[TenTec] LDG AT-100 Pro

[Douglas]

Anyone else using an LDG AT100 Pro tuner with their
older Ten-Tec transceiver?

I got the tuner for Christmas and can't say that I'm
happy with it.

After going into "sleep" mode, it would intermittently
refuse to wake up.
Last weekend I probably blew it out either by running
80 watts into it from my old Swan 250C 6 mtr rig or
else while using it with my Ten-Tec Corsair II.
It will no longer tune anything over about 3:1 SWR
on a HF band.

After a careful and complete reading of the owner's
manual, I discovered, in the "fine print" but not in
the specifications page, that while the tuner is
advertised as a 125 watt tuner in all LDG ads and on
their website, when you read the fine print in their
owner's manual, it states that power must be reduced
to only 25 watts in tune mode when using a transceiver
that doesn't have power foldback into high swr's.
That's only 20% of the advertised power rating.

I called LDG's customer service and sort of got a run
around about their lack of truthfulness in
advertising. I never would have gotten the tuner if I
knew it was only rated for 25 watts in tune mode.
As I said to their rep, "How can one even accurately
measure 25 watts into an unknown antenna impedance?"
With a Ten-Tec rig that depends on power supply
current limiting rather than SWR foldback, one would
have to be constantly reducing power to very low
levels every time one changes frequency.

I guess I'm used to shipboard tuners made by MacKay,
Harris and others that are rated for rock solid tune
capability at full rated power. I didn't expect the
same quality for $220 bux but not an 80% derating....

LDG is hedging about fixing it under warranty.
Perhaps it doesn't matter since with a power rating
capability of only 25 watts, it isn't too useful to
me.

I was a bit suspicious of its power rating when I
opened it and noted that it was only using 600 v
capacitors. That's certainly fine for 25 watts but not
for 125 watts into a maximum load impedance of 1000
ohms - per the specs. Peak-to-peak voltages, not
including transients, could easily exceed 700 wolts
under such conditions.

I'm wondering if Ten-Tec broke their relationship with
LDG over reliability issues?

73,
Doug/WA1TUT




		
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