Cliff: Ordered, received and built today the Mini-Tuner. That was fun but for me it took more than an hour as I have tremors but got through it just fine. Just have to steady my hands on something to solder. Great little kit, it is my first kit build and I agree the toroids aren't as scary as you would think they are. Like they said in the instructions taking a picture with your phone and then count the turns especially on the small one really helps. Can't wait to try it ought on my Ft-817. Good Video! Inspired me! Michael KM4CBZ
I'm looking forward to seeing how mine performs. I am building 2. The standard 40-15 and the 80m one. Very quick and easy builds. I'm halfway done. Just gotta wind the toroids.
I'm getting ready for my Tech test, so I dont even qualify as a newbie (yet...I'm testing in June). Anyway, I'm also learning CW with the intention of exploring the world of QRP. Your channel has been an invaluable source of information, and inspiration as I get ready to join the ameteure radio community. Thank you so much for your generosity of spirit!
Thomas Tufts Thank you, Thomas! Welcome to the hobby. I’m happy to hear that you’re interested in CW. You can have a lot of success (and fun!) with small battery-powered radios using Morse Code. -Cliff
Excellent Vid. I'm sending off for one of the QRP Guys kits. I've used the resistive bridge in other circuits before. I noticed you checked the SWR on the analyzer while the slide switch was in the Tune position. Although the resistive bridge circuit is great for QRP, you will notice the SWR on your analyzer will change when you slide the switch from Tune to Operate although you're at minimum SWR. Not much change but it will change.
Just discovered your channel great video, appreciate your sharing your insights & experience. While I have been a ham for 30+ years I am still learning about QRP, finally getting a SDR ( Xiegu- G90). 73 Steve AA4SH
I have a bunch of their stuff. I'm building their tiny iambic paddle, to mount on my uBitX transceiver. I also have their multi-band trapped end fed dipole, that has a similar tuner at one end. It works pretty well. I have the same tuner you're reviewing in my box of kits waiting to be built.
built many kits of theirs great kits great results but seem to be building the same constructions over and over but more complicated each kit! not knocking them but now waiting for something more challenging! cheers 73
+Pablo Mendoza I'm glad you are looking into building things. It's a lot of fun and it gives you a good feeling of accomplishment. Congrats on getting your license, Pablo! - Cliff
Well after some careful consideration and also losing a some well-composed ramblings (!) about the difference between this outfit and the 49:1 half-wave setup (as tested and taught by N4LQ), I'll summarize it this time instead of re-composing the whole piece: For maximum efficiency and widest range of options, as well as practical "QRO" application (see Steve Ellington's (N4LQ) latest video for best comments on mode/power handling of the 3-core stack), the 49:1 type as I have built is my best option. This QRPGuys version brings in some limitations and adds the complication of a counterpoise that we don't usually use. Also with the 49:1-type, that a tuner isn't needed at all for most harmonics, and that more bands are available. Yes one might carry a pound or two extra stuff, but, for this particular ham (ain't we all particular?), QRP is about efficiency of our signals sent and received mostly and less about extreme minimalism. Or put otherwise, don't compromise the wrong areas. What still slightly confuses me are the limitations of their system 40-15 and 80 only. I'm working 80-6 with my current installation and ~134' of wire with a 75m mod. I have worked 160 with 270' of wire. So that's another reason I'll use what I have, here as well as "on the trail". I think QRPGuys have a lot of good gear, well-priced and supported, but this bit no longer interests me as I can pack the "big" 49:1 transformer and 1/2-wave wire anywhere I intend to operate. It's what I use at home. Thanks for the video Cliff. 73
You are just the greatest. thank you very much for your videos, very well put together and always so happy to see a new one!! you're the reason i took the leap into QRP, thanks Cliff :) -Braydon, KF7VWI
Thanks for nice information. It's a nice kit. In order not to mess up L1 and L2 toroids I practice with an ordinary wire before actually using the one which follows the kit. What I don't quite understand is what to do with the wire after tapping at 3rd turn L1. Should the remaining wire from tapping, for the next turn, go from above or below to make a valid turn? I believe it's hard to describe with words only.
I do not understand why a tuner is needed. I thought that with a end fed half wave wire you only needed a unun and it would be resonant. What am I missing. PS love you videos. Thank you
Should its BNC connector go into the transceiver or should there be a coax feed line in between? On the drawings in the manual, this tuner is placed really close to the transceiver as if no feed line is needed.
