I enjoyed reading this and your earlier post regarding the LDG
QRP autotuner. Seems nice (though the Rainbow seems nice, too).
At 04:31 PM 3/7/97 -0600, you wrote:
>I hooked up the LDG QRP autotuner. I worked some stations on 20
>(band was horrible, even from home with my quad), I switched over
>to 30 meters, the tuner tuned it in less than 1 second. I worked a
>couple of stations, had some chats (not just changing signal
>reports). I next worked 40, also with the same results.
That is amazing! I'm curious how well it works with other antennas?
G5RV? 40m inv vee? Half-size G5RV? Can you test others?
>I checked, couldn't get it to tune 80, but that didn't surprise
>me. The tuner had no problem tuning my small dipole with RG178
>coax on 10, 15,30, 40 (I had my argosy so couldn't try 17 or 12).
I used a half-size G5RV (albeit not QRP), with good results on 40-10.
Just halve G5RV dimensions, no balun, coax to tuner (from twinlead stub).
Several years ago, I used it from Black Canyon Lake (Arizona White Mts)
with a TS-50 to easily work EU on 20m in the WAE CW 'test.
Do you have any idea about current consumption? That seems to be
the rub with tuners utilizing relays. 200ma max and 75ma avg? Their
QRO tuner has considerably higher current demands. The SGC-230
requires about 1a and it remains on during RX.
I have a 160' long dipole center fed with ladder line. The line loss
at high SWR is (hopefully) minimal with tuned feeder. Wonder if the
tuner can operate with external balun? Any idea about efficiency with
various loads?
Like your antenna, the half-size G5RV is easy to put up for temporary,
portable operation. Surely the QRP Autotuner will match it, or is it
just a poor multi-band antenna?
73, Brian
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