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Reviews For: LDG AT-100Pro Memory Autotuner

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-100Pro Memory Autotuner
Reviews: 88MSRP: 219
Description:
Low cost 1 to 125 watt autotuner (50W on 6M). 4000 memories, SWR and Power indicator, 2 position antenna switch, low power consumption, latching relays, interfaces for all popular radios and 160 thru 6 meter coverage.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00884.1
VE3JOH Rating: 2006-09-02
Works Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Obviously nothing beats a resonant antenna for efficiency but when you have to make compromises its nice to know that your making as few as possible with this tuner. Running an 857D and an AT-100PRO through a few ham sticks and am more than satisfied. The power and SWR led's are a nice touch as well as the compact size. I did a bit of reading before making this purchase and am glad I did. LDG seems to have a cult following and for good reason. This thing just plain works. Thanks LDG!!
PE1JLJ Rating: 2006-08-31
even better with IC7000 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
tested: AT100Pro, IC7000, FD-4 and IC2/AC1 cable
s/w version 1.3 (latest as of this date)

Recently I ditched my FT857 for the IC7000. The transceiver works much better ! With the FT-857 I sometimes had RF into the tuner which caused it to lock. Dwayne identified this so killing off this RF worked. It happened most at 50 MHz.

Now, with the IC7000 -- different control cable -- works fine, very fine !. The tuning is a breeze with the tune button on the set/mike and the latest software with an improved tuning algorithm works even faster than before.

If you want a tuner for your IC7k -- get the 100Pro (or the AT7000 but the software is still a bit rough if you read the comments)

it's a performer !

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by PE1JLJ on 2005-08-30

Recently I have bought myself an AT100PRO. This little box works like a charm out of the box. Due to my antenna length, it cannot tune below 2 MHz but that's not a problem for me.

I found out that my tuner forgot to wake up after some time and forgot memories. After a power-up all ok again. I decided to mail lgd (Dwayne) and he insisted that I should suplly my address so that he could send new chips. I installed them, (v1.1.) and found out that it's working great now.

The chips sent to europe took a few days and was really nice to see such fast support. mail-turn-around times are blazingly fast as well.

Verdict: tuning goes fast. Initial tuning is noisy but that's inherent to the number of switch-activitiesinternally. Overall rating :5/5.
K9XYZ Rating: 2006-08-16
Can't beat this one!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Been off the air for a little while, just bought a new 897D and bought the AT-100 pro to go with it. What a great combo. I Currently live in an apartment so my antennas leave a little to be desired however where there's a will....:) anyway, this tuner is awesome it will tune my modest antennas on everything but 160. I've owned several LDG products and have never been anything but pleased. The 100 tunes fast, lots of memories, has two antenna connectors and the LEDS even light up and point the direction toward which antenna connector you switch to when you puch the ant button, way cool!!
This thing looks great sitting on top of the Ft-897D and even better with LDG meter on top of the tuner:) The noise it makes is cool too.

LDG ROCKS!!
73
k9xyz
N6GK Rating: 2006-06-27
Very Pleased with this Tuner! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the LDG tuner for tuning a number of antennas hooked to my Orion II Antenna 2 connection (the OII has a tuner for antenna 1 built-in) and it has been used to tune a number of wire antennas to resonance without problem. I was skeptical at first about using an automatic tuner rather than a manual one, so liked the feature that you can manually tune it if you desire, but I found the unit performs so well that I never use manual tune any more! I have not experienced any problems with the tuner, even when using ridiculous antennas with it. It doesn't take every antenna all the way to a perfect 1:1 SWR, but always to a usable low SWR. I am impressed with the unit and recommend it!
N3MRV Rating: 2006-06-27
NOT VERY GOOD! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
mine has not worked properly since it was delivered. various rigs and antennas have been tried. problem is it won't tune on 40mtrs. initially it does but then tries to re-tune itself. then it needs a reset! dwayne's (a gentleman) answers have been less than satifactory. he insists my equipment is not functioning properly.testing with 3 rig's and 4 antennas have provided the same results. could he have suggested a return and taken a look at it? an MFJ993 is beautiful.btw, the very worst SWR was 4:1.
good luck.
KC9IOP Rating: 2006-03-30
I like mine- alot!!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Maybe cause I'm old, I like that noise, IT IS NOT LOUD AT ALL, it means those relays are working. I've used mt AT100pro to tune my G5RV 205 ft antenna on all bands from 6m to 160M. Most are 1.1 sometimes 1.3 or 1.5 I love mine and it works very well. So whats a few seconds of noise if the tuner works so well? Once your tuner gets the freq's in memory the noise is gone or there is only a short second or so of the relays latching. I would not trade mine for ant thing except maybe a AT200pro!!!
N3ITN Rating: 2006-03-29
what is that noise? Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The AT-100Pro AutoTuner looks good, it works good, it has a nice small footprint, and the LED "meters" are actually functional (imagine that); however, this device makes a noise (an almost unacceptable noise) while "tuning" (reading from memory is all but a single-click silent) that may make you think it is broken. LDG labels the noise "marbles in a blender"... get beyond that and it's a terrific lil device.
W0AV Rating: 2006-03-07
Good Autotuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have used this tuner for about a year with my TS50 at 100W on various antennas, ie. verticals, dipoles, etc. all bands. Works perfectly, no problems at all. A pleasure to use.

de George/W0AV
Hamming since 1935

K3DAV Rating: 2006-03-07
Stay away from this one. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I connected this unit to my Icom 706 MKIIG with the interconnect cable that cost an extra $8.00. The AT-100Pro would not tune any better than a 1.7:1 SWR with a comet GP-15 on 6 meters, and a dipole on the HF bands. When switching the radio from VHF back to HF, the AT-100 had to be turned back on, and retuned. Sometimes after tuning, the red light on the radio was on indicating that it had properly tuned that frequency. But it was actually off, and had to be turned back on. After retuning, the SWR was always way above what I expect it to be with an auto-tuner. I repacked it up, sent it back, and replaced it with an Icom AT-180 which works perfectly. The LDG AT-100Pro is also very noisy when tuning. Stay away from this one. You get what you pay for.
DG3YCC Rating: 2005-09-10
perfect tuner, perfect support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After connecting the AT-100 to my FT 897 and my Diamond CP6 vertical I knew what I've missed in the past years using my MFJ manual tuner. What I did first was going upwards through the HAM bands, keying the mike every 25 Khz to let the tuner find a match and store it in one of its 2000 memories (that is 2000 memories for each of the two antennas you can connect to the tuner. The AT-200 version has 2000 memories for each of eight antennas you can connect and will tolerate 200 Watt output). In rare cases, when the tuner only found a poor match, I simply matched 25 Khz higher (good match) and than returned to the former frequency where the AT-100 now found a good match too and stored it. Right out of the box the AT-100 didn't find a match between 3560 and 3595 Khz. I made the aprx. 20 meters long coax feeder line two feet longer but to no effect. I emailed LDG and Dwayne Kincaid (notice the last three letters in his name!) told me to add three to six feet to the coax line. And that worked! I now have fine swr from 80 to 6 meter and the tuner also matches the 12, 17 and 30 meter bands which the CP6 is not designed for. When I call CQ CQ CQ with 12 wpm the tuner only needs the time of the first C to match the antenna no matter what band and frequency. What more can you expect?