+QRP School Cliff, if you'd go to Dayton Hamvention, what would you be looking for regarding QRP? That would be quite a good theme for your next video. Meetings, lectures, companies, equipment, tools, antennas and so forth...Give us a good explanation....I bet it will be great!
Bought one. Tested it out recently and it worked great. Made my first ever Japan contact. 5 watts SSB. Also made a contact in Brazil along with a handful of U.S. contacts. de KG7FOP
any thoughts about this one and the QRPGuys 40m-10m UnUnTenna Plus? I can't decide between both and sent them an email for suggestions but they don't answer. Both have tunner and the LED but the UnUnTenna has 10m, I wonder is the UnUnTenna will have a better performance because of the bigger toroids.
Do you think this unit could be adapted to work with a random wire antenna length? Or with the toroid and other components have to be swapped out? Thanks!
Is it a problem that there is no case? I'm thinking of buying one for SOTA activities, but I don't want it to get dirty and/or damaged after one or two uses outside. I could get the Hendricks SOTA tuner, but that one is quite a bit more expensive, but might be worth it for the case. For the QRPGuys tuner or the Hendricks SOTA tuner, would it be feasible to install binding posts instead of using the wing nuts supplied? Binding posts seem like they'd be more useful for attaching wires to. P.S. I enjoy your videos, and find them to be very informative. Thanks!
Hello, Jeffrey. I would have preferred the circuit to have been designed to fit into a case. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to take one into the field. Even if it got "dirty" you could wipe it off with a slightly damp cloth and let it dry. The Hendricks SOTA tuner in the case is more "finished" but costs more. Still, the cost is not a lot when you consider it will last for many, many years of fun. As for the binding posts, you can hack it however you see fit. And you'd need to in order to make it fit into a case of some kind, should you decide to do that. The knob sticks up higher than the switch and the LED sits on the board... making it very hard to mount it in any standard case as-is. Still, it works great and I'm not worried about mine not being protected. - Cliff
@@spencergiles72 It wouldn't hurt the electronics to apply liquid electrical tape. However, it might be worth it (for some people) to just use some wire to extend the most important components to fix into a little box. The power switch, LED, knob, and antenna posts could be extended (remoted) to the top of a small box.
Cliff, as the tuner does several bands, what do you think of making one wire & counterpoise that are jumpered, instead of carrying around a cut wire for each band?
You knob is wobbly. Did you get the nylon insert and screw that is inside the black knob. Mine does not wobble like that.Nice video. I bought mine for backpacking QRP work.
Thanks, Todd. Good Eye, as they say in baseball. The problem was that I hadn't tightened the set screw enough before I went into the field. Once I turned the knob too far (before the camera started rolling) the knob was loose until I could get back home to tighten it. Not wanting that to be a show-stopper, I just went ahead and shot the video with a wobbly knob. It's good now. Thanks for noticing and looking out for me. - Cliff
I love your work and content. Thanks for the video. Do they sell these kits on ebay or do they ship to europe? I would be really happy if you answer this. Thanks 👍
+Sotiris Chrisopoulos Hello, Sotiris. That's a good question. I don't know of a reason why it wouldn't work on 80 meters. At 1:48 in the video, I show the chart that is listed on the tuner. If you look at the wire lengths for 20 meters and then look at the 40 meter wire lengths, you'll see that the wires are twice a long for 40m as they are on 20m. So, I think we could double the length of wire for 40m in order to get the length for 80m. If that's correct, it looks like the wire length for 80 meters would be a radiator of 126 feet with a counterpoise of 70 feet. Give it a try and let us know if that works. Future readers would appreciate it and I'm curious, too. Thanks- Cliff
I've never tried it on 10m. If it worked satisfactorily on 10m, I suspect the guys would have included that in the product listing, though. So, I'd be surprised if 10m was possible. -Cliff
+Max Prepper Hey, Mike. Good question. If you look at the analyzer in the video, you'll see "CF: 14.060" and, as you already know, that means the the Center Frequency is set to 14.060MHz. Now, look at the next line on the analyzer. It says, "SW: 1M" which means that we're looking at a plot on the screen of 1MHz of Scan Width... 500KHz on each side of 14.060MHz. So, the entire 20m band has less than 1.5:1 SWR. Thanks for asking about that. I should have mentioned it in the video. - Cliff
Hello, my name is George from Romania. I don't know English very well. Can you help me? How many meters does the yellow wire have, and how many meters does the black one have. I use the antenna more in 20m 14mhz. I am waiting for your answer, to understand that the length of the wire is measured in inches on the antenna . Thanks 73 !
