[TowerTalk] Homebrew Tuner Thoughts Needed

[Leroy Buller]

Years ago, I made a Lew McCoy tuner (Ultimate Transmatch) using new EF Johnson Air Variables and a nifty new 28 mh roller inductor.  I think one is a split stator (250 pf each section) and the other is a 250 pf or 500 pf...I can't remember.  I mounted these new components up in an SB200 linear cabinet and it matched by Heath line very well.  Well, the Heath line is looooong gone and I changed the tuner from Ultimate to SPC.  But, here is the rub.  I am having a heck of a time finding a good setting on the tuner 14 Mhz and above.  I do have a small coil after the roller inductor of about 5 or 6 turns of #10 wire about an inch and a half  in diameter and spaceed about a quarter of an inch.  That was suppose to help on the higher bands.  But, for some reason it is not working very well above 14 Mhz.  If I remember right, I went to the SPC because ot was better on 160 meters and did not have to have a door knob capacitor switched in to get enough capacitance.  But, I remember thinking that the SPC design doesn't work well on the higher frequencies.  I've tried to research the issue on the web, but I get a lot of gooble-de-gook, but not much hard substance.  Can anyone enlighten me as I have not been able to come to a conclusion about this issue.  What confounds me (and that is easily done these days) is that my cheap little MFJ tuner will tune all my antennas down to nothing (my antennas are cut for CW and need some tweeking on the SSB part of the band) and have no trouble on any band.  So, I am looking for some ideas here....should I keep it SPC or go back to the T?

Lee - K0WA