[TenTec] #253 AutoTuner (summary)

[Brian K. Short]

Marty, et. al.

The TenTec #253 is a high power autotuner, capable of roughly full legal
limit matching of a wide range of antennas.

The tuner is a (reversible) L-Network with a roller inductor controlled
by a stepper motor and vacuum relays to switch in/out. It is powered by
12vdc and 2a max. It has 4 antenna inputs, the 4th of which can be set 
for coax, balanced, or end fed wire. The other 3 are coax only.

The tuner tunes fairly quickly (30s max, <5s typical), but is somewhat
dependent on inductor position.

It can be controlled by Icom equipment automatically and others have
built a small control box to select the various internal memories
(each antenna selection has a memory for each band, but they can be
 used however with the custom switch, 32 memories).

The firmware requires a little TLC in some unusual situations (perhaps
present owners can amplify on this?).

It can be manually controlled, also.

New, this was an expensive piece of equipment and is presently difficult
to find as it is out of production.

All of the above is from others' comments as mine will not be here for
a week or two. If you have further interest, contact me then.

73, Brian ke7gh@primenet.com (now K7ON)

>Hi Brian,
>I was hoping to see some of the responses as a #253 is on my "want list"
>for sometime in the future (after the ham budget recovers from the Omni VI
>upgrade to "+" - hi!)
>Could you please post a synopsis of what you learned? I expect other list
>lurkers would like to see the info besides me...
>Marty - W7LEJ


Brian ke7gh@primenet.com >or< http://www.primenet.com/~ke7gh


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