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Reviews For: LDG AT-7000

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-7000
Reviews: 50MSRP: 169
Description:
The AT-7000 is the ideal tuner for your shiny new IC-7000. First, it matches up to 10:1 SWR (3:1 on 6 meters), so just about anything you can feed with coax is good to go.

The AT-7000 is just 6.5" long, 6.5" deep and 1.5" tall. It weighs only 1.5 pounds, and gets its DC power directly from the radio; no separate power supply needed. The AT-7000 works with any Icom radio that supports AH-3 or AH-4 Icom antennas. This currently includes the IC-7000, IC-706MkIIG, IC-703Plus, IC-718, IC-746 and IC-756ProIII.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00504.5
NV4NV Rating: 2006-12-31
Best tuner solution on the market for IC-7000 owners Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My LDG AT-7000 tuner has the latest firmware upgrade, and I have had no problems with it whatsoever. I swear this thing could tune the twine on a wet bale of hay. The firmware upgrade likely cured the problems that early purchasers reported here on eHam.net. Accordingly, those low early scores downgrade what the proper score should be today for this superb tuner.

For example, I have the short Carolina Windom for 10 through 40 meters. Not only does the AT-7000 find a match on those bands quickly, it was also successful in matching the Windom at 80 meters and 6 meters. Now I know that at those extremes the tuner is just making the coax happy, but the fact that it can match out of spec for this type of antenna, I think, is remarkable.

I removed the cover to examine the interior of the AT-7000. What I found was a clean and neat circuit board with high-quality components that were flawlessly assembled. Future firmware upgrade chips can be easily inserted by the owner. However, I do wish that the various cables connecting the AT-7000 to the IC-7000 were more robust and easier to remove. I like the fact that the AT-7000 is a plain black box with no controls. It doesn't even have an on-off switch, and it draws power from the transceiver - no wall wart required. All controls are in one place - on the IC-7000 itself.

It is absolutely essential that the user of the IC-7000 and AT-7000 read both manuals in order to insure proper tuner functioning. For example, if you just punch the TUNE button on the ICOM briefly, you are NOT starting a tuning cycle - you are bypassing the tuner entirely and putting the finals of your transceiver at risk with possibly high SWR while you mistakenly think that the tuner is doing its job. No, you must press and HOLD the TUNE button for more than one second in order to start a tune cycle. Yes, the tuner may rattle and grind a bit (a somewhat startling sound at first) when it searches for the best match on a new frequency. However, once the matches are stored in the more than ample memory, subsequent tune cycles are quicker - and quieter.

It is important that the RED TUNE indicator on the upper left side of the LCD screen is on. No Red Tune light - no successful match. It is also important to note that the AT-7000 does not "know" when you have switched bands. You MUST re-tune when you QSY. You quickly get in the habit of pressing the tune button instinctively. I do wish the ICOM would make the Red Tune indicator automatically blank as a reminder every time you change bands. Well, perhaps they will on the IC-7000 "Mark II."

