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Reviews For: Yaesu FC-902

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FC-902
Reviews: 7MSRP: 199.95
Description:
600 watt
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/fc902.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0074.6
VA6DWH Rating: 2013-11-26
Solid unit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had mine for a few years now.....seems to be a solid unit....Wish the meters were a little larger.....with us hams getting older....eyesight is always an issue.....tunes fast....tunes well.....I feel the rating in regards to watts is a little loose....get anywhere close to max with a poorly matched antenna and you will have an issue....build quality is good....looks awesome in anyones station....I added meter lights to mine....easy to do....excellent mod...No real complaints....Make sure you use it carefully....not too much power.....or you will be replacing a diode or two that run the meters....

Regards.....Wes....VA6DWH
G8KNJ Rating: 2013-04-20
Military grade at Ham price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This tuner is so rugged. Every solder joint has a red dot indicating 100% inspection. I use "ANT 1" for an external dummy load and have disconnected the red "wire" input to use for meter illumination. The "cheat sheet" is in a perspex "document display stand" on top. I will never sell it.
EI4GMB Rating: 2010-06-28
FC-902 for you !!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner was the first ATU I purchased as a Radio Amateur. I bought it in mint condition second-hand for 150 Euros. I liked the idea that I could use it with my Ameritron 811 amplifier and that it could easily handle 400W (Max.600w) the legal limit here in Ireland!!!
As has been mentioned previously the FC-902 is of excellent build quality and is far superior to anything offered by MFJ. It is also difficult to find an ATU that specifically covers the 300W to 600W power range.The Yaesu FC-902 certainly does this!!! Although it is no longer in production,you can often get them second-hand and very reasonably priced. Make sure your prospective 902 is in full working order before parting with your money!!! The FC-902 is indeed an excellent ATU which will last you many years!!! If you find one snap it up!!! It will not disappoint!!!
M5AEO Rating: 2010-03-27
Good workhorse Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have just installed one of these ATUs in the BBC Club shack (G8BBC). It is old, but good. The build-quality is much better than the cheaper modern models (except Palstar, of course!). It tunes our 7MHz dipole on all bands, and the Power/SWR meters are fairly accurate. The only negative point is that you have to calibrate the SWR meter which slows you down a bit when changing bands. The antenna selector switch is useful too.
AI4WM Rating: 2010-01-01
Good quality , great construction Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I recently got one of these to replace my Johnson Matchbox (Had the Matchbox for emmcom & put it in my shack for regular use to replace my Zetagi) so I could continue building my old Yaesu station. This unit has all the bands, including WARC, and built in VSWR & Power meter. Will switch 3 coax feeds and one wire. I like the ability to monitor power with the 3 power levels, 25W, 250W or 500W. I don't use an amplifier so the 500W scale is no advantage at this time.

The tuner is very well built (not as good as the Johnson Matchbox, but much better than the modern junk being sold) with a ceramic coil form for the main inductor and heavy variable capacitor with good plate spacing which may handle its 500W rating and I'm sure it will easily handle 250W.

I've loaded this into very mis-matched impedances without even a hint of heat or arcing. Controls are nicely spaced and arranged. I like big knobs on the capacitors, but these small ones seem to be just fine.

This tuner is similar to the FC-901. The FC-901 has no WARC bands the FC-902 has the WARC bands.

Up to 4 antennas may be connected to the tuner with #4 being a direct switched output to a wire antenna.
OE3SGU Rating: 2006-11-21
Wow Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was furtunate to buy a Sommerkampf FC-902 at a local dealer for a good price. When I opened the unit I was surprised, how well everything is constructed and what good quality components are used compared to most of the newer tuners. This one is a real beauty in the shack and I am sure it easy handles 500 Watts. I tried loading a 3 meter long (short) indoor MFJ telescopic whip with it and this was easy done right down to 40 meters. I like the big chassis a lot. If you can grab one, get it but check the inside first.
G3ZRJ Rating: 2001-05-14
Useful station accessory Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The FC902 as its name suggests is styled to go with the FT902 transceiver, it will also look the
part with the FT101Z and FT901.

The unit consists of a T match atu with switched
coil, a 4 way antenna switch and and SWR/Power meter. The unit will handle the output of any of the modern transceivers including the FT1000D,1000MP MKV, IC775DSP, and TS-950SD(X). Although it is rated to 500W I would not suggest driving it via a linear into badly mismatched loads.

Three coaxial feeds can be selected and while
there is no provision for directly feeding balanced systems, it does have a facility to feed a single wire.

The overall construction is substatially better than the cheaper independent manufacturers 300W tuners. The v/caps are not close spaced rx types
and the switches are ceramic.

The SWR/Power meter appears quite accurate, but requires calibrating each time by setting the forward meter to fsd. I found this annoying when trying to peak the pa of the FT902 and adjust the atu.

The FC902 is not terribly common, but can be found on the secondhand market, obviously you should ask to have a look inside the box to ensure that the particular unit hasn't been abused , but with that in mind you will get a better than average ATU/SWR/Switch unit which
looks great on the bench.

73 Tony G 3 Z R J