[TowerTalk] Tuners

[Tom Rauch]

> Hi all....In your opinion, who CURRENTLY makes the best hi-power antenna
> tuner on the market??? Thanks....Al/W8FAX

Hi Al,

I was involved with the ATR-30, so you can consider me prejudiced 
if you like.... but here are the facts.

I used to use KW Matchboxes, I have several. The matchboxes are 
now all put away.

The plus side:

1.) The ATR30, into reasonable loads, with handle well over 5000 
watts on CW and SSB. It will handle near that amount on 160 
meters. It doesn't even need a fan, or vent holes, because loss in 
the tuner is very low.

2.) It has a good current balun, the best kind of balun.

3.) It has an accurate peak reading meter with long storage time 
that will even detect the failure of relay to close quickly, or a 
momentary arc...or you can select fast mode and read average 
power.

4.) It is adequately shielded.

On the minus side:

1.) Matching range is restricted from a few ohms to about 600 
ohms or so on 160 meters.

2.) Like all T tuners, power is derated into low impedance and 
capacitive reactance loads on the lower bands. It still however, will 
handle more than 1500 watts.

Quite honestly it matches a wider impedance range than the old 
KW Matchboxes, and handles more power. The downside of that is 
you have to watch the load impedance so the voltages don't get too 
high, but I figure it's better to match and not run extreme QRO than 
to not be able to use a certain feedline antenna combo at all.

The wattmeter reads 300 watts or 3000 watts, by the way.
   
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com

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