Hello, Sud. According to the markings on the board, to use this antenna tuner for the 20m band (14MHz), you would start with the antenna wire at 31.5 feet long (31 feet + 6 inches = 9.6 meters) and the counterpoise wire would be 17.5 feet long (17 feet + 6 inches = 5.334 meters). These wire lengths are approximate and you may need to change the length depending on your deployment orientation, height, and/or nearby structures. Just a reminder: you don't need perfect 1:1 SWR in order to make contacts. If your SWR is 2:1 or better, you'll be fine. So, use these recommended wire lengths and give it a try. Best wishes to you! - Cliff (N4CCB)
@@QRPSchool What do you think of the fx-4c hf sdr transceiver, have you had the opportunity to test it? I have one and want to test the QRPGuys EFHW antenna.
Hello, Todd. I think my wire was 26 gauge. Any gauge is fine, though. I've used this for 5 watts of morse code/digital. The website says it's rated for 5 watts continuous or 10 watts of PEP (peak envelope power). So, you'll be fine to use it at 10 watts SSB. - Cliff
I purchased and built a Hendricks SOTA tuner years ago. The Led never lit up. When attached to the analyzer I could get decent swr in the tune mode but when I flipped to operate the swr went wack. I looked for wiring error but couldn't find one and just set the tuner aside never used. I would like to re-visit it with more experienced eyes. Any suggestions?
Earl Boaz Hmmm... Well, it's possible that there's a bad component somewhere. The first thing I'd do is look at the soldering job to see if I've accidentally created a solder bridge between two connections that weren't supposed to be connected. Then, I'd reheat every solder joint to reflow the solder to insure I didn't have a "cold solder joint". I had a problem a long time ago when I failed to completely remove the enamel from the magnet wire while soldering a torroid in place. That's about all I could suggest before you start looking checking the voltage at the LED, etc.
It's intended to be used with radiating wires that are cut specifically to a half-wavelength on the band(s) you want to work. You could have a small set of zip-lock bags with each bag containing the radiating wire and counterpoise for a specific band. If you are using a long wire or other non-resonant length of wire, you could use this to help tame the impedance but you'd still need to use an Antenna Tuner to be able to send your full 5 watts to the antenna... but it would not be as effective as if you were using a wire kit cut to a resonant frequency. That said, I worked Italy last Sunday using a 26' radiating wire and two 16' counterpoise wires from the balcony of a hotel in Florida, using my KX2's internal tuner. When propagation is good, your signal will find a way! - Cliff
Has any one tried to see if it will tune the bands above 40 with just a 40 meter wire instead of having to carry multiple wires? If not traps could be an option.
another awesome video cliff, some knucklehead just swiped my fluke 87 right off my bench, my fault for being trusting enough to leave it out as i ran to the mens room. So, i dont want to spend another $400 on a 87, all i need is something for lil electronic kits and so forth, i have spent about two hours looking for a replacement, and there is a ton of options blah blah blah, i was wondering what meter you used so i could at least get some kind of starting point. when i bought the fluke umpteen years ago, it was the one my EE professor said GO BUY THIS ONE! and since i was making really good money .... not retired , military pay, i just did it , any ideas where to start ?
ill spend the 400 if i need to, but i just figured there were much better options, and i probably did not really need too, and i would much rather spend $400 on a mountain topper than a meter lol
Thanks. Was looking for personal operating experience but no problem, I did see the circuit at :30 but often different component sourcing, board and the like will yield different results.
They both work the same. The design of the QRPGuys version makes it impossible to mount it in a box, though. The extra $15 gets you a nice package to put it in. - Cliff
Talking about this kit that is identical but has a box and cost a bit more, just took this on a work trip and it worked like a champ: qrpkits.com/sota.html
Cliff, Make your radial the yellow one so it can be seen. I have made the same mistake and have seen the need for highly visible radials, to keep ME from tripping over it.
