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Reviews For: Dentron DTR-3KA

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Dentron DTR-3KA
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
Dentron DTR-3KA.
Product is not in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
W1AEX Rating: 2011-01-06
Rugged and Reliable Tuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I acquired one of these tuners about 8 months ago. The quality of the components inside and the workmanship during assembly is impressive. The stickers inside indicate mine was built by Kathy, Diane, and Annette, and all three certainly knew how to make excellent solder joints!

I replaced the noisy cooling fan for the dry dummy load and most of the lamps behind the forward and reflected power meters, but that was pretty much all that was needed in the way of parts replacement. Using a Bird 43 as a calibration reference, I calibrated the 300W and 3000W meter settings and it tracks quite well through both power ranges.

The tuner handles full legal limit from my AL-82 on all bands with no issues loading into a 250 foot center-fed antenna using 4 inch spaced open wire line. It has no issues with high powered AM operation as well. The dry dummy load does not complain when I dump 1500 watts into it, but I only need to do that for a few seconds. The built-in antenna switch is ceramic and handles full legal limit power easily. I have always preferred using a tapped inductor rather than a roller inductor as it allows you to switch bands very quickly. Once you find the correct tuning points for your favorite frequencies, you will find that those settings will remain true when you return to them.

The short story is, if you can find one, grab it! You won't be disappointed!
N7WR Rating: 2006-04-07
EXCELLENT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Recently obtained one to match my DTR 1200L amplifier. Very smooth and easy to use. Lot's of features with built in HD balun and ability to select from 3 coax, one balanced line and one long wire input. Soft lit dual blue metering monitors output and reflected power. It's a large size piece of equipment which, like the matching amp, is designed for rack mounting...though mine look great stacked on the operating desk.
AL7B Rating: 2004-01-27
Good Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using this tuner for many years, since it was originally introduced.

The vernier controls for transmiter and antenna capacitors make resetting settings from band to band easy. I have used the tuner for random wire, balanced and coax fed antennas.

The watt meters are not highly accurate but close enough. The meter lamps did not last very long, but easily replaced with slightly higher voltage lamps. The lamps are soldered into a board which snaps onto the back of the meter.

This tuner will continue to be a main piece of equipment in my shack, both as a tuner and antenna switch.