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Reviews For: LDG AT-1000Pro

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : LDG AT-1000Pro
Reviews: 57MSRP: 599
Description:
Building on the success of the AT-1000, LDG Electronics has refined and expanded its 1KW tuner. The AT-1000Pro has an Auto mode that automatically starts a tuning cycle when the SWR exceeds a limit you set.

Operates at any power level between 5 and 1,000 watts peak. Relay protection software prevents tuning at greater than 125 watts. 2 Antenna connections. Tunes from 1.8 to 54.0 MHz (including 6 meters). Tuning time usually under 4 seconds, transmitting near a frequency with stored tuning parameters, under 0.2 seconds. 2000 memories.

2-Year Warranty. All cables included.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ldgelectronics.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00573.8
K7ER Rating: 2008-05-05
Great Tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had an LDG AT-1000Pro Autotuner for about a month. It worked great with the exception of the Auto & Ant button it would not always work? I thought maybe it was me, but then I thought why not email tech support. So I did at 11pm at night. Within minutes LDG responded to my comment! The persons name was Dwyane he said it was probally the chip and said he would send me one. The next morning I got an email from LDG confirming one has been sent. Today in Monday and my chip arrived, I installed it and the Tuner work AWSOME! So big huge thumbs up for the best customer service I have ever seen. So am am very pleased to say the least. I will fillow up with a new review in a few months. 73 Jerry W6JER
KC4EO Rating: 2008-03-23
Works Great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have used this tuner for a lot of radio contacts. I currently have it working with an Icom IC-746PRO and Icom IC-2KL amplifier. The tuner has done a great job so far and automatically band switches and tunes with the radio and amplifier. This tuner is much easier to use than the Icom AT-500 when used with the Icom radio and Icom amplifier combination. I hope it continues to provide the service it has given me so far, because it has given me no problems and good service.
W1JCM Rating: 2008-03-01
Not too good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If you don't mind resetting it a few times during your session because it locks up and a few 100 watts less power out put because your old manual tunner does a better job it is the tunner for you.

I was hoping it wouls be as good as the 100 Pro but it just is not even close. My 746 Pro now has my old reliable manual tunner back and the LDG is back in its box on a shelf.
KA4SSH Rating: 2007-12-29
KA4SSH GREAT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I HAVE JUST THREE DAYS WITH THIS AUTO TUNER CONECTED TO MY 756PRO III AND IT WORKS AS GOOD AS ADVERTIZED WITH MY ALS -600 SWR 1.5 IS AS HIGH SO FAR ON 20-40 AND 75 BANDS AND IT WORKS WITH THE ICOM CABLE THAT COMES IN THE BOX. I HAD SOME QUESTIONS WHICH WERE ANSERED RIGHT AWAY ON THE E-MAIL - IN FACT I DON'T THINK THEY EVER LEAVE THE COMPUTER--
K9DMW Rating: 2007-12-26
So far, so good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've only had this tuner about a month but just started using it today. I bought it to use with an 80m Skywire loop(running through a 4:1 balun) to work on 160-30m with the intentions of running it with an 800w amp. So far it is working out barefoot with a 756PROII. The tuner is very noisy when looking for a match the 1st time(a lot or relays opening and closing) but when it finds a match it puts it into memory so next time it just looks up the freq and uses the previous data to set up the tuner. I'll make another review when I start using the amp with this tuner.
N4HNH Rating: 2007-12-23
Nice for the price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased an LDG AT-1000Pro in hopes of having it tune my G5RV and my 160m dipole. I had been using them with an MFJ-989C with great success. In fact my 160m dipole, fed with ladder line, is my best 20m antenna, beating my R-5 vertical, the G5RV, and an off-center-fed (no tune) dipole.

But I got tired of turning knobs. I went looking for an auto-tuner that can handle legal limit. I purchased the LDG AT-1000Pro. The AT-1000Pro doesn't have a balanced wire connection so I purchased a 4:1 balun for the 160m dipole and used a coax jumper to connect to one of the tuner's two coax inputs.