Cliff:
Ordered, received and built today the Mini-Tuner. That was fun but for me it took more than an hour as I have tremors but got through it just fine. Just have to steady my hands on something to solder.
Great little kit, it is my first kit build and I agree the toroids aren't as scary as you would think they are. Like they said in the instructions taking a picture with your phone and then count the turns especially on the small one really helps.
Can't wait to try it ought on my Ft-817.
Good Video!
Inspired me!
Michael
KM4CBZ
I'm looking forward to seeing how mine performs. I am building 2. The standard 40-15 and the 80m one. Very quick and easy builds. I'm halfway done. Just gotta wind the toroids.
I'm getting ready for my Tech test, so I dont even qualify as a newbie (yet...I'm testing in June). Anyway, I'm also learning CW with the intention of exploring the world of QRP. Your channel has been an invaluable source of information, and inspiration as I get ready to join the ameteure radio community. Thank you so much for your generosity of spirit!
Thomas Tufts Thank you, Thomas! Welcome to the hobby. I’m happy to hear that you’re interested in CW. You can have a lot of success (and fun!) with small battery-powered radios using Morse Code. -Cliff
I have purchased this and enjoyed the build...purchased several other kits just to have more things to build
Excellent Vid. I'm sending off for one of the QRP Guys kits. I've used the resistive bridge in other circuits before. I noticed you checked the SWR on the analyzer while the slide switch was in the Tune position. Although the resistive bridge circuit is great for QRP, you will notice the SWR on your analyzer will change when you slide the switch from Tune to Operate although you're at minimum SWR. Not much change but it will change.
Just discovered your channel great video, appreciate your sharing your insights & experience.
While I have been a ham for 30+ years I am still learning about QRP, finally getting a SDR ( Xiegu- G90).
73 Steve AA4SH
I have a bunch of their stuff. I'm building their tiny iambic paddle, to mount on my uBitX transceiver. I also have their multi-band trapped end fed dipole, that has a similar tuner at one end. It works pretty well. I have the same tuner you're reviewing in my box of kits waiting to be built.
So excited to get one of these, I've been dragging around the MFJ pocket tuner and SWR meter. This is gonna be great.
Need Cliff to come back to TH-cam! Great instructor!
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to make it and share it!
built many kits of theirs
great kits
great results
but seem to be building the same constructions over and over but more complicated each kit!
not knocking them but now waiting for something more challenging!
cheers 73
as a recently licensed ham, I'm looking to get into the little kits of "gadgets"
this looks like a lot of fun to build.
+Pablo Mendoza I'm glad you are looking into building things. It's a lot of fun and it gives you a good feeling of accomplishment. Congrats on getting your license, Pablo! - Cliff
Cliff,
Another great informational and teaching video. Keep 'em coming. Thanks.
Dave K8WPE
Well after some careful consideration and also losing a some well-composed ramblings (!) about the difference between this outfit and the 49:1 half-wave setup (as tested and taught by N4LQ), I'll summarize it this time instead of re-composing the whole piece: For maximum efficiency and widest range of options, as well as practical "QRO" application (see Steve Ellington's (N4LQ) latest video for best comments on mode/power handling of the 3-core stack), the 49:1 type as I have built is my best option. This QRPGuys version brings in some limitations and adds the complication of a counterpoise that we don't usually use. Also with the 49:1-type, that a tuner isn't needed at all for most harmonics, and that more bands are available.
Yes one might carry a pound or two extra stuff, but, for this particular ham (ain't we all particular?), QRP is about efficiency of our signals sent and received mostly and less about extreme minimalism. Or put otherwise, don't compromise the wrong areas.
What still slightly confuses me are the limitations of their system 40-15 and 80 only. I'm working 80-6 with my current installation and ~134' of wire with a 75m mod. I have worked 160 with 270' of wire. So that's another reason I'll use what I have, here as well as "on the trail".
I think QRPGuys have a lot of good gear, well-priced and supported, but this bit no longer interests me as I can pack the "big" 49:1 transformer and 1/2-wave wire anywhere I intend to operate. It's what I use at home. Thanks for the video Cliff. 73
You are just the greatest. thank you very much for your videos, very well put together and always so happy to see a new one!! you're the reason i took the leap into QRP, thanks Cliff :)
-Braydon, KF7VWI
"you're the reason i took the leap into QRP"
That's great, Braydon! Thank you! - Cliff
Thanks for all of the excellent tutorials.
