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Reviews For: SGC SG-230 PRO

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : SGC SG-230 PRO
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
Automatic antenna tuner for <200watts output at HF
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.sgcworld.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0033.3
N9TA Rating: 2007-06-25
Does the job...for years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My Smart-Pro has outlasted 4 vehicles. I used it with the QMS system bolted to the top of the 4 vehicles and worked hundreds of cw mobile contacts. It was best when on 40M or up....80m and down didn't work very well with a 9 foot whip. I STILL have the durned thing...and it is STILL in use. I now use it to tune the radials on my Hustler 6BTV on a push-up pole at about 25 feet. It has never failed to do whatever I asked...and I have had absolutely ZERO problems with it in...what....about 10 years now. I have never tried the pre-amp...which seems to be the major complaints....so I can't comment. I'd have NO hesitation at all in buying it again.
G0CPK Rating: 2000-10-05
i liked it eventually Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I moved qth and needed small discreet antennas. as I listen out of band I thought that pc control and the preamp of the 230PRO would be ideal.Unfortunately it took three attempts to get one that worked however this is what I think of the result. The pre-amp is almost useless on my 50ft approx.wire due to rx overload and the pc control is a little unecassary as the wire is not too bad in the thru position.Location meant that the wiring up was a bit of a nightmare however, now that its sorted it is brilliant. All bands top to ten tuned in seconds. I find myself changing bands just because i can.
Before installing at home I tried it mobile/portable with all manner of whip antennas up to 23ft. as a mobile tuner it excelled itself and I strongly recommend the SGC method but save money and stick to the cheeper 230..
K8AC Rating: 2000-09-26
A tuner with some problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This tuner is basically the 230, with the optional SmartLock Pro control head as standard equipment, a receive preamp, and a PC interface to allow you to control the tuner elements from your PC screen. According to SGC, this tuner was originally designed for a non-amateur application that needed the PC control feature. That feature is of no value for amateur use. The preamp may be useful with very short antennas (whips, very small loops, etc.), but it's completely unusable with a typical antenna. With a long antenna (mine is 130 feet), the preamp is in a perpetual state of overload and you can hear nothing on any band other than the preamp generated garbage. Unfortunately, the circuitry added to support these features contains two oscillators that generate spurious signals that you can hear in your receiver. There is no fix for this problem. If you do any DX work, you'll find it impossible to live with the spurious signals, which sometimes are as strong as the weak station you're trying to hear. SGC replaced my tuner with the regular SGC-230, which has none of these problems. And- the 230 seems to be able to match difficult loads more easily (such as my end fed half wave on 80). This is a tuner to avoid.