Is a CHEAP CHINESE QRP Z-MATCH TUNER any good?

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How well does a really cheap QRP Z-Match Tuner from AliExpress work? Is it something you should avoid or something you should try out?
You can find the tuner here: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DC1...
This is an affiliate link. I have been made aware that AliExpress has an affiliate program since filming the video.
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Note: The antenna design is now open source and can be found on Thingiverse.
www.thingiverse.com/thing:586...

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Опубликовано:

31 май 2024

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Комментарии : 80

@Yosemite_Sam 8 дней назад

My 1st ATU was a 2 coil Z Match in 1985. I still use it. My experiment with a single coil air wound Z Match was 100% successful. I made a qrp version with a toroid but it was only good for 50 watts due to the toroid mix I used. They are a bit fiddly to adjust at first but if you turn both knobs at once in conjunction with each other it is much easier to get a quick match. Cheers VK5LB

@LB0FI 7 дней назад

I really like this little thing, most of all because of it's size.

@frankjesko8165 2 месяца назад

Nice review. This assembled tuner costs less than the kits I've been looking at and appears to be surprisingly well made. The beauty of the SWR bridge is the radio never sees higher than a 2:1. A very important feature for radios like my QDX and truSDX that have no high standing wave protection. 73 de NM9X

@devinhedge 2 месяца назад

First, your English is really great. Thank you for the video. Second, I’m really impressed with the design.

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Thanks for the compliment on my English, having lived in the US absolutely helps. Also, it really is a great design.

@Steve-GM0HUU Месяц назад

Guessing in TUNE mode, those resistors form a resistive bridge. This is fairly common for QRP antenna matchers and VSWR indicators. One very good thing about these resistive bridges is that VSWR should never be higher than 2:1 when in TUNE. So, you can safely "tune" your antenna without damaging your QRP transmitter. Very effective way of quickly and safely getting a good match.

@warplanner8852 Месяц назад

You are absolutely correct. The better SWR bridge is on the 4SQRP antenna tuner - which is a kit - that has two LEDs. One is green and one is red and as the VSWR is minimized, the red fades and the green grows brighter.

@la7yka 15 дней назад

Yes. A very clever design.

@TheCvcaelen 2 месяца назад

Nice review, the only extra advice I can give, I have made one myself a couple of years ago, is: first listen to the radio and in the "work" position turn the dials for maximum noise, than switch to "tune" and you will not be far off :-)

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Thanks for the advice, I will certainly be trying this.

@petemillis4666 Месяц назад

Exactly what I do with my Z match. Best way to do it!

@DonzLockz 3 месяца назад

It's super cheap and looks well made. It takes longer to tune than an auto tuner, but it's perfectly practical for a pota or sota trip.👍🤠

@LB0FI 3 месяца назад

I am certain that I can tune faster with a bit of practice.

@billbates7810 Месяц назад

Nice video, thanks !

@MikeN2MAK 3 месяца назад

Looks good! Can't wait to see how it does on a POTA.

@LB0FI 3 месяца назад

I’m hoping to take it out in the next couple of days.

@willian.direction6740 2 месяца назад

Thanks Morton looks similar design to the famous ZM-2 but in a much better tin box which can sit flatter along side the radio when portable. vk5cz ..

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

The design is probably similar, I have a hard time thinking that anything coming from AliExpress at that price point is an original design. It does work very well though.

@m7trsradio 2 месяца назад

Hi looks like you got a great little work horse there. Good job 73

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Can’t wait to take it out portable.

@JT-py9lv 2 месяца назад

*THANK YOU*

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

You're welcome!

@KS0JD 3 месяца назад

Nice addition to the qrp go bag. Nice video. 73

@LB0FI 3 месяца назад

Absolutely, and it was also really inexpensive

@Centar1964 2 месяца назад

I have this tuner, awesome product will tune almost anything. Use LOW for 50 ohm coax like when using a unun or high for a long wire right to the tuner without a unun. Also works awesome with CB. I ordered it for the exact uSDR radio that you have but still waiting on the radio. Wish it had PL259 instead of BNC...

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

I need to use it more, but first I need something other than hamsticks on my car weather.

@Inkling777 2 месяца назад

I paid more for Emtech's ZM-2, which is a similar z-match tuner. But there are differences. I like the fact that that the ZM-2 can feed balanced line (i.e. dipoles), meaning no need for a balun. It also has all the controls on one side rather than front and back. It comes in BNC and SO-239 versions. It's also rated for 15 watts, while this one is only rated for 5. That said, if your budget is tight, you'll probably be happy with this one.

@forgetyourlife 2 месяца назад

The one here is rated for 10w and you can use balanced line with a red/black binding post on the BNC port no problem.

@patthesoundguy 2 месяца назад

When you said it was inexpensive, you weren't kidding... $35 Canadian is a pretty darn good price. I will picking up an inexpensive SDR radio to get started after I pass the exam and that tuner will save me some money for sure.

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

I think it’s the cheapest good tuner you can buy, but I might be wrong on that.

@tomstrum6259 2 месяца назад

Very Affordable Hf Match tuner.....Industry standard 50 ohm TX, Tranceiver, Coax & Antennas are usually considered as Low Z operation & using a Matcher Between all 50 ohm equipment is Rare....You should have Demoed the Performance into a typical Reactive & Higher Z termination Load to Evaluate it's Most useful application....Nice Description & "Open Cover" review.....

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Thanks for commenting

@kurtstefans5738 13 часов назад

Thanks for the video. I've often wondered about these low cost tuners. How did it work out in the field? Were you happy with the contacts/signal reports you received using this tuner?

