vert interesting. never ever learned how to use a manual tuner. I don't have your little toy on the side. I have an external auto on the ken wood. and on the 73oo I only have the tuner in the radio.. I do have an mfj older tuner setting on the shelf. guess .I will have to hook it to the seventy three hundred and try it. it is just radios are so expensive these days and to learn on a new radio just scares me
I don't have an analyser, so had to make do with the meter. Also I charted the hf band edges and centres - there's enough change on my antenna to make that worthwhile. Analysers are expensive! I have this matcher for mobile, and a 949e for home - the latter is easily the better unit although it's very much larger.
Yes, analysers are expensive, but I wanted one for a while so I coughed up for one. It sounds like you've got it sorted out without one. Actually, I probably should have mentioned the method you used.
I was wondering if a setup like this could be done before ordering an analyzer and manual tuner. Thanks! ☺️Other videos show them used separately all the time.
Thank you for nice and easy and short presentation for how to use manual tuner , the qui ? If I am using dipole homemade tuned for 20m can i use tuner to mach all bands you mentioned without problems? ...73
As a new amateur can someone explain to me how an analyzer can take the place of an antenna or am I missing something? I mean it looks like he only has the tuner and analyzer connected. Will the actual antenna have the same characteristics as the analyzer? Would not the best way to tune be to connect to the antenna, go off freq and tune up there? Sorry for the dumb question just trying to learn
Not a dumb question at all. In some cases there are good reasons to do it like this. Not all radios are able to withstand the "shock" of key down into a badly mis-matched antenna and the result is blown finals. A tube radio doesn't;t have that problem. But today's solid state rigs are a different story. If you have a tuned antenna, great. But many of us have random wire, multi-band antennas that need a tuner. In the case of the QDX and QMX (QRP transceivers) from QRP Labs, transmitting into a high SWR antenna will pretty much guarantee the killing of the final amplifier transistors. So, using something like the analyzer Steve uses in this video gets the tuner "tweaked" and ready to be connected to one of these rigs. And no, an auto-tuner is just as bad. Trust me, I know..... 😞
Something that annoys me with these MFJ matchers is the distance between the Trans and Ant knobs and the faceplate with the scale printed on - makes it tough to get a really accurate return to the charted settings because of parallax error. I checked if the knobs would locate further onto the shafts, but nope. Otherwise these matchers work fine - but how much extra would it cost them to give nice short clearance to the number scales. Thanks for the vids, by the way - this sort of thing's so much more valuable than a printed manual. (still haven't sprung for an analyser...)
Ian Gourlay Thank you for those kind words. I can't say I've found returning to the charted settings a problem, they're always close enough that a small tweak will bring them in. The biggest problem I've found with this unit is the loading caused by my fingers as I turn the knobs.... these cheap matching units don't have any shaft isolation on the variable capacitors.
It's probably my antenna's characteristics - I've no space in the yard so it's in the attic. A junior sized G5RV shoehorned into a space too short for it! - so it's quite peaky in nature. A tiny deviation and SWR goes high. Not ideal but not much I can do unless I move house.
I have had problems with antennas in the attic and around the roof. I had 30m of LDF5-50 arranged as a loop around the roof with an auto-tuner at the feed point... the field strength was so great inside the house that it blew the fuses in my audio amplifier and cooked my home theater projector. Expensive...
Many thanks Steve, on your talk on the manual antenna tuner. That Antenna analyzer do you have make it up as a kit? or does come with all the whistle and bells.
+Dennis Peake Thanks for the feedback Dennis. I bought my antenna analyser fully assembled and ready to go. I'm not sure if you can buy them as a kit... the name of the company certainly suggests you should be able to... but if they do, and you build one, bear in mind it would have to be calibrated.
Aha... maybe an open circuit contact on the inductor switch. You have to be careful with these ATUs and only switch the inductor with the PTT released.
Thanks. The video camera is an old Samsung, they haven't made them for some time. It has poor low-light and auto focus performance. The recent videos are done with a Panasonic 770 which has better low-light and auto focus performance but I wouldn't recommend buying one as it has no pause function and doesn't use the USB socket for recharging.
thanks,I'm waitting for it next week to connect with Alinco DX-SR9T HF+SDR,as I see that you using an antenna analyser to see real time swr and resistance,could you describe how to connect it together?Somewhere I'm comfused of that..!! 73s
I took the coax off the radio antenna port and connected it to the FG-01 analyser. That way the FG-01 sees exactly the same load as the transmitter. I then 'cold tuned' the antenna with the MFJ ATU. When I got the 1:1 50 Ohm match I removed the coax from the FG-01 and re-connected it to the radio antenna port.
