Beautiful engineering and quality right there! They don't seem to use the servo's anymore. Must be more expensive and maybe a bit slower to tune but better I think.👍
Engagement. Will that work with the newer Icom radios? I see it hooks up with the ACC connector instead of the 4 pin tuner connector on a 7300 or 7610. Inquiring minds.
Nice. Someday I'll have to get my Collins aircraft HF tuner dancing. It, too, has 2 motors. One runs a vacuum variable capacitor. The other drives a roller inductor. There might be a relay to choose between high to low and low to high matching configurations of L matching. The advantage of these kings of tuners is that they can achieve a better match, being able to continuously vary the reactances (even the inductor in the Collins). But the relay jobs can tune much faster if going to a memorized tune for a frequency reported to the tuner by the radio.
Those servo motors are going towards unobtainable! Be careful! But yes what a cool design. Many Icoms from that day used these internally. Question: does it bypass on receive? You can tell with a DMM from antenna port to radio port after tuning.
@@temporarilyoffline a stepper could probably be as effective. Mr. Carlson’s Lab takes one of the motors apart in his one Icom repair video. I asked about bypass since all of the Icom internal ATUs from this era (with the motorized variable capacitors) seem to be transmit only. I’ll see if I can find a service manual to satisfy my curiosity.
@@temporarilyoffline On one of my late-night online shopping sprees I bought an IC-7000 and then a few nights later bought another that came with a AT-180. Haven't turned either radio on yet but I am learning day by day that I got a couple keeper rigs :-) They sure hold their value. Now after watching this video, I know better than to sell the AT-180 auto tuner. I almost listed it on the Discord groups a few days ago. Glad I didn't.
@@miker7962 Its a great tuner. Check the connections from the motors to the shafts of the capacitors - those plastics break down over time. I understand the motors inside are no longer available as well, so it should continue to increase in value (while the pool of hams that actually know what they are decreases). That 7000 was on my radar for a while. The US didn't get the composite out model, but that would have been nice to have a big screen!
All I can say about the AT-180 is "IT's a fantastic Automatic Antenna Tuner". You right about that it's a wee bit heavier than other external Auto Tuners like from LDG. And for how I practice portable HAM Radio not really the right Choice to pick. BUT I loved this Tuner and it just worked fine. Tnx for your awsome Job showing the HAM Radio World what's inside of the Box. Happy Sunday & 73 de YFUG from southwest Germany 💯🙋♂
I’m old school. Back five decades all our ATUs on the USS Saratoga & the two URC32 ATUs were motorized. When I built my remote Z-match, well, it is motorized. The planned 160m tuner is gonna be motorized too. You can finesse the capacitances so much more easily that way. (Not that I mind the whirring relays in the AH705 ;-) Gotta tune ‘em antoonas somehow.)
@@temporarilyoffline Neither ;) The 7000 is a great color screen. Small easy to use. Removable head. And the 7100 is easy to use for digital. Touch screen. DSTAR and is the first of the "7300 style" menu system.
