, where my antenna (Alpha-Delta DX-EE) has a good SWR.
3. The tuner's SWR green LED indication often indicated a good SWR, when my FT-897D (and a separate SWR meter) thought otherwise.
4. On the higher freq. bands (15-10m), it didn't seem to memorize settings; pressing "tune" w/o changing frequency would cause it to retune. I will say it DID seem to tune well on the 40 meter band.
Ok, so normally I would have called LDG and asked what was up. However, in a previous eMail earlier in the day (before I discovered these problems) to LDG, I asked what the connections were on the "radio interface" jack. I was very explicit in my request, and the response I got was that LDG sells an adapter cable for most radios. Well, I don't want one of their "adapter cables" (have you seen the pictures of the nest of wires and connectors these are? - ugh), I want to wire one myself if possible.
So, I'm soured on LDG. The result was that the Z-100 was out of the shipping box for less than 24 hours before it went back to HRO.
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|
| N8AVR |
Rating:      |
2004-05-17 | |
| Incredible Value & LDG support |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have the LDG Z100 installed in my 2003 Sierra P/U, along with my Icom 706MkIIG and a 102" steel whip antenna. This little tuner tunes the whip from 40-6 meters without a flinch. Save me getting in/out as I used to with the hamsticks. Also questions to LDG via email were answered within 1 day, which was impressive in itself!! So, kudos to LDG for a fine product and incredible service. 73 Brian N8AVR/QRP |
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| VE3WMB |
Rating:      |
2004-04-13 | |
| Great little tuner |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Let me start by saying that I am not a stranger to LDG products as I have one of their original QRP Tuners and it is still performing very well for me after a number of years of use.
I bought the Z100 (actually the W4RT Z100 ultra with internal batteries) to use in the shack to compensate for the few bands where my GAP vertical or loop antenna don't give me a 2:1 or better match. I also planned to use it for portable operations. I am a member of the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society (www.arlhs.com) and a few times a year operate portable from Lighthouses using a variety of antennas. My QRP autotuner is limited to 30W and I wanted something that could handle 100w as well as QRP (some vendors autotuners won't function below a few watts).
So far after about a month of in-shack use and one Lighthouse outing the Z100 Ultra is working great.
I have been able to run my Gap Challenger on 30M (usually a 5:1 SWR) without any issues. Yes there will be some losses in the coax, but I figure that at 10.1 MHZ with a 5:1 SWR on high quality coax the losses are acceptable. The rig sees a <1.5:1 SWR on 30m and at least I now can operate on that band using somewhat reduced power. Operating portable I have used it with both a Buddipole and Buddistick so that I could just resonate the antenna within the desired band and then not have to worry about re-tweaking anything for large frequency excursions within the band (call me lazy but I rather be operating than tweaking the antenna to get a perfect match).
The simplfied user interface takes a few tries to get used to but I now am of the opinion that anything more is overkill, especially for portable operations. I like the fact that it will function at both QRP and 100w power levels as I spend most of my operating time on QRP CW when not chasing or operating from Lighthouses.
The only additional features I would have like to have seen is auto-tune and an auto-tune lockout, as this could be useful for Pedestrian Mobile operations when dragging a counterpoise wire.
Overall I think that the Z100 is an excellent product. It feels solid and is well made and I'm sure can stand up to a lot of abuse. W4RTs addition of internal power in the "Ultra" version makes for a great little portable tuner, and one less thing you need to worry about supplying power to when operating from the field.
I'll probably buy the Kenwood interface to simplify tuning from my TS-50 and perhaps later consider the Yaesu one for use with my FT-817. These interfaces are simply a convenience and are not mandatory for using the tuner.
Note that the Z100 will work with any rig able to output a carrier in AM, FM or CW modes.
Michael VE3WMB
P.S. The product review in the May 2004 QST covers a sampling of auto-tuners and the Z100 is one of two LDG tuners that are covered in the review. |
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| N5EIL |
Rating:      |
2004-04-11 | |
| Everyone should own one of these! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This autotuner is the best $139 I think I have ever spent on a ham radio accessory!
I was weary at first of buying one, because I thought there had to be some catch on why it was so cheap. I ordered it from Gigaparts on tuesday and had it by friday from normal UPS ground. When I picked up the package I thought to myself " this is way to light !" And no the pictures do not do it's size any justice, that thing is SMALL ,smaller than my 706MK2g and sits nicely on top of my SS-25 PS.
I would reckomend this to anyone! It tunes my HF6V on 80-10m, and yes I tried loading it up on 6m, but it could only get it down to 3:1, but hey I didn't expect it to!
The controls are very simple and fool proof and the memory function takes me about 2 sec. to tune anywhere.
