What tuners do you use with your antennas?

I've been thinking about Icom's AH-4 to match my 706MkIIG but would like to hear about your experiences before pulling the trigger.

Not sure the little Tarheel would be the best option because of moving parts, so thinking about a simple stick.

For the 144/440 bands thinking about a dual band. Or better combine the 706's outputs into a single antenna?

Thanks!

 

pretty sure you are going to need to run an HF antenna and a uhf/vhf antenna... I have never seen a tuner that can go from 440 to HF.

I have never done moble HF but I have heard a tuner is pretty much a must in that situation. A friend of mine uses a LG tuner in his base station... he picked it up over the icom one mostly b/c of price.

 

I have two setups

Setup 1 is an IC7000 in a chevy S10 with hamsticks plus an ldg tuner to trim them to get full bandwidth. Fine if you are on one band the stick is designed for plus below 40m forget about any TX efficiency. You can hear some of the stuff but no more than 1.5% efficient on that 80m band. Hamsticks are cheap and easy way into the HF mobile world but narrow bandwidth and you have to get out to change sticks to change bands PITA.

Setup 2 is and IC7000 with a turbo tuner and a scorpion screwdriver 680s. Mounted to the tailgate hinges of my Rubi with a custom home made mount. I can work from 10 to 80m with this antenna setup. It is significantly more efficient than the ham sticks I can actually make a qso cross country in 80m with this setup. I have worked a lot of Europe in this rig and I have not come close to that success with the hamsticks.

Both setups bonded and properly choked. If I could justify the money a full size scorpion would be on the chevy.

I also have a capacity hat that I put on the scorpion when I want more efficiency.

I do not use 6m on either vehicle as I dont have a proper hamstick and I dont have a short enough whip for the scorpioin. I need to get a short whip for the scorpion as I am wasting a band.

For the 140/440 stuff I have some diamond something or other dual band for each rig but I dont spend time there unless there is a storm going on and I listen to the spotter network. But they work just fine as its mostly repeater bands anyway.

Bottomline a big screwdrives beats that tar out of a hamstick or itty bitty screwdriver.

Go to K0BG.com and read up on stuff and figure what you want to run for frequency's.

KD8NNU

 

I have the exact setup you are asking about.... But the AH-4 tuner is not in the Jeep. I have yet to figure out a good way to connect it up. If it had a 239 connector for it's output it would be alot more user friendly to use in the Jeep..
The tuner does work nicely for tuning a wire (or vertical) setup... etc. if you google it you will see the way it's really meant to be use. The open terminal output just doesn't make it easy for a Jeep install. at least not that I have figure out.
I guess I'd say look for something else for the Jeep setup.... if you do use it and figure out a nice setup you should PM me it...

currently I am using a few hamsticks mostly 20M, and they do fine for me.. I'm not all that active. I did contact a few European stations back in March during a contest... thinking of getting a 40M hamstick tomorrow at the hamfest...

73's
kd5shr

edit.. I guess the AH-2b mobile antenna would be the way to go if using the AH-4 tuner... just saw that.. $440 ....

 

Thanks!

That Icom whip is really expensive. Is there anything special about it?

I read good stuff about the Scorpion but also read that the screwdriver mechanism does not have a long life on a vehicle like a Jeep that we bang around. How long have you been using it?

I also looked into the AT-180, which has a wider operation band than the AH-4. Not so worried about it not being weather resistant because I would not mount the AH-4 outside the Jeep anyway. Thinking about placing it inside the gate and pulling a short jumper to the antenna since they recommend the shortest distance between tuner and antenna.

What's the open terminal on the AH-4 and how does it impact the Jeep? I had not noticed that before.

I agree on the sticks. The guy I bought the 706 from gave me several but changing those each time we want to change the band must be really a drag, hence I want to have a setup where I do not have to worry about that.

 

Sahara_Maverick
That Icom whip is really expensive. Is there anything special about it?

• Don't know never really looked at it. Saw it the other day when I replied to this thread...

I also looked into the AT-180, which has a wider operation band than the AH-4. Not so worried about it not being weather resistant because I would not mount the AH-4 outside the Jeep anyway. Thinking about placing it inside the gate and pulling a short jumper to the antenna since they recommend the shortest distance between tuner and antenna.

What's the open terminal on the AH-4 and how does it impact the Jeep? I had not noticed that before.

• You could attach your Coax and then tape the terminal so it's not open for exposed HF power (HIGH VOLTAGE) during transmissions. or maybe even modify it.... I have thought about looking at modifying it so that the feed line to the antenna is the same as the other side. I Haven't looked into that yet. I have a two door so I really don't want to mount it to the tail gate.. etc... so for now I don't see it being used..
  

• Radio side of tuner.

I agree on the sticks. The guy I bought the 706 from gave me several but changing those each time we want to change the band must be really a drag, hence I want to have a setup where I do not have to worry about that.

• could be a pain... I'm not real active and currently only have two Hamsticks... 20M is really all I do while in the Jeep... which I would say isn't much.

Albeit I haven't looked at tuners for the 706 to use for a moblie setup, but there must be a better one then the AH-4 for moblie ops.

I'll be interested in what your final setup is.

73's

 

I have been reading more about it and found several people using a standard 102" whip with a SGC tuner. The Icom whip seems to have a design flaw.

http://www.sgcworld.com/SmartunerComparisonPage.html

Reviews Summary for SGC SG-237 "Mini" Smartuner - http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1103/

(I hope it's not an issue posting those links since they do not sell the products).

The 237 is the same price of the AH-4 and looks like has better reviews. It has a lower power limitation but seems to match the 706 well.


I looked at the Scorpion antenna and am having some problems with their prices... :-(

 

I don't know if SGC is still selling the antennas or not, but the SGC-230 tuner with their own heavy-duty whip was a really impressive combo. Very expensive, but impressive...

 

Have you tryed posting on eHam forum to see if anyone has a good moblie setup using the AH-4?
I might have to play with this now that you got me thinking more about using it... My main problem is room - 2DR - and where do I put it.. not an easy one since I carry a few needed items in the back and a tailgate mount would make me loose space...


Maybe I'll put it on the tailgate just to see how it plays..

73's

 

Did not post there yet. Reading in several places. However, the AH-4 seems to be a much better option than the AT-180. Several complaints about this one.

However, several folks also like the SGC 237, which has better specs. It seems it's a coin toss between both.

As for the antenna, the 102in whip seems to cut it, even though several swear by the Tarheel as a reliable low cost option to the Scorpions.

So, I'll get the whip for the time being but still need to decide between both tuners. One advantage of the SGC is that it works with any radio. The AH-4 seems to be dedicated to some Icom radios. Any ideas on this one? :-)