+TheSecdroid Thank YOU for the kind words! - Cliff
Thanks for the great videos! Based on your review, I ordered one.
What gauge wire is everyone using with this?
I use .26 gauge Silky wire from The Wireman.
Thanks for nice information. It's a nice kit. In order not to mess up L1 and L2 toroids I practice with an ordinary wire before actually using the one which follows the kit. What I don't quite understand is what to do with the wire after tapping at 3rd turn L1. Should the remaining wire from tapping, for the next turn, go from above or below to make a valid turn? I believe it's hard to describe with words only.
I do not understand why a tuner is needed. I thought that with a end fed half wave wire you only needed a unun and it would be resonant. What am I missing. PS love you videos. Thank you
Love that toroid meme. I need a poster of that for my shack wall.
Good video as always. 73 from Puerto Rico de KP4JS.
Should its BNC connector go into the transceiver or should there be a coax feed line in between? On the drawings in the manual, this tuner is placed really close to the transceiver as if no feed line is needed.
Vk3ye has a video showing how to make the LED indicator using only a toroid and the LED.
I might try this bit with 3; feet of wire with links to attach or otherwise to allow multi band selection maybe like a linked dipole?
Another great video. Congrats!
+Luciano Gasparini Thank you, Luciano. - Cliff
+QRP School Cliff, if you'd go to Dayton Hamvention, what would you be looking for regarding QRP? That would be quite a good theme for your next video. Meetings, lectures, companies, equipment, tools, antennas and so forth...Give us a good explanation....I bet it will be great!
Bought one. Tested it out recently and it worked great. Made my first ever Japan contact. 5 watts SSB. Also made a contact in Brazil along with a handful of U.S. contacts. de KG7FOP
Excellent, Roland! Congrats on two very long distance contacts on 5 watts! - Cliff
any thoughts about this one and the QRPGuys 40m-10m UnUnTenna Plus? I can't decide between both and sent them an email for suggestions but they don't answer. Both have tunner and the LED but the UnUnTenna has 10m, I wonder is the UnUnTenna will have a better performance because of the bigger toroids.
There are too few electronics kits available these days, well anyway in America. There is a definite need for more kits here, but alas.
Do you think this unit could be adapted to work with a random wire antenna length? Or with the toroid and other components have to be swapped out? Thanks!
Cliff are you still making videos
Hi, Terry. I'm not making any videos for this TH-cam channel right now but I do expect to make some more in the future. Thanks for asking! -Cliff
@@QRPSchool I am very glad to hear from you. Miss your excellent videos. Ne7ts
Is it a problem that there is no case? I'm thinking of buying one for SOTA activities, but I don't want it to get dirty and/or damaged after one or two uses outside. I could get the Hendricks SOTA tuner, but that one is quite a bit more expensive, but might be worth it for the case.
For the QRPGuys tuner or the Hendricks SOTA tuner, would it be feasible to install binding posts instead of using the wing nuts supplied? Binding posts seem like they'd be more useful for attaching wires to.
P.S. I enjoy your videos, and find them to be very informative. Thanks!
Hello, Jeffrey. I would have preferred the circuit to have been designed to fit into a case. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to take one into the field. Even if it got "dirty" you could wipe it off with a slightly damp cloth and let it dry.
The Hendricks SOTA tuner in the case is more "finished" but costs more. Still, the cost is not a lot when you consider it will last for many, many years of fun.
As for the binding posts, you can hack it however you see fit. And you'd need to in order to make it fit into a case of some kind, should you decide to do that. The knob sticks up higher than the switch and the LED sits on the board... making it very hard to mount it in any standard case as-is.
Still, it works great and I'm not worried about mine not being protected. - Cliff
Thanks for this question and answer. I was wondering the same thing. If I was into 3D printing, this looks like a great application for it.
Something like a soap travel container at WM would do fine with it.
@@QRPSchool Could you coat the board in liquid electrical tape? Or would that mess with the electronics?
@@spencergiles72 It wouldn't hurt the electronics to apply liquid electrical tape. However, it might be worth it (for some people) to just use some wire to extend the most important components to fix into a little box. The power switch, LED, knob, and antenna posts could be extended (remoted) to the top of a small box.