The only odd thing about it is the power connection. It is a connector with just a positive and a negitive , so for temporary use I just put a 9V battery to it and started working, and yes you can remove power and it will hold a match. I found that out on accident!
N5EIL, Neil email me if you have any questions on it! |
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| LNXAUTHOR |
Rating:      |
2004-03-27 | |
| Very Nice Tuner |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
- i'm giving this tuner a '5,' despite one initial problem... i purchased the W4RT 'Ultra' version of the Z-100 tuner on a pre-order when they first became available... the Ultra version has an 8-AA adapter that fits neatly inside the tuner case, making the Z-100 eminently portable and reducing the need for yet another DC cable in the shack, in the 'go bag,' or in the car... supposedly supports 10,000 full tunes, and draws zero power after a match is found...
- you should know however, that unlike the AT11MP, RT11, and Z11, the Z-100 does not have an 'auto' tune mode! this shouldn't be a problem for most folks, but maybe a missing feature if you need to remote the tuner?
- if you're used to using LDG's Z-11 tuner, you may find working with a single LED for tuning information a tad confusing, but eventually i found that tuning ops with the Z-100 were effective and efficient (half-second press puts tuner out-of-line; one- to three-second press tunes w/a memory search first; three-second or longer press starts full tune search for a match)...
- i've used the Z-100 w/my 817, 897, Argonaut V, and SG-2020 ADSP... BTW, the 2020 is quite convenient to tune with any matching device, as it offers a 'semi-auto' tune mode in which you if you tap the rig's PBT button and then, if you key the mic w/in 5 seconds, will tramsmit carrier for tuning - very nice feature!
- i purchased LDG's Yeasu OTT box, which connects to the rig's CAT port and tuner... this allows you to simply tap the Z-100's tune button to one-touch tune (the Yaesu rig will go to AM mode and 15W for tuning operations)...
- i had a problem w/my Z-100 in this arrangement though; when attempting to tune on a 6M frequency, the Z-100 Ultra would 'lock up' and my 897 would stick on transmit at 15W in AM mode - not good! (my Z-11 tuner would function just fine however, when placed in line instead of the Z-100)...
- now here's why i'm giving a solid 5 for this piece of gear:
Before contacting LDG about the tune problem, i posed this question on an Internet group; apparently LDG monitors this group... in literally MINUTES after posing the question i had an email from LDG to send my name and address, as they would mail out a fix and replacement chip for my Z-100...
- sure enough, after emailing my info, two days later i received the fix in the mail (a carbon resistor to put on the bottom of the Z-100's board [the tuner is easy to disassemble and service], along with a replacement socketed chip)... the fix cured the lockup!
- you simply cannot go wrong with LDG; these folks deserve a lot of business for their customer service... simply incredible in this day and age... always a live person on the line, great support, and rapid return on tech problems...
- is the Z-100 for everyone and every situation? maybe not... but i like this tuner and i think you will too: relatively inexpensive, compact, lightweight, able to function standalone, works with any rig, supports .5 to 125W, good company support... how can you go wrong? |
|
| XE1UFO |
Rating:      |
2004-03-27 | |
| GRRRRREAT!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have the w4rt version of this great little tuner, along with the interface for the Kenwood TS50. The tune button on the front of the RADIO automatically sets the TS50 to low power and does the tuning. And the LDG interface comes with a long extension, in case you want to mount the tuner under a seat or in the trunk of a car. And it costs at least $130 LESS than Kenwood's autotuner, plus being about 40% smaller and much lighter. For those complaining on the long back-order status, get the W4RT.com version, that comes with the built-in battery pack. Mine shipped in three days. It is only $20 more than the non-battery pack version, and well worth it for QRP backpack-portable work! I use it as well with my SG2020 ADSP2, SSB portable. |
|
| IK1FJH |
Rating:      |
2004-03-22 | |
| Great tuner |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have purchesed, connected ..... and immediatly work great, with my Ic706 (with link cable) and also with my old Ic740, with dipoles, wip, long-wire!
Tune (almost) all antenna in (almost) band!
Great value!
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|
| W3CE |
Rating:     |
2004-03-19 | |
| Great value |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| For the price you can't beat this tuner. I have used it with everything from rock-mites to a Kenwood 940. Outstanding value. Its a great match for my Yeasu FT-857. The only complaint I have is the styling of the cabinet. The shape of the cabinet precludes you from setting your rig on top of it. And when you set the tuner on top of a lot of today's rigs, such as the Yeasu FT-857, it cover and mutes the rig's build in speaker. I use the Z-11 with my FT-817 and the rig sits on top of that tuner FB. |
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