I was disappointed to discover that the AT-1000Pro could not tune my 160m dipole (250 ft. long) at all. It also could not tune it to 75 or 80 meters. It tuned the G5RV just fine. With an antenna like a G5RV that only runs a 3 or 4 to 1 SWR at worst case, the tuner has no problem.

The relay switching is noisy while the tuner finds a match for the first time. You may think the tuner is going to come apart, but don’t worry. The first time it tunes to any frequency it must search for the best L and C combination and store this in memory.

The AT-1000Pro tuner does not provide an exact match (near 1:1) like you would get with a manual tuner or the more expensive AT-AUTO from Palstar, which is stepper motor driven. The LDG AT-1000Pro has a bank of fixed value capacitors and inductors to choose from, so there is no fine tune feature, as with the Palstar. But the AT-1000Pro is fast, once it has the settings for each frequency stored in memory. You may hear two or three clicks when it recalls the proper capacitance and inductance from its memory banks and energizes the appropriate relays. I saw an average of 1.3:1 to around 1.5:1 in most cases. That is plenty acceptable.

In the end I bit the bullet and replaced the AT-1000Pro with a Palstar AT-AUTO at over twice the price. But you get what you pay for. The Palstar includes a balance wire connection with a built-in 4:1 balun. It tunes the 160m dipole to any frequency my rig can cover, from 6 to 160 meters. The stepper motors are fast and quiet. But the LDG AT-1000Pro is very fast since it only has to energize relays to achieve the match.

Summation: If you cannot justify spending nearly $1300 for a Palstar AT-AUTO tuner, and you are using simple coax-fed dipoles in the 10-80m range I think you will be pleased with the price and performance of the LDG AT-1000Pro.
N6MYA Rating: 2007-10-19
Nice tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've only had this tuner for almost a week, which is kind of early for a review, however i thought i would fill everyone in on my early experiences with the unit. This is not the first LDG tuner that i have had. I have an AT-11 that i built from a kit back in about 1996, but word from the factory was a curt "not supported" when i requested a schematic to repair it. Fortunately the kind people of the internet provided the information that i required.

The AT-1000 PRO does exactly what the factory says it will do. It very quickly matches your system on a frequency that you have transmitted on or near in the past. It remembers it's settings, and restores the match upon power up. The only other auto-tuner that i can compare it's speed in tuning to is the AT-11 mentioned above, the AT-1000 PRO seems slower when searching for a match on a non-memorized frequency, however i feel that it's speed in a 're-tune' far outweighs any differences in initial tuning speed.

As far as the power handling goes, i can only produce a carrier a little above 500 watts (pair of 572B's) and the tuner handles this with no problems.

The only thing i can say that is odd is the fact that when tuned, the SWR meter in the transmitter will sometimes read 2.2 to 1 or 2.5 to 1, while the meters in the tuner read a 1:1 VSWR. I even went so far as to put a stand alone VSWR meter in line between the rig and the tuner and it will also read around 2.0 to 2.2 to 1, depending upon the length of the patch cable and the frequency. The rig and the final amplifier seem to have no problems with this anomally, so i did not detract from the rating for it.

My antenna system consists of one antenna, a trapped dipole that i use on 20, 40, 60 and 75 meters. The only place that the tuner can not find a match is the very bottom of 80 meters (around 3530 khz)and the problem is not with the tuner, it is the fact that the antenna is a bit too short, and is bent forward at the ends for the last 10 feet. I tuned the same antenna on 17, 15, & 12 meters as well and the tuner makes all portions of these band available also (i don't use these bands, but just wanted to verify that the tuner does indeed tune the antenna to these frequencies). I did not try 10 meters at all.

So far i am very pleased with what the tuner can do for me and am looking forward to many years of service from it.

N6MYA