ATU-100 question

[MadVeteran]

This isnt specific to one antenna tuner but to the use of tuners on CB frequencies.
I dont need to hear the argument against their use since, these are covid times, I am in a lockdown country and, I bought one.... mans gotta have a hobbie ,, right ??

My question is, if I tune at channel 20,, do I need to tune other frequencies/channels ?
Do I need to do each one or only within a range ?

Cheers and let the arguments begin..... !

BTW - it is a Chinese ATU-100 with green button.

 

[MadVeteran]

On another board, someone commented that you only need to tune at channel 20.
Not sure if that is 100% correct but, I am just recording one persons comment for the records.

 

[Greg T]

This isnt specific to one antenna tuner but to the use of tuners on CB frequencies.
I dont need to hear the argument against their use since, these are covid times, I am in a lockdown country and, I bought one.... mans gotta have a hobbie ,, right ??

My question is, if I tune at channel 20,, do I need to tune other frequencies/channels ?
Do I need to do each one or only within a range ?

Cheers and let the arguments begin..... !

BTW - it is a Chinese ATU-100 with green button.

I've owned a few different tuners and have seen different results. I'm not a tech, so I may be wrong on this, but it would seem that some tuners have different bandwidths than others. I did have one that, when tuned to 1:1 on 20, would give me a 1.3:1 or more on the ends. Then I had another expensive tuner that would flat across the entire band and more. Strangely enough, I don't run one at all now because after installing an old Johnson LPF, I get nearly flat SWR from 26.700 to nearly 28mhz. I guess you'll have to do the old trial and error method.

 

[kopcicle]

I use a SGC SG-230 at the base of an antenna. I have a few almost legal 11m transceivers that benefit and one that doesn't give a flying !^&$.

If you want to get the maximum energy to the antenna place an auto tuner at the antenna input.

If you want to protect the radio place the tuner in the shack.

Then again I could very well be full of ....

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

It would seem to me, that you can tune to ch20 and then see what your swr is on ch1 and 40. If the swr is acceptable to you, then you are good to go.

 

[MadVeteran]

ALL great input. I am adding another comment for the 11 meter only people... I just auto tuned to channel 40 (higher than chan 1,, yes i need to shorten antenna) and, the entire 1-40 channel was better. Seems today, if you tune to the worst, they all get better (yep, i have had a drink or two).
More crazy observations as I learn.
Remember before you tell me to tune antenna,, I am disabled and, the tuner box is WAY EASIER than crawling in attick.

 

[MadVeteran]

Update on the ATU-100.

I realize this isnt the same quality you all might invest in for your radios but, the ATU-100 has turned out to be really good,,, assuming you are patient enough to work with it.

- It seems to be improving each time I tune it. I didnt need to keep tuning but, I did and, now swr is 1.02 on chan 1, 1.2 on chan 40
(without tuner I get 1.2 on chan 1, 2.0 on chan 40)

- downside is , it doesnt always want to tune:
- could be because i drink at night when i chose to tune
- could be that it needs a long whistle sound to tune and, I didnt know that at first

Radio is happy so, I am happy. Like I said, I could manually tune this but, I have physical limitations that make that very difficult.

 

[TIN_CAN]

Just received this in the mail today, for the price they we will see how it works, probably mess with it on the weekend, plan on using it with a ss 6900 and small 2 pill amp.

 

[BigLou]

If it were me and I had to use a AT I,d tune every 3 ch of the 40 ch radio. I just sold a MFJ autotuner I used with my wire antenna.