This was a loop of LDF5-50 co-ax. I don't use this anymore. At the moment I have around 15m of 2mm stainless steel rope with a loading coil on the far end. Even if this was the same antenna as the one you're using the settings probably wouldn't be the same. The antenna height, composition of the ground, proximity of surrounding buildings, trees and other objects would have an influence on the feed point impedance.
Yes, that's pretty typical. The lower the frequency the more narrow the bandwidth due to the restricted length of the antenna wire. If the antenna wire was longer the bandwidth would be wider.
...now if you only had a PROPERLY matched antenna that Transmitter Fooler wouldnt be needed. IT IS NOT AN ANTENNA TUNER. " nothing can be done from the transmitter to change antenna tuning" Radio Antenna Handbook published by the Engineers at Radio Magazine, 1936. Put another SWR meter between your Fake Tuner and coax and see how very bad the match is.
YOU DO NOT NEED AN ANTENNA ANALYZER TO DO ALL THIS !!! Generally spoken, this idea is excellent. However, you will be not able to make such a tuning table for such an antenna coupler with more than two variable elements if you do not addionally use some kind of output meter. If you do not add such a device during the process of finding the settings (such a device is quite simple to build yourself) most of the results in such a tuning table will be pure nonesense and completely misleading!!! The reason is, that an antenna coupler with more than just two variable elements has not just ONE setting to match the antenna impedance to 50Ohm but has quite a LOT of such settings. But there is just ONE very narrow range which will cause the maximal Power at the output of the coupler!!! There is no other way to find this setting for each band than placing a so called relative output meter on the shacks desk. Such a device can be indicating the RF-field strength in the shack, the RF-voltage or the RF-current at the output of the coupler. If you are not the RF-specialist, the field strength meter is the most simple. You find a lot of these circuits in the web. Use two Germanium diodes, one 10nF ceramic capacitor, a 50kOhm Potentiometer, a simple meter with a range of 50 or 100uA and use some 30cm of stiff wire as the antenna. Place this simple device some 30cm away from your coupler. When you make the measurements as shown in this video (by the way, you do NOT need an antenna analyzer as shown in the video, but what you REALLY need is this additional indicator and VSWR meter of course) tune the field strength indicator by the potentiometer that it shows some 1/3 of the full scale. Now tune the coupler for best VSWR and look for the indicated field strength. Try to find a setting of the coupler with a good VSWR but with the BEST field strength. Write JUST THIS setting into your final table. All other settings push less power into the antenna - and the settings with the highest output are the ONLY which are interesting - as all other settings have a lower efficiency! 73 Andy DH5AK
I think this is the best presentation I have ever seen, Thank You and 73's !
Thank you for the feedback, 73.
All these videos on manually tuning antennas makes me glad I ordered my MFJ-993B The auto tuners don't seem to cost much more than the manual tuners.
Yes, I use an auto tuner myself. Sometimes an auto tuner can't find a good match but you can tweak it in with a manual tuner.
thank you for the video,i'm waiting my, at mfj 945e, arrive and now i know how use,73 from brasil
Thanks for the feedback Walter. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it, 73.
Thank you for the best presentation.73 from Lithuania.
Thanks for the kind words... 73.
Great little video. Thank you,
Bob N0GRK
Thanks for the feedback... I'm glad you found it useful.
vert interesting. never ever learned how to use a manual tuner. I don't have your little toy on the side. I have an external auto on the ken wood. and on the 73oo I only have the tuner in the radio.. I do have an mfj older tuner setting on the shelf. guess .I will have to hook it to the seventy three hundred and try it. it is just radios are so expensive these days and to learn on a new radio just scares me
Very informative. Thank you
Thanks, that was great. Very helpful.
I don't have an analyser, so had to make do with the meter. Also I charted the hf band edges and centres - there's enough change on my antenna to make that worthwhile. Analysers are expensive! I have this matcher for mobile, and a 949e for home - the latter is easily the better unit although it's very much larger.
