[TenTec] Ten-Tec 229A Tuner Value

[Jim Brown]

Sorry Clayton, these tuners are NOT good for legal limit for "quite a 
while" with the "stock" fixed capacitors. I've owned eight of these 
tuners, and several of the fixed caps fried in nearly all of them. I'm a 
contester, and had them set up so that they only worked one band (for 
fast switching between bands). Only one of those tuners was ever used on 
160M. The cap that ALWAYS fries is the one at the rear of the bandswitch.

When thinking about power ratings for these tuners, remember that their 
original design was in the days when we were permitted 1,000W INPUT.  I 
suspect that the design might not have received a serious look after that.

I run a pair of K3s, each to an original Titan 425, never more than 
1500W. When I fried the caps in these tuners, I was typically running 
about 1200-1300 W.  Most of my antennas are pretty well matched, nothing 
worse than 3:1, most under 2:1.

73, Jim K9YC

On Wed,2/17/2016 5:25 PM, Clayton Brantley wrote:
> Jim:  The 229/238 will run at legal limit for quite a while on almost 
> all bands.  The problem
> rears it's head on 160 meters where you might run into some weird 
> mis-matches.  At low
> power it seems to work OK but at hight power, the .01 disc caps just 
> cannot handle the
> current.  I found some Russian caps for around $30 to replace the 
> stock caps.  Now my
> 229A remains quite cool.  I believe this thing will tune the 
> proverbial wet noodle in a copper
> box!  I have had several match boxes over the years and I will not 
> part with this one.
>
> If you do not use 160 meters, then this mod is un-needed.
>