In summary, I believe that the LDG AT-7000 is the best tuner solution on the market for the IC-7000. It's a good value for the money. Just make sure you have the latest firmware upgrade.
SM5TAO Rating: 2006-11-16
Great product for little money! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received the unit today, hoked to a IC-7000 with a Diamond CP-6, no problem at all on any band. The version I have is 1.1. Has very fast tuning, lot of memory positions (2000), I have tuned for many bands and frequecies, then rercalled the positions-> almost less than 1 sec. for comming out with low SWR.
Thanks LDG!
SM5TAO
KE7IYG Rating: 2006-11-07
WORKS GREAT! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This a very nice little tuner that will tune just about anything.I even hooked it up to a 4:1 balun with a coiled up 100 foot wire, and it still tuned it perfectly! The only thing i dont like about it is that it is a bit on the noisy side when initially tuning.But, when its tuned in, it uses memory to configure your antenna where it left off, and the noise is gone.Way better than the at-180 at half the cost.I would say go for it!! For a 170 bucks you cant beat it.Oh one more thing, the ground screw in the back of the unit is a little bit flimsy.I tightened it up, and it works just fine. :)
WI2Q Rating: 2006-10-05
Perfect Device Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have used several automatic tuners in my day and must say this is one of the fastest and easiest to use! I have loved and hated others (espically hated the SGC tuners) but this one is a keeper. It tunes at light speed.... all you need comes with it (for the ICOM radios) and it hooks up in a Jiffy! If you have an IC-7000, then you should have the AT-7000. What more can I say. The problems previous user posts indicate must have been addressed and fixed on the new ones because I do not have a bit of trouble. I even emailed the mfg for information on 3 different occasions and got an answer back the SAME DAY!!!! Great service and a great unit.
N8TNJ Rating: 2006-10-05
Works for me Time Owned: N.A.
Have had it for 2mos working with a 706. Got it hooked up to a G5RV and it tunes it great. Hook up and operation is simple, press the button and you are there. Talked my buddy into buying one, and he likes to also.
VK3TPR Rating: 2006-09-17
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the AT 7000 to use with my IC706 hoping to later update to a Mk2G or a 7000. With my wire dipole and the 706 it tunes quickly and I now have low SWR's on all bands including the WARC bands. My antenna consists of two dipoles feed from a common balun, one is cut for 160M and the other for 80M, the dipoles were close to resonance when cut.
W0RSR Rating: 2006-08-22
Not what I expected Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm sorry I can't recommend this tuner. It just doesn't tune well, and afterall, that's what I got it for. I've only used it with the IC-7000. The antennas I'm using are not way out of resonance, but sometimes the ending swr after tuning cycle is worse than the untuned one. I have a LDG Z-11 Pro that works just fine with my setup. Guess I'll try LDG customer support again and see if they have any other ideas. My tuner is ver 1.1.
G0VXM Rating: 2006-07-24
Does exactly what it says on the box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well i baught this tuner with some concerns after reading the reviews but it was the only tuner that met my requirements so i thaught i would give it ago and right from the start everything i expected it to do it did without missing a beat. With an 80m lamco mobile aerial it tuned up everywhere above and including (obviously)80m.Wouldnt tune top band so i had a play with some different hf aerials and had good results with all of them with the 10m aerial tuning up 40 through to 6m and 20m loading up 80 through to 6. Still no joy on top band so i stacked my 40m lamco mobile ontop of the 80m lamco as they thread together, no good for mobile being about 15ft high but great for parked up, and away we went top band through to 6m from my car great. I am now going to purchase a proper top band mobile aerial stick that on and see if i can get all the bands whilst mobile so listen out and give me a report. Also threw a 20m long wire into a tree put a croc clip on end and stuck it on my aerial mount and as expected loaded up everywhere i went no attenuation no loss of power works great.
Thanks
Greg G0VXM
G0LCC Rating: 2006-06-27
fixed attenuator ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I liked the size and ease of operation of this atu
used with icom ic 706 mk2

At first had simular problems with tuning and loss of signal on receive to others who posted a summery on this peice of equipment.

Any thing above 24Mhz and the signal plummited by 20db or so.
I sent an e-male to Dwayne and becouse of the signal loss I included a remarked.....
"have I purchased an attenuation unit by mistake?"
I can only suppose Dwayne took exeption to this and told me not to use the at7000 if the antenna had a reasonable swr this was the entire content of dwayne's first retuning e-male not helpful and definatly not costomer support that you would expect from an established company.

After a breif exchange of e-male it was soon established that untill I was nice and really apologetic to Dwayne he would try to help

the reason for the recieve loss on signal seem to be due to the close proximity to the antenna (I use trap dipoles in the attic space above the shack) caulsing strong RF to effect the tuning via the coax.
(strange as Im pumping 10w of cw right through the middle of it I thought)

In short dwayne admitted that he did'nt know the solution to the problem

so after an antenna ajusting session in the loft and checking connectors ,earths and moving a leg on the trap dipole 7'across the problem
improved slightly the key factor in the solution was when I replaced the patch lead from the atu output socket to the two way antenna switch on the shack wall with a shorter lead the problem on HF went
now the only band that gives any concern is
50 Mhz where any attenuation happens which doesnt bother me as this antenna is resonant

now works as I would have expected on all hf bands

summery
4/5 tuning
5/5 ease of operation/looks
1/5 after sales support
1/5 RF rejection
KB9QPE Rating: 2006-05-29
Wish it worked Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm not sure if I'm having a radio problem or a tuner problem. Part of the difficulty is that the AT-7000 is a black box (literally and figuratively!). You plug it into the radio (an Icom 7000 in my case) utilizing the Icom tuner port and a coax. All of the control of the tuner is via the radio. When it works, it's great! However, when you have a problem, it's hard to know what's happening. There are no LEDs or anything on the AT-7000 to guide you in operating. (There is one on the main board but you have to open up the box).

The first time I plugged in my AT-7000 I could not get the tune button to start the tuning process. I read the LDG manual several times, re-read the Icom manual several times and kept trying. Eventually something worked and it worked great. Now I'm back to where I started. A 'beep' when I press the tune button, but no tuning.

When it was working, I was able to tune up a Buddistick antenna with an SWRs up to 2.8:1 without any problem. The initial tuning process is noisy but really pretty fast. When the proper match is obtained, the Tune status is displayed on the Icom LCD display. Subsequent re-tunes when QSY'ing within the same band are extremely quick.

Overall, I would be pleased with the operation if I could just figure out why it's not working. I think a couple of externally visible LEDs on the face of the AT-7000 could make trouble-shooting much easier. I'll update this review if I can get this problem resolved.