Yes, analysers are expensive, but I wanted one for a while so I coughed up for one. It sounds like you've got it sorted out without one. Actually, I probably should have mentioned the method you used.
Thank you. A very good presentation. N0QFT.
I was wondering if a setup like this could be done before ordering an analyzer and manual tuner. Thanks! ☺️Other videos show them used separately all the time.
Thank you for nice and easy and short presentation for how to use manual tuner , the qui ? If I am using dipole homemade tuned for 20m can i use tuner to mach all bands you mentioned without problems? ...73
I used mine with a CB half wave ground plane at 15 feet. For 160 to 6 meters.
As a new amateur can someone explain to me how an analyzer can take the place of an antenna or am I missing something? I mean it looks like he only has the tuner and analyzer connected. Will the actual antenna have the same characteristics as the analyzer? Would not the best way to tune be to connect to the antenna, go off freq and tune up there? Sorry for the dumb question just trying to learn
Not a dumb question at all. In some cases there are good reasons to do it like this. Not all radios are able to withstand the "shock" of key down into a badly mis-matched antenna and the result is blown finals. A tube radio doesn't;t have that problem. But today's solid state rigs are a different story. If you have a tuned antenna, great. But many of us have random wire, multi-band antennas that need a tuner. In the case of the QDX and QMX (QRP transceivers) from QRP Labs, transmitting into a high SWR antenna will pretty much guarantee the killing of the final amplifier transistors. So, using something like the analyzer Steve uses in this video gets the tuner "tweaked" and ready to be connected to one of these rigs. And no, an auto-tuner is just as bad. Trust me, I know..... 😞
Thank you !
thank you G6MMD
I just bought this same model, and the reflective meter needle doesn't move unless I turn either the antenna or transmitter knob to 10.
Soooo…. When you changed out the analyzer for your radio, did the tuner setting need to be changed to keep the 1:1 SWR?
Thank you
73
HZ1DF
Something that annoys me with these MFJ matchers is the distance between the Trans and Ant knobs and the faceplate with the scale printed on - makes it tough to get a really accurate return to the charted settings because of parallax error. I checked if the knobs would locate further onto the shafts, but nope. Otherwise these matchers work fine - but how much extra would it cost them to give nice short clearance to the number scales. Thanks for the vids, by the way - this sort of thing's so much more valuable than a printed manual. (still haven't sprung for an analyser...)
Ian Gourlay Thank you for those kind words. I can't say I've found returning to the charted settings a problem, they're always close enough that a small tweak will bring them in. The biggest problem I've found with this unit is the loading caused by my fingers as I turn the knobs.... these cheap matching units don't have any shaft isolation on the variable capacitors.
It's probably my antenna's characteristics - I've no space in the yard so it's in the attic. A junior sized G5RV shoehorned into a space too short for it! - so it's quite peaky in nature. A tiny deviation and SWR goes high. Not ideal but not much I can do unless I move house.
I have had problems with antennas in the attic and around the roof. I had 30m of LDF5-50 arranged as a loop around the roof with an auto-tuner at the feed point... the field strength was so great inside the house that it blew the fuses in my audio amplifier and cooked my home theater projector. Expensive...
Very interesting video, can you tell which way round the tuner and analyser is.
IE: which is nearest to the antenna.
73's Alan
The analyser is connected where the radio would connect so it sees the load the radio is presented with. Analyser - tuner - antenna.
@@vk6cs456 ok thanks, 73's alan
I have one. I am hoping I can use it with a Magnetic Loop.
Many thanks Steve, on your talk on the manual antenna tuner. That Antenna analyzer do you have make it up as a kit? or does come with all the whistle and bells.
+Dennis Peake Thanks for the feedback Dennis. I bought my antenna analyser fully assembled and ready to go. I'm not sure if you can buy them as a kit... the name of the company certainly suggests you should be able to... but if they do, and you build one, bear in mind it would have to be calibrated.
In 10 meters I can not fit the letter i, but in letter j I only get up to 28,400, would have any tips,thanks again for the video
You could try putting the transmitter cap round to 1 or 0 and then try the other cap.
