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Reviews For: Hendricks SLT Tuner

Category: QRP Accessories

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Review Summary For : Hendricks SLT Tuner
Reviews: 3MSRP: 60
Description:
Hendricks' Switched Longwire Tuner Plus (SLT+) is a QRP long wire antenna tuner with built-in SWR indicator.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.qrpkits.com/sltplus.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0032
VE1YY Rating: 2017-11-27
Works Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is tuner works best with one half wave end fed wires (I have not tried it on odd multiples of one half wave).

A supplied cheat sheet helps to find the initial combinations of inductances.

The most frustrating task is the decals application! (I thought that the toroids would be difficult - they weren't). It is imperative to thoroughly clean the metal before applying the decals.
IZ8FNY Rating: 2014-09-20
High price, Low performances Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It is a tuner that works ok only with lambda/2 wires: it is impossible to tune wires with different lengths. The switchs are hard to press. The case is provided with any silkscreen (the decal application failed). At the same price better to see elsewhere: ZM-4 for examples that tunes anything. If you live in Europe there are also custom taxes. Not suggested.
IZ4KBS Rating: 2011-02-05
Falls short Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have built a few other small kits from Hendricks, including the rather good BLT+ Tuner, and I'm always been pleased with them. With this one I'm not. The electrical design is a simple L-network, which is fine, and the components are also valued correctly. However, I have built other L-network tuners of my own design, and a lesson that I learned is that the output stray capacitance must be kept as low as possible, or the matching capabilities of the device may be significantly reduced. Which is exactly what happens with the SLT+. The output stray capacitance is way too high. Even after pulling the polyvaricon cap from the unit, and with all the switches in the "out" position, that capacitance is about 30 pF, while a good design would have no more than a few pF. An early version of this kit, which was named ALT (Altoids Longwire Tuner), use to deploy computer jumpers to switch the inductors in and out, instead of tiny slide-switches, and I believe that was a better idea, albeit possibly not as convenient to operate. In conclusion, I believe that the PCB should be redesigned for much less stray capacitance on output, because the way it is now makes the tuner unable to match most wire antennas I've tested it with, even when abiding by the recommended wire lengths.