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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
WD0FIA Rating: 2010-07-02
High quality, works great! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought two of these, one I run with a 102 inch whip mobile on my FT-857D, the other with a 66 foot long wire on my VX-1700. Both are working great! I wish I had bought this combo years ago!

I have been getting great signal reports, and tuning is never an issue. I have been able to get an acceptable match on both Ham and MARS every time.

I got mine for $250 each from GigaParts, with free shipping.
KC5CQW Rating: 2010-06-17
Simple to use Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have the FC-40 base feeding a 102" whip with a custom top hat at 60" and 18" in diameter.
The whip is mounted on a Jerry Breedlove HF insulator on the bed rail of my pickup about 1' from the tailgate.
The radio in service is an FT-857D.

The top hat is needed for 40m without it, 30m is the lowest it can go. This tells me that I have indeed reduced some losses in the setup and validates the effort!

After installing the FC-40, all I did was tune up at the band edges and center of 40m-6m. This was enough to allow automatic frequency tracking throughout each band. This equates to hands off tuning while playing radio on the road.

Signal reports are always very good and RX is just fine.
Cost, integration with the radio and ease of use were the primary guiding factors for this method. If I had the cash and felt it was safe to mash extra buttons whilst watching a VSWR meter and driving at highway speed, I would have installed a Hi-Q 3/80.
My truck has a manual transmission BTW.

For me, the FC-40 was a logical compromise.
When base feeding a short vertical, it is paramount to reduce as much loss in the system as possible. I basically modeled my setup after the advice found on WWW.K0BG.COM

As a NASA certified polymeric operator, I decided to add extra staking to the coils, relays and larger components. This was a little insurance for reliable mobile operation.

When I want to operate from a local park, I use an alligator clip with a length of wire thrown in a tree. I just clip this to the top of the antenna.

In summary, I am very pleased with the FC-40. It has performed within my criteria for a mobile HF setup very well.

73, Damon
STAYVERTICAL Rating: 2010-05-21
Effortless tuning Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a follow up to a previous post.
I live in an antenna restricted community, and the fc40 has saved my multiband capability. I use an unobtrusive vertical in the garden with the atu at the base. I think the neighbors think it is a bean pole! It allows me to work 40 thru 6 meters with reasonable results. I agree that it is not as good at matching as an sgc, but paired with the ft897d it is very easy to use. Having the atu at the base means the swr is very low on the feedline and the antenna radiates most of the RF. Any radial ground losses help to warm my plants in winter! In summary, it wont match everything, but is a good partner for the ft897. Construction is good, stainless steel mounting hardware, and connections are outside the box.
Suggest using a cover in very wet or snowy climates. Has been very reliable so far. Remember, it uses the CAT port, so if you want to use radio control and the fc40 you will be out of luck.

I recently moved the vertical and changed it into a 20m ground plane (16 feet high) with 3 elevated (4 feet high) wire radials each 5 metres (16 feet) long. The control cable needed to be extended so I made an extension cable from some shielded 12 core cable, although you only need 8 cores. The total length of the control cable is now about 25 metres or 85 feet in length.

As the CAT/Linear/TUNER port on the ft897 sends data to and from the ATU, and that normally limits line length, I was unsure if it would work. I thought it would be of interest to anyone else wishing to do the same that I can report it works without a problem, at least for me.
I made the cable by putting a 6 pin mini-din male plug on one end and a 6 pin mini-din female socket on the other end. The supplied 5 metre control cable has 6 pin mini-din male plugs on each end, so you can plug in the end of the supplied cable to the female socket and the extension cable male plug goes to the atu. These 6 pin mini-din plugs/sockets are awkward to solder, so take a lot of care. The ring of the plug and sockets should be connected as they carry the shield as well.

Also, if you make one, use a multimeter to check the pinouts. Test the Yaesu supplied cable with the plugs on each end, write it down, and then plug the Yaesu supplied cable into the extension cable and check the pinouts on the combined cable. It should be the same as with the Yaesu supplied cable. I would use the Yaesu supplied cable at the radio end and the extension cable to the ATU. Before fitting the connectors I also put some ferrite cores on the extension cable to reduce any induced RF getting to the radio. It is easy to get confused with extension cables, so triple check your work, and check for shorts.
If in doubt, don't plug it into the radio, and never unplug the cable while the radio is turned on, as this may damage the CAT port.

With the new antenna configuration it tunes 60m to 6m (including WARC bands) but not 15.
This new configuration seems to be putting out much more signal than the ground mounted version. I am sure with a bit of tweaking the length of the GP radiator I could get 15m, but I am not bothering at this time.

Once again, it is wonderful to be able to just change bands and the antenna is always perfectly tuned (if you have tuned it there before). Also, remember, a remote ATU gives you an efficient multi-band configuration as the coax swr losses are eliminated.