I think the coupler has a problem, because I have another one for 10 and 11 meters and it works normal
Aha... maybe an open circuit contact on the inductor switch. You have to be careful with these ATUs and only switch the inductor with the PTT released.
i know this part of inductor kkkk,but i think the tuner have problem,i have to find another,but thanks and 73's
Cheers Walter, 73.
brilliant,what kind of video are you using?...73s
Thanks. The video camera is an old Samsung, they haven't made them for some time. It has poor low-light and auto focus performance. The recent videos are done with a Panasonic 770 which has better low-light and auto focus performance but I wouldn't recommend buying one as it has no pause function and doesn't use the USB socket for recharging.
sorry,I was asking about the antenna not video....73s
To be honest I can't remember, but it would have been some kind of wire antenna.
thanks,I'm waitting for it next week to connect with Alinco DX-SR9T HF+SDR,as I see that you using an antenna analyser to see real time swr and resistance,could you describe how to connect it together?Somewhere I'm comfused of that..!!
73s
I took the coax off the radio antenna port and connected it to the FG-01 analyser. That way the FG-01 sees exactly the same load as the transmitter. I then 'cold tuned' the antenna with the MFJ ATU. When I got the 1:1 50 Ohm match I removed the coax from the FG-01 and re-connected it to the radio antenna port.
What kind of antenna do you have? If you have the same mfj wire antenna that I have then could I just copy your settings?
This was a loop of LDF5-50 co-ax. I don't use this anymore. At the moment I have around 15m of 2mm stainless steel rope with a loading coil on the far end. Even if this was the same antenna as the one you're using the settings probably wouldn't be the same. The antenna height, composition of the ground, proximity of surrounding buildings, trees and other objects would have an influence on the feed point impedance.
I have an MFJ-874 swr meter. Do I need an antenna analyser to make these adjustments?
No, you can use your radio to transmit low power into the antenna and tune for a minimum SWR instead of using an antenna analyser.
On the lower frequencies the swr was very narrow
Yes, that's pretty typical. The lower the frequency the more narrow the bandwidth due to the restricted length of the antenna wire. If the antenna wire was longer the bandwidth would be wider.
can you use the 945e with out a analyzer?
Yes you can. You can tune the same way for a minimum SWR, just remember to release the PTT before changing the inductor switch position.
...now if you only had a PROPERLY matched antenna that Transmitter Fooler wouldnt be needed.
IT IS NOT AN ANTENNA TUNER.
" nothing can be done from the transmitter to change antenna tuning"
Radio Antenna Handbook published by the Engineers at Radio Magazine, 1936.
Put another SWR meter between your Fake Tuner and coax and see how very bad the match is.
band bypass wasnt much there maybe next time
LOL!! Thanks
YOU DO NOT NEED AN ANTENNA ANALYZER TO DO ALL THIS !!!
Generally spoken, this idea is excellent.
However, you will be not able to make such a tuning table for such an antenna coupler with more than two variable elements if you do not addionally use some kind of output meter. If you do not add such a device during the process of finding the settings (such a device is quite simple to build yourself) most of the results in such a tuning table will be pure nonesense and completely misleading!!!
The reason is, that an antenna coupler with more than just two variable elements has not just ONE setting to match the antenna impedance to 50Ohm but has quite a LOT of such settings. But there is just ONE very narrow range which will cause the maximal Power at the output of the coupler!!!
There is no other way to find this setting for each band than placing a so called relative output meter on the shacks desk. Such a device can be indicating the RF-field strength in the shack, the RF-voltage or the RF-current at the output of the coupler. If you are not the RF-specialist, the field strength meter is the most simple. You find a lot of these circuits in the web. Use two Germanium diodes, one 10nF ceramic capacitor, a 50kOhm Potentiometer, a simple meter with a range of 50 or 100uA and use some 30cm of stiff wire as the antenna.
Place this simple device some 30cm away from your coupler.
When you make the measurements as shown in this video (by the way, you do NOT need an antenna analyzer as shown in the video, but what you REALLY need is this additional indicator and VSWR meter of course) tune the field strength indicator by the potentiometer that it shows some 1/3 of the full scale.
Now tune the coupler for best VSWR and look for the indicated field strength. Try to find a setting of the coupler with a good VSWR but with the BEST field strength.
Write JUST THIS setting into your final table. All other settings push less power into the antenna - and the settings with the highest output are the ONLY which are interesting - as all other settings have a lower efficiency!
73 Andy DH5AK