TS-440 automatic tuner experience?

[Terry Kurtz]

Has anyone had experience with the automatic antenna tuner(s) for the
Kenwood TS-440? I have a Butternut HF6V and would like to hear if anyone
has had good or bad experience with either the AT440 built in automatic
tuner or the AT250 external tuner with this or other verticals.

Terry Kurtz (waiting on Novice ticket and have already upgraded to General)
uunet!ingr!kurtz

[Rod A. Mclennan]

I have used the TS-440 with the built-in automatic tuner for over
a year now. I use a Cushcraft R5 vertical for 10 thru 20 meters
and a simple balun fed dipole for 40 meters. I can drive the R5
barefoot (i.e. tuner out) for all bands except the upper part of 20
meters. Above 14.150 the SWR rises above 1.5:1 and I cut in the
tuner. It works great.

I run the tuner on the dipole on some frequencies in the 40 meter
band if the SWR gets above 1.5:1. On occasion I felt the need to
make a contact on 80 meters and have loaded the TS-440 into the 40
meter dipole using the tuner. It flattens out the SWR at the TS-
440 but who knows what is going on at the balun (lost my Smith
chart). I don't run it long on 80 meters into the 40 meter dipole
since I am concerned about exceeding some volts or amps up the
line.

I had one problem with a previous 40 over 20 balun fed dipole pair.
The autotuner would not settle to a null on 20 meters although the
indicated SWR on the TS-440 meter dipped below 1.5:1. I solved
that by getting the R5.

All-in-all I am really pleased with the combination of the TS-440,
auto-tuner and the Cushcraft R5.

Rod W6MWB

[Ronnie Hughes]

I use the 440's built-in tuner without problems on all bands (except 160)
with a 75 meter dipole and RG8.

[Michael O'Brien]

In article <1990Dec31.1...@infonode.ingr.com>,

ku...@infonode.ingr.com (Terry Kurtz) writes:
|> Has anyone had experience with the automatic antenna tuner(s) for the
|> Kenwood TS-440? I have a Butternut HF6V and would like to hear if anyone
|> has had good or bad experience with either the AT440 built in automatic
|> tuner or the AT250 external tuner with this or other verticals.

I own exactly this combination and it works just great. The integral
automatic tuner can get the receiver down to 1.5 to 1 or better across
all bands. Of course it tunes narrowly in the lower bands, so changing
even a few KC means you have to re-tune. Also the antenna has to be
"right"; mine had some sections part electrical company (8 blocks from
the ocean means lots of salt air), and the AT wouldn't even try to tune
up under those conditions: went into emergency shutoff instead.

Of course you should still tune up the antenna as best you can, since
otherwise you'll end up heating coax when you could be transmitting,
even with a good match between the TS440 and the antenna feed. But with
a "window" on 80 and 40 that's only a few KC wide, the AT is invaluable
at making the rest of the band accessible. The tuning is so steep that
the AT is sometimes slightly fooled, and slides right past resonance too
fast, so it can take a bit of time to lock up on the low bands. But
on 20, 15 and 10 it does a fine job.
--
Mike O'Brien
obr...@aerospace.aero.org

[Tom Bruhns]

ku...@infonode.ingr.com (Terry Kurtz) writes:

>Has anyone had experience with the automatic antenna tuner(s) for the
>Kenwood TS-440? I have a Butternut HF6V and would like to hear if anyone
>has had good or bad experience with either the AT440 built in automatic
>tuner or the AT250 external tuner with this or other verticals.

Dunno about the HF6V, but our radio club has a TS-44S/AT. It has a spec'd
range of something like 25 ohms to 150 ohms (and I'm not sure if that's
magnitude or just resistive component...). Over that limited range it does
OK, though it does it slowly. I hadn't had any auto antenna tuner experience
since some Collins commercial gear, and it was disappointingly slow. I
hear the external one is faster but am not sure, as well as being wider
range.