Steve,

How do you think your MFJ auto-tuner stacks up against LDG's AT-1000?  I'm 
sure the MFJ is cheaper, but based on things I've heard about other MFJ 
tuners, I wonder how reliable the internal components are.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 10:05
Subject: Re: auto antenna tuner


> Butch,
>
> I have a MFJ-998 in the shack.  I'd give it a 4 out of 5 rating.   It
> will handle 1500 watts, which is more then  my AL-80B or THP solid state
> amp will put out.  The problem I think you will find with  auto tuners
> including the ones built into the radio is limited matching range due to
> the fixed values of L and C. You won't be able to load your
> grandmother's walker on 40 meters.
> It has a ton of memories and up and down L and C buttons so you can find
> a match manually if the auto function can't.   An optional 20$ cable
> will interface to many rigs, and when connected this way hitting the
> auto tune button on the rig bypasses the internal tuner, puts the rig
> into cw mode at low power for the tune  process, then returns to
> original mode and   power when tuning is complete.  If the amp relay
> jacks on the tuner are connected between the amp and radio,  the amp
> will be bypassed during tune up.   This relay is also supposed to
> prevent the amp from keying in the event of a high swr, but I can't say
> that I've really  tested this function fully.
>
> There are some menus for which sighted help would be needed, but they
> are the set it and forget it type of stuff.   Things like swr point at
> which it should  start looking for a better match, and swr point for the
> amp relay to bypass the amp.
>
> 73, Steve KW3A
>