Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: DAIWA model CNA-1001 autotuner

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : DAIWA model CNA-1001 autotuner
Reviews: 6MSRP:
Description:
3.5-28 mhz autotuner with cross needle meters and input for 2 antennas.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0065
BU2AH Rating: 2022-03-29
It is not only for collection, it can fight together with you Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Although this "auto" tuner tuning speed isn`t fast it got a great design that it has 2 small air capacitors for "the final accuracy tuning", what an outstanding design even compare to the existing modern AT tuners, and this feather is very helpful for digit mode to transmit.
K9UR Rating: 2019-06-30
one of those unusual and quirky pieces of gear you gotta have.. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
80-10 meters motor driven variable capacitor ATU including WARC bands. 500 W PEP (200W continuous) with dual cross needle meters, built in 50W dummy load, and 2 position antenna switch.

This is from the first generation of early "auto" antenna tuners from Japan. The logic is simple - no clicky relays or fixed value capacitors. This is a pi-style tuner with 2 motor driven variable capacitors and manually switched inductance for each band. Tunes 80-10M. the motor is single direction - (clockwise) and so the caps do not move counterclockwise. A small DC motor drives the motors at two different speeds through a gear box. One motor circles at high speed while the second motor circles at low speed. Thus the tuner sequences through every possible combination of C-ant and C-tx to find the best match ( a 1.5:1 or less). you WILL find the optimal match as long as it's within the range of the tuner. Usually the tuner lands very close to 1:1.2 or less.

Operation: Step 1: set radio power out to 1W, 5W, or 10W for a tune cycle depending on what the back switch is set to *lets you tune with different input powers, for say, QRP radio that can only output a few watts) .

Step 2: choose the band (inductance) setting.

Step 3: push in the Line (power) button, the range button (20W) and the tuner button (inline).

Step 4: transmit a carrier of 10W or less and while doing so, push the momentary OPER button... a LED will light *OPR and a small dc motor will start turning one capacitor round and round. A gearing mechanism will will turn a second capacitor much more slowly round and round. The tuner will stop once it finds a 1.5:1 or less VSWR and will stop at that point.

Step 5: Turn up your power, select the 200W range on the meter and operate. Note: at any point you can manually twist the fine tune capacitors to adjust the match more precisely.

the fine tune caps are parallelled off of the main capacitor and give some small adjustment range to avoid having to continuously retune for small frequency changes on, say, 80M.

Has a built in dummy load (50W for 1 minute) to set your radio's low power drive. It has a built in antenna switch (2 antennas) and it has a cross-needle vswr meter that is quite accurate. why 50w dummy load ? Well...that WAS the power limit in JA at the time for most licensees... it was definitely a product made for japan made in japan.

The tuning, while taking a long time to find the match point (* compared to today's instant tuning antenna tuners), is quite reliable and finds a 1.5:1 or less match easily on all bands. The fine tuning caps allow you to dial in the match and handy on, say, 80 meters when you move up or down a few KC and don't want to do a full retune cycle..just touch up the tuning with the fine tune knobs.

The cross needle meter is rated up to 500W PEP, and the tuner will handle 500W PEP (SSB). It will handle 200W continuous (CW, digital) and is very well constructed. The meter range says 20 - 200, but the meter actually reads up to 500W and the tuner can handle 500w PEP.

Just for fun, i matched it up with a 400W solid state amplifier and it worked remarkably well. I would keep the amp out of line when running a tuning cycle, get things tuned up, and then turn the amp on. NO problem with arc or other issues. Tuner does require 12VDC for operation. You can bypass the tuner too...but the watt meter, swr meter etc are still operational. Handy when you have a dipole cut for one part of the band, and then want to move to a part of the band that is not resonant.


What makes this cool: there aren't a lot of auto antenna tuners made that actually worked well back in that time period of early 1980's - this was one of the nifty items from JA at a time when innovation was pretty prolific.
Daiwa is quality product.

N2NBT Rating: 2011-09-03
Great 500W autotuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great Tuner, autotunes 10-80 meters and easily handles 500W from my Tentec Hercules amp. I just used it in the shack but it is powered by 12V so could work nicely for mobile work.

It just works, pick one up if you can find it.
G1OKW Rating: 2007-06-21
I use mine to tune a 1980 Trio TS180S via a Diamond CP6 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
When I ventured onto the HF bands in late 2006 the CP6 seemed ok, but the 20 mtr trap soon lost its tune and as users of said ae know an atu is needed for 80 mtrs. The quite badly typed user guide meant little to me and a friend brought along a top of the range Yaesu ATU to see if that would sort the problem. It just wouldn't sort 20 mtrs but once we played about with the Daiwa it brought the 20 mtr band down to 1:1. The same is true of the top end of 80 mtrs. The claim it is an automatic atu is a bit misleading, semi auto is more like it. I had a peek inside and the air spaced cappys that whiz round at incredibly slow speed (it takes 40 seconds per cycle) are so well made and spaced you would have to drop a slice of toast inside to upset the capacitors. At this point in the sun spot cycle am well pleased with the well out of date spec of all three bits of gear. Having said that I wouldn't part with any bit of my lineup for a "shack in a box" Solid 5/9 rag chews all over prove the point. Well done Daiwa,Trio and the Diamond engineers.
Peter
G1OKW
PE3HMP Rating: 2004-10-08
gpod tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Used it intill I bought a TS450SAT so no ectrernal tuner was needed, great tuner.
LA6KKA Rating: 2004-05-19
5 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
just purcased a used daiwa cna-1001 autotuner and i must say that it really was worth the price..
it is a old model-not the fastest autotuner i have used-but still compared to may of the others at the market this one is just great!
this one handles max 500 watts pep-and that is plenty enough for me..
the finish is in bursted aluminium front-the chassis plate is black painted.
i have tried the tuner at serval antennas and it tunes just great.
the motor inside is quite silent-and my model is perfect in the finish,so i am a lucky man that got this one.if you see one second hand-just buy it.
i use it together with a kenwood ts 830 line with a G5RV antenna.

perfect!