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Reviews For: Yaesu FC-40

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FC-40
Reviews: 34MSRP: 400.00
Description:
The FC-40 is a microprocessor-controlled antenna
impedance matching network designed to provide
all-amateur-band transmitting capability with the
FT-897/857 Series of transceivers, when used with
an end-fed random wire or long whip antenna.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.vxstd.com/en/news/image/FC-40.pdf
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15343.9
NI4S Rating: 2015-03-12
Mounted at antenna base Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After much research and the fact I was going to purchase a FT-4540D, I bought the FC-40 tuner. After receiving it I needed about a 100 foot control cable in order to mount the tuner at the base of my 30'aluminum "stealth due to HOA" flagpole. Absolutely no help in wire recommendations or purchases from Yaesu! I bought a 100' cat 6 cable and put mini din connectors on each end. Now I was ready to mount the tuner. I had purchased 100' LMR 400 cable with SO-259s on each end, the connector would not tighten on the FC-40 connector. Again Yaesu would not even admit it was a bastard sized connector so I changed the cable to one with a standard SO-239. Finally mounted it and contrary to Yaesu's telling me it wouldn't work, it works perfectly! Shame on Yaesu for the poor support of their product!
VE3PMV Rating: 2014-08-16
not bad if can get it to work Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I read all the reviews here and found some good ideas from years ago, the tuner worked great on 10 feet of speaker wire on my deck, but when i hooked it up to 180 feet inverted L a lot of the bands didnt work, i was going to buy a balum mentioned on here but its over $ 100,and why transform back to coax...also i cant see spending that kind of money in addition to what I paid already, to make a long story short, i made my own balum, it works great and if you want to see the video go here http://ve3pmv.com/balunhigh.wmv
or just go here if that dosent work http://ve3pmv.com PS I just made contact 4000 miles away to Norway 5 9 after installing my balum
W9WQA Rating: 2014-03-15
erratic operation till I figured it out Time Owned: more than 12 months.
First, it will not meet the advertised specs. i had to really work on fussy wire lengths and grounding at my base.the control cable requires special attention and sheilding. finally i must connect an external cap on some bands to use one wire on all bands. it still may not remember freqs from one day to the next when i turn on and key with out pushing tune. if you expect it to work on all bands as advertized, be ready to find your own solution. it took me months of experimenting and a trip back to yaesu just to verify that it was ok . they cannot test it with a long wire at the California depot.

the sg230 is the best i have used and the icom ah4 beats the fc4o.
they all get fussy and even the very good sg230 takes a looong time to tune the sg303 on my mobile and it will not tune all bands as advertized. but it is the best!
VE6AGE Rating: 2014-01-24
Wow Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Wow, this works real well with my Yaesu FT-857D mobile. Using a 102" Stainless Steel Whip for antenna and it loads it up real nice from 6M to 40M.
VK4KKD Rating: 2013-10-18
4 years on Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Now four years on and I still rate this tuner as GREAT!
The FC-40 has now been to most of the Australian outback with me and has been used on several different antenna types. It has functioned flawlessly through a great range of temperatures from freezing to stinking hot! Of course it has been used on various mobile antenna and it works very well with a 9m length of hard drawn copper wire to which I have soldered a terminal eye so it can be used on the mobile whip mount when I remove the whip for stationary work. Throwing a sinker with a line over a high branch then pulling the wire up has enabled the FT897 to fully utilise the bands. It has now been passed on to my daughter to use for a home base tuner with a multi band trapped dipole. (the FT897 was her rig and I was allowed to borrow it). We now mainly use 40m and even with her low power work we are still able to maintain contact in all of the remote bush locations where I camp for gold and gem fossicking. Well done Yaesu, it is a very useful piece of kit.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by VK4KKD on 2009-09-07

WOW! That was my first reaction when I hooked up this tuner.

Prior to this I have only had Tokyo Hi-Power manual tuners - slow but sure and able to match seemingly impossible loads.

But I digress - the FC-40 arrived and withing minutes I had it hooked up to the FT-897D and to the first of a series of antennas that I wanted to use when mobile and portable.

As expected the helical whips for 10/15/20/40 and 80 meters all tuned quickly and easily - all mounted on a side entry base and coax fed. Yep COAX fed!

The ability to use a helical wound whip antenna at any part of the band was astounding - especially on 40 and 80 meters - the FC-40 just cranked itself until it was happy and bingo - 5/9 signal reports. Obviously this type of device gets more of the radios output up the stick without the back pressure of high reactance. One thing is for sure - the antenna did not suddenly become more efficient - yet it was radiating far more rf than without the tuner - in fact without the tuner the FT-897D just refused to put out at all once the SWR rose to high.

Next horse in the starting gate was a homebrew antenna that I wanted to use portable - it is a telescopic aluminium tube pole 5.5m long (can be varied of course) with a 4.5m insulated wire coil at the base - I turned up and threaded my own base for it to suit the 1/2 side feed base that the other whips mounted on.

