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Reviews For: ICOM AT-500

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : ICOM AT-500
Reviews: 13MSRP: Check at: http://www.aade.com/h
Description:
medium power automatic ATU
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur/index2.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00134.8
N2ZD Rating: 2020-05-06
It’s a love hate thing.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I really do love this tuner, it handles 500 watts cont, 1k pep. But there is an annoyance factor. Those 4 antenna ports drive me nuts! There should be a switch to choose from one, two or 4 or to just toggle the servo on or off.
On the bright side, It’s quiet, fast and works great! I bought the interface cable from W2ENY (buy it!!) that allows my IC-7300 (Love this radio, but hate it’s sissy tuner!) to take charge of the tuner. It now follows band changes and sets the slicers for the presets you'll make under the removable cover (read on) as you change bands.
It works smoothly and has a wide matching curve. If you get one, begin by setting the internal switch under the top cover to “preset” inside, turn the related servo controls to get the best match from the antenna on the antenna port for that band. Then once your all done, you can set the switch for “auto” and replace the cover. Now it will preset the servos to the selected band if you use the W2ENY cable. If not, use the band switch on the front to do it manually. It will then set it up for use on the selected band and will touch it up if needed.
You can tie all or some of the internal coax connections together to use just one or two antennas. The manual shows how to do this. And that was My only issue with this tuner.

Regards Richy N2ZD
K6XN Rating: 2017-06-14
Outstanding Time Owned: more than 12 months.
We now have three (3) IC AT-500 antenna tuners that we use for contest operations in combination with three IC-2KL linear amplifiers during contest operations and they have all performed flawlessly.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by K6XN on 2014-09-12

We have three (3) AT-500 antenna tuners that we use at our club stations N7PR, NN7NN and NC6DX, in combination with IC-2KL linear amplifiers and IC-751A transceivers for multi-multi contesting and chasing DX. They have performed flawlessly for us. My only recommendation is to actually read the manual and follow the instructions and you will be very pleased for many years! We love our AT-500 antenna tuners! GL and 73, Ted, K6XN
VK4ALL Rating: 2014-11-25
Very good tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have just married my AT-500 ATU to my Icom IC-725 transceiver and they both work perfectly together.
It was necessary to carry out some testing and then make up a new cable to get them to talk to each other, as ICOM do not supply a cable to connect these two items together.
I only have one gripe with this tuner, it does not have an antenna input socket that will accept a "multi-band" (1.8 to 28mhz) antenna, such as my T2FD 65ft folded dipole.
KE6TDT Rating: 2014-05-29
Very impressive even with a vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Very impressive tuner. I was lucky enough to find this IC-AT500 tuner along with the matching ICOM solid state IC-2KL amplifier, all driven by an ICOM non-pro 746. What a great combination this turned out to be.

It auto switches from band to band quickly and easily or can switch manually if not using ICOM equipment.

I currently use an HF6Vx vertical antenna and this tunes in all the HF bands automatically. It's really a joy to use when just cruising the different bands. I plan on designing a multi-band inverted V eventually and I am quite confident it will tune that across the spectrum as well.

What is unique is the appearance of this tuner could pass for one of today's newer type amplifiers.

If I could have given this a higher rating, I would have.
VK2HMC Rating: 2012-12-10
Fantastic! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Great all rounder medium power HF automatic Tuner. Kind of rare, especially in Australia but well worth the effort to get hold of.

There are 4 (optionally 5) antenna connections.
If you have just one antenna for all bands you can use "T" connectors to link the 4 outputs if you do not want to open up the tuner and change the link as per icom instructions.

I have personally found the AT-500 handles everything my sometimes HAM fist throws at it without blowing up. I also have to mention that it is fully automatic with most ICOM rigs but manual is available. Manual is easy to tune for each band by using 2x LED and 2x POTS. once preset, one just turns the knob on the front for what ever band you need.

All in all a great tuner, and a positive experience.
KC4EO Rating: 2008-01-14
Great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the AT-500 to go with my IC-2KL amplifier from Burghardt Radio. The tuner is being used with the amplifier and an ICOM 746PRO radio. I think the combination of the IC-2KL and AT-500 with an ICOM radio is great, auto band switching, no tuning, everything works together. Visit W2ENY website for obsolete cables that will enable you to fully utilize the tuner and or amplifier.
N6BIZ Rating: 2007-05-25
perfect Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
have the at 500 and the ic2kl great combo
UA1OSM Rating: 2007-05-07
Wonderful for it' s time Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got AT-500 from USA in 1993. DOA thing.
Bands did not change, optocoupler went to the ghost. I replaced it. Using with IC-751 (fully) and later with IC-765 (just as antennae switch) I cud state:

Tuner works quite well for it' s class of preset type tuner. Preset works stable only till 21-24 MHz. Tuner MAY miss to complete tuning of a known antenna above 24 MHz. Not always, but it happens.
So I concluded the device cannot be as rock relable as IC-765 it' s own inner tuner. The device AT-500 is rather slow. 765 tuner is lightning-fast. You can start speak into mike using a new antenna.
765 tuner tunes on SSB peaks in 3-5 seconds. It is great. AT-500 cannot do it - just to it' s nature.
N8RT Rating: 2005-12-23
Beware of burnt band switch Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This tuner was very good when new, however as it aged with use, problems have developed ,because of poor antennas and too much power burning out the contacts of the bandswitch, rendering certain bands to become untunable or erratic!
The bad news is that Icom no longer sells the Bandswitch! Buyer beware! Make sure you test the tuner on all bands before a purchase!
LU5DDX Rating: 2003-11-21
exelente Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
realmente no conocia este tuner pero al comprarlo me lleve realmente una grata sorpresa.
rapido-exacto-facil de usar -lindo aspecto-exelente construccion -sintoniza sin problema una antena g5rv en cualquier banda modificando el conector de salida para accionar solo una antena
de la llave selectora ,realmente si ve uno comprelo y si no aviseme hi hi ..jorge roig