If you have an FT897/FT857 this FC40 ATU is hard to beat for convenient multi-band operation.

73s
KI5SO Rating: 2010-05-11
All bands with a little help Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ok, this is my follow up. I like this tuner. It is so nice to touch a button and you are tuned. I notice that you can turn the tuner off by touching the tune button on the 857d or 897d and use in bypass mode. That could be handy in some cases.

In my last report I mentioned I could tune every band except 160 and 40 meters. I didn't really care about 160 but wanted 40. I have not changed my wire out yet, but I did buy a nice 4:1 current balun and added it to the system and it fixed my problem. I can tune any band, anywhere on the band now. For those new or inexperienced in this, this is how I did it: I bought a quality 4:1 unun balun (AS-200-3) Be sure it covers 160 thru 6, if you like 6. I have all bands. I took a small 8x coax and cut it about 6 inches long and left the PL-259 connector on one end and trimmed the wires on the other end to fit to the center and ground of the FC-40 tuner. The 259 screws onto the 4:1 balun and sits in front of the tuner. I have my antenna long wire hooked to the hot side or center lead side of the balun and the counterpoise wire (in my case 134 feet long) to the ground side of the balun. Be sure to turn the radio off and disconnect the power cat cable from radio when you make these changes. When all is connected and tight, hook up cat cable again and turn on the radio. You can go thru and tune each band again where you talk, then it is automatically kept in the memory of the Yaesu radio. It's that simple. Maybe The FC-40 should be redesigned to have a 4:1 current balun added or built inside. Anyway, it solved my problem and it is very nice having all bands.

Anyway, you guys out there having trouble getting all of the bands, this might solve your problem. I can say it solved mine. If the Icom or SCG tuners didn't require a special interface cable I might have gone that route. I understand they will tune a broader range, but I'm very happy with this tuner.

I am now giving this tuner 4 stars out of 5 as it should tune all bands without having to add a balun. I don't know of anybody who does get all bands without a little help from a balun. If you are going to buy this, then, expect to buy a good 4:1 current balun to get all bands. However, don't expect this on a short mobile antenna or short wire. 73's.
W8PU Rating: 2010-02-09
Not what the doctor ordered Time Owned: more than 12 months.
When I bought my FT-897D I purchased the FC-40 as well since it was offered at half price. I am certainly glad I did not pay full price! My first experience with it was on Field Day 2008. I set up to operate my FT-897D with the FC-40 using about 100 feet of wire tuned against 100 feet of chain link fence as a counterpoise. To make a long story short I spent most of the day trying to find a length of wire that would at least tune 80, 40, and 20 meters but was not successful. At best maybe two of the three. When the tuner was happy with a given length it worked well, just not multiband as advertised. I finally gave up when darkness set in and I could no longer see where I was tossing the loose end of the wire.
G6EJD Rating: 2009-05-17
Works well with FT-897 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Initially I was disappointed with this tuner, largely because of the lack of information from Yaesu, my main problems were getting it tune a random length wire across the bands, but after meticulous experimentation, I have concluded it favours shorter lengths, for example a 9M antenna length for me tunes from 80-6m with no gaps and no VSWR greater than 1.2:1. IF I adjust the length to 9.5M or above then it won't tune 40M and some intermediate bands, but always all above 17M. So I conclude it is designed for mobile use and a reasonable length antenna for such. Overall I am now very pleased with it. I have never been able to get it to tune 160M, even with a 60M long wire.

The problems I've found are due almost certainly because of the harmonic relationship between antenna impedance say between 80M and 40M, where the impedance variation can be huge, so the ATTU can tune a random length for 80M, but the same length on 40M represents a very high impedance, or vice-versa. It is counter-intuative to shorten the antenna length when it is sold as a random length ATU!