The FC-40 tuned that thing anywhere and everywhere from 40m to 10m (I did not try 6m) but could not manage it on 80m - maybe a bit more length will solve that problem.

But for the type of work I intend doing 80m will not be critical or needed and the FC-40 just breezed through tuning the "extenda stick" anywhere on any band - WARC included and that means I can use just the one antenna for portable use and not have to run a wire.

Well done Yaesu. This thing does all you said it should and more. I am a bit puzzled though after reading that it won't tune 1/2 wave? The extenda stick certainly is close to 1/2 wave on 20m yet it tunes everywhere in the band?

Does Yaesu mean it will not tune 1/2 wave of wire but will tune a 10m long antenna on 20m if it has a ground plane? Anyway - who cares - it works beautifully on the FT-897D - just as it is supposed to.
ZS1SA Rating: 2012-10-28
Persistance Pays Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased one of these units for my FT-857D just over half a year ago. The FT-857D is my portable rig that I take on my holiday trips. Like many of the reports on this page I was having success tuning some bands, but other bands were just impossible to get a match on. I stumbled on an online article by VE3EED. This chap worked out what wire lengths would not be a half or multiple of half wavelength on any of our H.F. frequencies. Well it sounded good and I wasted a lot of time cutting wires to his exact lengths without success. His calculations do not take into account the variables such as antenna height, distance from buildings etc etc, which affect the antenna, but they are close. You can Google his article and I found that being persistent and experimenting with lengths close to his suggestions will find you a good length on all bands. I have used manual tuners for many decades and this is my first autotuner. I think the FC-40 would be fine for a fixed station use as you would only have to find the magic length of your wire antenna once but for portable operation, I am going back to my bag of assorted single band dipoles.
KB5PRZ Rating: 2012-04-23
Versatile Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After getting a Yaesu FT-897, I decided I wanted to play with wire antennas and use a remote tuner. I like how the FC-40 integrates with the FT-897, so I bought one used.

My first antenna was a 75' end fed long wire. The FC-40 would easily tune this wire on all bands except 80 and 160 meters. I loved how easy it was to play with the options, and the tuning was simple with the radio.

I then decided I wanted a loop sky wire and though the FC-40 could be coaxed into tuning it. It sure does! And it tunes every band from 160 to 6 meters--and the wire is 270' looped around my home lot. No baluns or windings needed--just the FT-897, some coax, the FC-40, and your wire. You can stick a whip on it, too.

This tuner's integration with the 897 was a big seller for me. I have not been disappointed.
GOUDURIX Rating: 2011-11-27
Final experiences Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This follows my report from 2007. I found out that in my sailing boat the FC-40 only works well all-band with a wire length of about 9,2 metres against an RF ground made up of multi wire radials along the boat's toerail, together with the S/S lifelines and the pulpit, and 2 metros of copper tape to an underwater bronze.
It now tunes 80m, 40m, 20m, 17m, 15m and above, but a wire of this length limits low-take off angle use to frequencies below 21 Mhz. Most of the marine SSB frequencies do not tune.
The only real advantage of the FC-40 is its interface with the yaesu FT-897 or 857. If I were to install again, I would buy an SGC tuner or use the CG-3000 atu I use at the home QTH.
Yaesu can do better!!!!

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Earlier 2-star review posted by GOUDURIX on 2007-06-14

I have been using the FC40 together with yaesu FT897D. I did experience the same problems as stated hereunder: no ideal length for all-band use (80m-10m) and this is very annoying. It did find a compromise length at home QTH, around 23m for and inverted-L wire, this does work all-band with 1 limitation on 80m (only tuning until 3.75, not higher).
Now I am installing this rig in my sailing boat but I can only have max. 14m total wire length, as a sloper. It does not tune 14m on this length. When I shorten until 37ft as stated by other user, I get SWR of around 1,8:1 on 40m, but I can only tune 80m until 3.55, not higher. I did make good RF ground with a bond to seawater through a bronze through-hull, and using 2 10m-long s/s lifelines and also 2 x 11m aluminium toerail as extra radials.
Anyone offering sound advice to make it tune better?
KJ4DKT Rating: 2011-06-06
MINE WORKS GREAT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have a 135 ft horiz di-pole at 40 ft up fed w/60 ft of rat shak tv 300 ohm lead-in wire. It tunes 6 to 160. The 300 0hm wire goes directly into the fc-40 in the shack. I am happy with this tuner. I have used the tuner w/other antennas w/out any problems.
KC6IIH Rating: 2011-04-23
Verry Good - works for me Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased a new Yaesu FT-950 after achieving my EXTRA.
The FT-950 has an internal tuner but won't tune a wire antenna at least mine and I did not try a balun
I am using a W5GI Mystery antenna about 36 inches off the flat roof of my apartment building to be as stealth as possible.
This antenna works 80 thru 6, including 60 meters and the FC-40 gives me an swr of 1.4 or less across the bands with most 1.2 or under.
I don't know why there are so many unhappy users of this tuner.