Cliff, as the tuner does several bands, what do you think of making one wire & counterpoise that are jumpered, instead of carrying around a cut wire for each band?
You knob is wobbly. Did you get the nylon insert and screw that is inside the black knob. Mine does not wobble like that.Nice video. I bought mine for backpacking QRP work.
Thanks, Todd. Good Eye, as they say in baseball. The problem was that I hadn't tightened the set screw enough before I went into the field. Once I turned the knob too far (before the camera started rolling) the knob was loose until I could get back home to tighten it. Not wanting that to be a show-stopper, I just went ahead and shot the video with a wobbly knob. It's good now. Thanks for noticing and looking out for me. - Cliff
I love your work and content. Thanks for the video. Do they sell these kits on ebay or do they ship to europe? I would be really happy if you answer this. Thanks 👍
Thank you for the kind words. See the QRP Guys kits at: www.QRPGuys.com
Cliff, where can I buy those wire winder? I can't find them anywhere. Thanks!
73, Federico.
+Pappo Official Channel Right here: www.sotabeams.co.uk/search.php?search_query=winders&x=0&y=0
+QRP School Thanks for the instant reply. Keep making these wonderful videos.
73
Another Geat video Cliff Tnx. I've already bought and build one . I wonder, can i use it for 80m? Is there a formula to measure the wire lengths ?
+Sotiris Chrisopoulos Hello, Sotiris. That's a good question. I don't know of a reason why it wouldn't work on 80 meters. At 1:48 in the video, I show the chart that is listed on the tuner. If you look at the wire lengths for 20 meters and then look at the 40 meter wire lengths, you'll see that the wires are twice a long for 40m as they are on 20m. So, I think we could double the length of wire for 40m in order to get the length for 80m. If that's correct, it looks like the wire length for 80 meters would be a radiator of 126 feet with a counterpoise of 70 feet. Give it a try and let us know if that works. Future readers would appreciate it and I'm curious, too. Thanks- Cliff
Does it do anything at all on 10 meters? I'm surprised it doesn't cover 10.
I've never tried it on 10m. If it worked satisfactorily on 10m, I suspect the guys would have included that in the product listing, though. So, I'd be surprised if 10m was possible. -Cliff
Cliff, I noticed the EFHW tuner board info was for the CW portion of the bands. Can you use it for voice/digital? Great channel! 73 Mike
+Max Prepper Hey, Mike. Good question. If you look at the analyzer in the video, you'll see "CF: 14.060" and, as you already know, that means the the Center Frequency is set to 14.060MHz. Now, look at the next line on the analyzer. It says, "SW: 1M" which means that we're looking at a plot on the screen of 1MHz of Scan Width... 500KHz on each side of 14.060MHz. So, the entire 20m band has less than 1.5:1 SWR. Thanks for asking about that. I should have mentioned it in the video. - Cliff
Hello, my name is George from Romania. I don't know English very well. Can you help me? How many meters does the yellow wire have, and how many meters does the black one have. I use the antenna more in 20m 14mhz. I am waiting for your answer, to understand that the length of the wire is measured in inches on the antenna . Thanks 73 !
Hello, Sud. According to the markings on the board, to use this antenna tuner for the 20m band (14MHz), you would start with the antenna wire at 31.5 feet long (31 feet + 6 inches = 9.6 meters) and the counterpoise wire would be 17.5 feet long (17 feet + 6 inches = 5.334 meters). These wire lengths are approximate and you may need to change the length depending on your deployment orientation, height, and/or nearby structures. Just a reminder: you don't need perfect 1:1 SWR in order to make contacts. If your SWR is 2:1 or better, you'll be fine. So, use these recommended wire lengths and give it a try. Best wishes to you! - Cliff (N4CCB)
@@QRPSchool Thanks for the answer, I looked on the internet and saw that it is measured in feet. YO3EVS 73 !
@@QRPSchool What do you think of the fx-4c hf sdr transceiver, have you had the opportunity to test it? I have one and want to test the QRPGuys EFHW antenna.
What gauge wire are you using that is wrapped on that blue wire hanger? 22? Have you used this for SSB staying under 10 watts.