Conclusion use a short (long wire)... 9M or less works.
G8LXI Rating: 2008-12-03
very tricky Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one of these units along with a FT-450,
I have now sold it, as it just was awfal to try and get it to tune all the Hf bands, I installed it on my boat along with the 450 using the backstay (7 meters) and just could not get it to tune all the bands, So back went the Icom setup using a Icom AT-120 (see my report on the AT-120) I even tried it at the home QTH and just had to give up! so it was sold, I am also selling the FT450, I think I will stick with Icom in the future.
W4RIG Rating: 2008-02-17
Works great with FT-857D Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
You can take a lot of critical shots but this antenna tuner has given me great perrfromance ith my FT-857D transceiver. Build to work with the FT-857 and FT-897, it does the job it was designed to do - my experience has been positive.
Hank - W4RIG W4RIG@arrl.net
N9XBG Rating: 2007-11-05
Works for what I need Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the FC-40 to use with my FT-897D when I had to cut down a tree that had one leg of my 80m dipole in it. I hooked it up to my 160m L and it tuned fine on 160m but had high swr on 80m & 40m. Then I checked out the length of my L and it was right at 1/2wave length of 80m and as the manual says it would not tune that. Added 20' to the L and it now loads on 160m, 80m, 30m, 20m, 12m, & 10m. I only need to use it on 160m-30m as I have a HF5B butternut bowtie beam for the upper bands. Did have an rf problem on 80m kept turning the TV in the shack on, but a few turns at the tuner end of the coax with a few ferrite beads did the trick. Have received great reports so far on the bands I have been on. This tuner may not be for everyone but it works great at this QTH for what I need.
K4LY Rating: 2005-11-13
good product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This review will show you the option of using a dipole like antenna that from my experience works well with the FC-40. When I bought the FT-857D last week, the FC-40 was on sale for half price, a real value. I have now experimented with the tuner many hours using several different length sky hooks and an old style, single wire off-center fed Windom. For comparison, I did A/B tests with my Hygain Hytower about 150' away. The Hytower has 40 radials and performs VERY well on 160M-20M. Before buying the tuner, I read the eHam reviews which were very helpful. Like KA6GEM and VK7JJ (before using a broad band step-up torroidal transformer), I have not been able to find an antenna length that the FC-40 would tune on all bands. In all cases, I used five 100' radials and a ground rod connected to the ground lug of the FC-40. My first antenna, a sloping (at about 40 degrees) 66' wire up to the top of my 40' tower would not tune 160M, 40M, or 20M. On twenty meters, I got excellent signal reports every bit as good as my Hytower which surprised me, but on 80M, I was well over an S-unit down from the Hytower. To extend the length of the 66' antenna to 85', a length some have had good luck with, I ran another 19' of wire at the 40' level towards another tower. At 85', the FC-40 would tune most of 160M, but signals were at least two to three S-units down from the Hytower. Some of 75/80M and most of 40M would tune, with fair signals down 1-2 S-units from the Hytower. I tried 60M for the first time. It would not tune. And 20M would not tune. I extended the antenna to 96'. Now, 160M tuned better, but 80M, 60M, and 20M would not tune. Signals remained about the same as before. Today I put up an oldtime 66' Windom antenna (strung between two 40' towers) which you can find in older handbooks. It is a 14% off-center fed dipole fed with a single vertical or sloping wire of any length. The impedance of a Windom is supposed to be around 600 ohms, so I had my doubts if the FC-40 would load it as VK7JJ found 600 ohms and above to be values the FC-40 couldn't handle, but I was able to load it on all bands except 80M and 60M. I have a 40' vertical wire coming down to the FC-40. The windom is supposed to operate as a horizontal dipole on the fundamental frequency and even harmonics, in my case 40, 20, and 10. Because a good ground and radials were suggested, I had my doubts about it being anything than a top loaded vertical, but antenna tests with a friend three miles away proved that the 40M polarization is indeed horizontal. He has a Hytower and a 40M beam. Using my windom, my Hytower, his Hytower, and his beam in a series of tests, there was no doubt that the Windom was a horizontal dipole and not a top loaded vertical on 40M. I did not try to ascertain the polarization on 20 and 10 where it is also supposed to be horizontal. It is probably a toploaded vertical on the other bands. The Windom appeared to be a better antenna than the previous ones I had tried. On 17M, 20M, 30M and 40M it compared favorably with the Hytower. It loaded well on 10, 12, and 15M and probably will work well on those bands, but they were dead. It will not load on 60 or 75/80M, and I don't expect it to work well on 160M tonight, though it loads from about 1850 up. Since the 66' Windom works well, I think I will try a 135' Windom antenna next. At 40' height, it will be a cloud warmer on 80M, but should load up well there and probably equally well on the other bands described above with the 40M Windom. We'll see.
In conclusion, the FC-40 is a good end fed wire tuner for a random length wire, an inverted L, or a Windom, but you probably will not be able to find an antenna length that it will load on all bands without following VK7JJ's example. Any single wire antenna needs a lot of radials to be a really good performer. No doubt, my FC-40 antennas would have compared better to the Hytower on 80 and 160M if they had the Hytowers 40 radials. I am giving the FC-40 only a 4 instead of a 5 rating because-
1) the manual is poor
2) in my case, it would not load a 65' wire on 160M contary to Yaesu's claims, and
3)because it will not load anything close to a 1/2wl end fed wire (the manual more optimistically says "exact multiple of a 1/2 wl").
4) On bands that the FC-40 can not quite tune, pressing and holding the tune key for one second will sometimes detune the antenna and make the SWR worse, resulting in power output dropping from say 50 watts to 25 watts. I see this happen on 80M especially with the antennas described above.
I'll be using the Yaesu/tuner combo in SC soon where I have a 40' tower and can replicate the antennas described above without whatever effects all my various wires and towers here in Colorado have on the antenna experiments described. If I find any significant differences in a more virgin! environment, I'll report back here.