AT-180 Tuner Not Matching on 60 Meters

The tuner really doesn’t care much about the frequency. It really cares a lot about the impedance!  You want to avoid antenna lengths where they can present a high impedance to the tuner at a desired operating frequency. 23′ is a “magic” number as it avoids resonating on any of the ham bands. (If it resonates on 40, you’re screwed on 20.) 

Next point: The AT-180 is designed to match to ALMOST 50 ohms. It is not designed to be a universal tuner. It will take a resonant antenna that might have higher SWR at the band edges and flatten that out so the transmitter is happier.

The AT-180 (and all internal tuners) will not improve an antenna’s performance. It will simply make the transmitter happy. Why? Because you are tuning the transmission line. A tuner placed at the antenna, like the AH-4, tunes the antenna and can therefore improve the antenna performance. My universal antenna is a 46′ dipole, fed by 39′ of 450 ohm ladder line into an AH-4. That combo will tune EVERYTHING from 80 to 6 meters.

For more information, see the HF tab on HamOperator.com.

It may be difficult for the tuner to match 50 to 50 ohms at certain frequencies. It is almost always matching a non-resistive load that is likely not 50 ohms. I suggest playing with the antenna and feed line lengths. I really recommend investing in the AH-4. Probably one of the best remote tuners ever made!

73,
Chris, K9EQ




Online CW QSO’s

Conduct CW QSOs from your computer, tablet or smart phone! HamRadio.Solutions offers a Virtual Band with several bands where you can hold CW QSOs. The sit lets you set all your CW parameters. You can even hook up your keyer and use that. Or just listen to the QSOs. You can select audio, text or both, so you can compare what you copy with that which was sent. Give it a try! This service is provided courtesy of David, W6DS.