Hello, Todd. I think my wire was 26 gauge. Any gauge is fine, though. I've used this for 5 watts of morse code/digital. The website says it's rated for 5 watts continuous or 10 watts of PEP (peak envelope power). So, you'll be fine to use it at 10 watts SSB. - Cliff
I purchased and built a Hendricks SOTA tuner years ago. The Led never lit up. When attached to the analyzer I could get decent swr in the tune mode but when I flipped to operate the swr went wack. I looked for wiring error but couldn't find one and just set the tuner aside never used. I would like to re-visit it with more experienced eyes. Any suggestions?
Earl Boaz Hmmm... Well, it's possible that there's a bad component somewhere. The first thing I'd do is look at the soldering job to see if I've accidentally created a solder bridge between two connections that weren't supposed to be connected. Then, I'd reheat every solder joint to reflow the solder to insure I didn't have a "cold solder joint". I had a problem a long time ago when I failed to completely remove the enamel from the magnet wire while soldering a torroid in place. That's about all I could suggest before you start looking checking the voltage at the LED, etc.
Just ordered on and can't wait until it arrives. Can I use this tuner for a Doublet or is it only good for an end-fed antenna?
It's intended to be used with radiating wires that are cut specifically to a half-wavelength on the band(s) you want to work. You could have a small set of zip-lock bags with each bag containing the radiating wire and counterpoise for a specific band.
If you are using a long wire or other non-resonant length of wire, you could use this to help tame the impedance but you'd still need to use an Antenna Tuner to be able to send your full 5 watts to the antenna... but it would not be as effective as if you were using a wire kit cut to a resonant frequency.
That said, I worked Italy last Sunday using a 26' radiating wire and two 16' counterpoise wires from the balcony of a hotel in Florida, using my KX2's internal tuner. When propagation is good, your signal will find a way! - Cliff
Has any one tried to see if it will tune the bands above 40 with just a 40 meter wire instead of having to carry multiple wires? If not traps could be an option.
another awesome video cliff, some knucklehead just swiped my fluke 87 right off my bench, my fault for being trusting enough to leave it out as i ran to the mens room. So, i dont want to spend another $400 on a 87, all i need is something for lil electronic kits and so forth, i have spent about two hours looking for a replacement, and there is a ton of options blah blah blah, i was wondering what meter you used so i could at least get some kind of starting point. when i bought the fluke umpteen years ago, it was the one my EE professor said GO BUY THIS ONE! and since i was making really good money .... not retired , military pay, i just did it , any ideas where to start ?
ill spend the 400 if i need to, but i just figured there were much better options, and i probably did not really need too, and i would much rather spend $400 on a mountain topper than a meter lol
The meter I use is this EXTECH. I've had it tested for accuracy and it did very well in the tests... www.adafruit.com/products/308
as always you came thru again man, the extech is perfect, i went with the 530, and for the money.... looks to be a great meter ... thanks man.
Very simple but clever circuit.. cool video as always. 73 ZS1CDG
+Chris Gozzard (That Physics Guy) Thanks, Chris! - Cliff
I was hoping you might highlight any differences to the QRPKits version, is it just the case that costs the 15. extra - thanks for any info - Dave
As I said at :30, they are exactly the same circuit.
The case is the only difference and, for some, that's worth the extra cost. - Cliff
Thanks. Was looking for personal operating experience but no problem, I did see the circuit at :30 but often different component sourcing, board and the like will yield different results.
They both work the same. The design of the QRPGuys version makes it impossible to mount it in a box, though. The extra $15 gets you a nice package to put it in. - Cliff
I had no idea they sell a box for this. I checked on their website and could not find one.
Talking about this kit that is identical but has a box and cost a bit more, just took this on a work trip and it worked like a champ:
qrpkits.com/sota.html
I understand that this tuner will work as is, but it there an enclosure for this?
KuriosPC Not that I am aware of. The height of the knob, LED, and screws make it unlikely that a box could be fabricated for it. - Cliff
Is there any way we can use this without a counter poise ?
walter edwards You may be able to make some contacts without a counterpoise but it would perform poorly. - Cliff
muito legal !!!
Cliff,
Make your radial the yellow one so it can be seen. I have made the same mistake and have seen the need for highly visible radials, to keep ME from tripping over it.
Appreciate the video 73 de WA5SAT.
Yo! I'm super curious about the QRP-Guys transceiver! Maybe you can review that as well.