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Reviews For: Dentron Monitor Tuner (160-10 AT 3KW)

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Dentron Monitor Tuner (160-10 AT 3KW)
Reviews: 4MSRP: 200.00 used
Description:
Full legal limit tuner rated at 3kw for 10 thru 160 meters.
Coax, balanced line, and single wire antenna hookups. A large 4/1 balun inside. Built in power meter with 0-200 forward, 0-200 reflected, and 0-2000 forward watts. Tapped inductor tuning.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
KM2B Rating: 2019-11-14
Extremely well constructed, wide range tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I found this tuner under a pile of other items at the local Rochester, NY Hamfest early in the morning in summer 2017. I was looking for a tuner to use for higher power operation since I was hoping to purchase a small amp. Indeed, since then I have purchased a used ALS-600. For a long time I was looking at the Palstar AT2K tuner, but, it is quite expensive.

The seller was local, so, I felt comfortable with his claim that it worked perfectly and purchased it for $270.

That evening, I hooked it up, and, tested it on all of my antennas including a vertical, which, on 17m has a 7.5 SWR. All of the antennas could be tuned to 1.01 SWR on my handheld RigExpert AA-54. I have tried to find an impedance this tuner cannot match and so far no luck.

I have been very pleased with its performance to date.

The only challenge I faced was a puzzling one. The paint, which appeared to be all original, smelled quite strong and quite badly. Nothing very healthy about that smell. I tried heating the case a bit, and, that helped but still had a bad smell.

Finally, I disassembled the tuner and took the case to a local powder coating shop and they acid washed the old paint off and powder coated it. $40. No more smell. Looks brand new now.

Those interested in detailed pictures of the external and internals of this amazing tuner can find them here.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xMSMQszThQLiPWkK6

I am very pleased with how the powder coating turned the old tuner into what looks like a new piece of equipment in my shack. I am also extremely pleased with how the tuner always just works.

As noted by others, the tuner does not have a bypass to the antenna, but, honestly, even though I have "resonant" antenna's, they are not even close SWR = 1.01 so I just leave the tuner in line and touch up if I want. Easy.

The tuner feeds coax, a single wire, or ladder line. For the single wire and ladder line there is a large balun in place prior to the feedline.

There is a good all in one meter on the tuner as well with three ranges. 0-200W forward power, 0-2000W forward power and 0-200W reflected power. All of these have pots for calibration to a reference, which, I have done. Took a little time, but, the meter can be as accurate as you want to make it with calibration.

I found the manual which has the circuit diagram for the tuner and the meter. The manual is still available on mods.dk

Lastly, it is a fairly large tuner. The switches are big, the capacitors are huge, the balun is huge for feeding a single wire, so it needs a big case. That is a little bit of a downside, but, I will keep it anyway.
K4PVA Rating: 2010-06-20
A Solid Performer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was looking for one of these for a long time since the old Dentrons were built like battle ships. I finally got one and when I hooked it up...nothing. A closer inspection revealed that the SO-239 coax connectors were badly corroded. Well a few hours later, I got the beast open and replaced the SO-239 connectors. Next I opened up the swr bridge and calibrated the meter using the adjustable pots on the circuit board. I use a W2AU/Unidalla trap dipole for 10-80 meters. So I used my MFJ antenna analyzer to determine the settings for each band prior to hooking up my transceiver. To my surprise there were very little changes when the actual rig was used. This thing is build solid and the coils are huge. I would highly recommend one provided that you can find one. It's a keeper.
W7WX Rating: 2008-05-30
Good Value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I agree with the earlier mentioned things about this tuner. For me it's been a good value also (in spite of the couple of minor short comings it may have). There isn't much I can't tune with it, and it loafs at legal limit...which is what I wanted. Picked mine up at a hamfest pretty reasonably priced, and in great shape. I haven't been disappointed with mine at all.

73's
K5AAC Rating: 2008-02-21
A great tuner for the money. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This tuner is fairly easy to use. The lack of an SWR mweter as such is not a drawback. Merely tune for low reflected power. It easily handles the power output of my Ameritron AL-1500 Amplifier with no arcing or any other problems.
It is a large tuner apprx. 9.5h x 13.25w x 17.5d in inches. The only drawback is that there is not a bypass switch. I guess one could be installed with a bit of effort. Since my wire antenna is not resonant in the areas I use, this is not a problem.