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Reviews For: Elecraft T1 Miniature ATU for all Low-Power Transceivers

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Elecraft T1 Miniature ATU for all Low-Power Transceivers
Reviews: 63MSRP: 135
Description:
This may be the world's smallest high-performance, stand-alone ATU. At just
4.4 x 2.5 x 0.9 inches, and weighing only 5 oz., it's about one-fourth the size
and weight of other compact automatic antenna tuners.

The T1 has 7 inductors and 7 capacitors to provide a wide tuning range. It
can be used with any 0.5 to 20-watt transceiver or transmitter, and can be
tuned in any mode, even SSB voice. Many L-C settings are saved in the unit's
EEPROM for quick re-tune (typically 1 to 2 seconds).

An internal 9-V battery powers the unit, and battery life is excellent thanks to
the use of latching relays and auto power-off after each use. There's zero
power consumed except when actually tuning.

There's a "smart" adapter cable available for the Yaesu FT-817. This
convenient accessory allows the T1 ATU to track band changes made at the
transceiver, recalling per-band L-C settings without the need to transmit.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.elecraft.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15634.7
W4JZ Rating: 2005-03-16
Elecraft Done It Again! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have used the T1 now for over a week & before I posted a review I wanted to see if it would do everything it has been advertised to do. I will have to say Elecraft has done it again! This little tuner has done a very good job matching everything from 80 through 6 meters. Even on antennas that were not matched for that band. It is very easy to use & only took me 6 hours to build.

I have a 132 foot Windom, 2 element HY-Gain beam, & Gap Challenger DX-V vertical. The Windom does not like 30 or 15 meters & with little T1 it was a perfect match 1:1. On the Gap 30, 17, & 6 meters has a high SWR, but again the T1 gave them a 1:1 match. With the 2 element beam, 10, 15, & 20 meters are adjusted for the phone bands. I again got a 1:1 in the CW portion of the band.

Most of my activity is 20 meters & using this little T1 with the Argonaut V, SG-2020, DSWII-20, & a Yaesu FT-817 gave me 1:1 matches on bands that I would not be able to use without a tuner.

If you have an Yaesu FT-817 you will want the Remote Control Adaptor cable! Changing bands will hold setting in memory so when switching back T1 will return to the previous settings. Real nice!

The T1 will mostly be at home out in the field using a portable antenna that might have a high SWR or a center fed Zepp fed with 4:1 balun & open wire. I strung up some wire in the shack & using a 4:1 balun with 300 ohm TV wire I was able to get good matches on 20 through 10 meters.

Reed
QRP817 Rating: 2005-03-09
Testing T1 with 3 antennas Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had the good fortune to build, test and use one
of Elecraft's new T1 autotuners.

Building it went fairly fast; the Elecraft directions
are very well done. The unit is very compact (about
the size of a pack of playing cards) -- so more care
must be taken with soldering than with a regular-size
printed circuit board. My build worked fine the first
time.

I like to call it the "blinkin' miracle" because of
its blinking LEDs and how well it performs.

I used it with the accessory cable that connects it to
my FT-817's accessory port. That meant that every time
I connected a new antenna to the T1, and tuned up on
each of the bands, the T1 remembered all the settings
for the various bands. Thereafter, each time I
switched bands on my 817, the T1 remembered the band
settings and reconfigured itself. Jeez, I can remember
way back when, when I was using manual tuners and
having to write down all the settings for the various
bands I was using!

Also, the basic instructions for using the T1 are
listed right on the front panel, making taking a
manual along with the unit hardly necessary.

I tested the T1 with three antennas. One is
conventional, and the other two are more experimental.
I first used it with a shortened version of the G5RV
antenna up around 30 feet high (total length of the
two arms is around 95 feet)(one of the arms is half
horizontal and half drooping toward the ground -- the
other arm is fully horizontal). The T1 gave me a 1:1
SWR on all bands 80-10m but couldn't tune it on 160m.
I used a 4:1 balun for this test.

The second antenna test used the same balun with two
25-foot tape measures fully extended -- each arm
forming kind of an inverted 'L' -- a dipole of sorts.
The top of one arm was horizontal at around 10 feet
above ground level and the top of the other was
horizontal at around 20 feet above ground level. The
T1 tuned all bands 10-40m with 1:1 SWR, while the SWR
on 80m was higher, but still good enough to operate.
160m was not tunable. Then I tried the same antenna
without the 4:1 balun and the results were similar
(obtained a better match on 80m, though). I was using
the ground terminal on the T1 connected to a ground
stake.

The final antenna test was really wacky. It would give
the T1 a real workout. It consisted of an aluminum
ladder, consisting of two 11-foot sections. I raised
the second section up, making the total ladder length
around 20 feet high, and close to vertical. I put some
plastic at the bottom of the ladder so that it
wouldn't contact the grass/soil. Not knowing how well
the two sections had electrical contact, I fed the
bottom of the top ladder section from the center
conductor of the T1's output, while I connected the
outer T1 connector to a 30-foot-long wire which was
laid on the top of a roof at the approximate level of
the ladder feed point. The results: all bands loaded
with a perfect 1:1 SWR except 15 and 17 meters, where
the SWR appeared to be too high to operate there.
However, this time around, the antenna even loaded 1:1
on 160m !!

I also experimented last night with running more power
through the T1 than the recommended 20-watt max. After
tuning up at QRP power, I used the K5OOR final amp to
boost power up into the 30-watt range. I called one CW
CQ and felt the two toroids near the output/input BNC
jacks (I think they're called output transformers) and
there was a barely detectable warmness. After a second
CQ, they were definitely starting to heat up. So at
least one can run more than the recommended power for
a time and not worry about damaging the unit.

Let's see. You can also use the T1's three LEDs to get
an approximation of your output power and your SWR (up
to 1:3).

I love this blinkin' miracle, its perfomance, size and
weight. Great for field use. As someone else said,
it's small enough, minus its internal 9v battery, to
fit into the 817's battery compartment. Someone
somewhere will find a way to install it in there !!!
The downside of course is that you'd be limited to
using it with the 817.

I think that this device is the first that Elecraft is
selling both as a kit and as a manufactured unit.

-- Bil KD6JUI (I cut my teeth building Heathkits!!)
W3DX Rating: 2005-03-06
Another great elecraft product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Elecraft has done it again. They've done a great new kit that is small, elegantly designed and loaded with great features.

The T-1 is an ATU that's about the size of a pack of playing cards that runs off a 9-v battery. The kit went together very easily, and I built it in three very relaxed evenings. (You could build it in one, but why rush? Savor it like a great novel.)

I tested it on 6 through 160 meters on three antennas: a beam, a vertical and a sloper. It was able to achieve a match in virtually every tuning scenario.

Tuning time varies from about 1 to 6 seconds the first time. But then it saves the tuning information in a memory bank so that it tunes very rapidly the second time, usually in about 1 second. The kit has an LED readout for power and SWR.

The T-1 comes with a quick reference guide right on the label. The T-1 has a really nifty feature that gives you a readout of key information (including band, l-c values and battery voltage) which comes out in morse code flashed on the LED. Really neat.

Elecraft, thanks for another great kit. I can't wait to see what's next.