@LB0FI 9 часов назад

It does it's thing and it is well built. It also tunes about everything.

@pixieflitwit1516 23 дня назад

I ordered the same tuner. Have not received yet, but hopefully soon. What sort of antenna were you using for the test?

@LB0FI 22 дня назад

I have tested it with several different antennas. For this video I used an 80m windom antenna.

@jamescrofutt8767 2 месяца назад

I have had 3 of them and all worked fine, Amazon has them for $43 in US , if you have Prime you get free shipping if you use a 9 to 1 UNUN don't assume you need to use the high impedance switch on the back, try the low position to, I could tune my antenna on high but checking the low position it actually tuned better, it is a good value and well built , happy with mine for sure 73 J

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Amazing quality for the money. I really like this little thing.

@tomtwist1081 2 месяца назад

The switch on the back is not for High/Low impedance, it for High Bands/Low Bands. This is a QRP version of the E-Zee match. The original had 80 - 40 m low bands, and 20 - 10 m for high bands. But it will work with the WARC bands as well. The Chinese manual got it wrong.

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

@@tomtwist1081 Thanks for the input, I will look further in to this.

@jamescrofutt8767 2 месяца назад

In my case my tuners operates in l and h position has high and low impedance I don't know why it just does I only operate 40 and 80

@Inkling777 2 месяца назад

I imagine that switch on the back adds capacitance to one of the capacitors. That is what it does on my ZM-2. Center adds nothing. Low adds 250 pfd and high adds 500 pfd. That extends the matching range. Whether that is needed depends on the antenna not the high versus low ham bands. If I cannot match well with none, I try the others.

@Iheartmyson Месяц назад

Does this works on the 11 meter band as well?

@LB0FI Месяц назад

I have no idea, but I would assume so.

@Iheartmyson Месяц назад

@@LB0FI ok. I will try then. I have good swr on my Cb radio's ,Band " D " which covers 26.965mhz till 27.405mhz. Band E however has the swr on the world wide calling channel / frequency : 27.555mhz a bit too high . Swr: 1.7. And I want it lower. To get my antenna down and up over and over to adjust the top for swr is obviously a lot of work. On RU-vid there are only Ham radio video's with these chinese antenne tuners / autotuners etc. I am quite new to all this,and learning as I go. Lately I look a lot at these antenna tuners . Anyway, Thank you for the reply.

@LB0FI Месяц назад

An SWR of 1.7 is actually good. Don't worry about it.

@jimm318 2 месяца назад

Looks nice, what’s the range on it ? 3:1 or 10:1….

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

I haven’t tested it in that matter yet, so I wouldn’t know more than what’s on the sticker

@Kinetic79 8 дней назад

It’s closer to 10:1 mark, than 3:1. It’s not possible for even the designer to provider a range definitively due to the unlimited combinations of complex impedances one might find at those ranges.

@QRPGUY 2 месяца назад

Thanks for the demo. I just purchased one, waiting for the rain to stop. 73 K7WHN

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

I hope you like it!

@georgelasko8346 Месяц назад

I just bought this tuner. When my swr’s are almost 1:1 and I switch it to “work,” my swr’s go to 3:1. Can someone help me figure out what’s wrong? Thanks in advance.

@LB0FI Месяц назад

You gotta tune the light to go as dim as possible. Just as I do in the video.

@georgelasko8346 Месяц назад

@@LB0FI That’s not the problem. I’m using an swr meter after this tuner. The swr’s go to 1:1 and the light dims. Then I switch to ‘work,” the light is very bright again, and my swr’s Jump back to 3:1 again.

@LB0FI Месяц назад

An SWR meter after the tuner will not measure correctly. In order for it to give a correct measurement you need to put it between the radio and the tuner. If so, you could keep the tuner in work mode and tune for the reading of the meter.

@georgelasko8346 Месяц назад

Yes sir. I don’t think we were ever on the same page. Of course I put antenna, tuner, swr meter, then radio. When I switched to “work,” the swr meter went back to 3:1 and the antenna warning light came on the radio. What I’ve done, was opened up the unit, voiding the warranty, and re soldered everything that I could get to. The unit works properly now. I’m saying this for the people who bought this and have problems. Maybe you got a good one, or I got a bad one returned from Amazon. Regardless, this is what I’ve done, and it works now.

@georgelasko8346 Месяц назад

Also, after re soldering, I did put the unit into the “work”mode, and fine tuned it further.

@angelito197502 2 месяца назад

When you tunning,your qrp send 6-7 watts. The tuner says 5 w máximum for tunning. No problem with that? 73

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Those are Chinese watts, so no, not too worried.

@forgetyourlife 2 месяца назад

Mine says 10w right on it.

@Kinetic79 8 дней назад

You should keep your tuning cycles very short (transmit and tune, wait, transmit and tune further) if you’re exceeding 5watts. While you could melt the polyvaricon capacitor, and it does happen, it’s also based on the fact that the resistors in the tuning indicator bridge will heat up very quickly in tune mode.

@Billroet 2 месяца назад

Can you run your liner with that

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

Liner?

@forgetyourlife 2 месяца назад

Doesn’t know how to spell linear. Also a dumb joke. 😊

@WarrenAkerman 2 месяца назад

Thanks for the video. I use exactly the same setup for qrp, a usdx just like yours and the same z-match tuner. They work very well together. 73 de ZS6AKW

@LB0FI 2 месяца назад

They absolutely work well together.

@vladtepes481 Месяц назад

Looks like a PIA. There are certainly MFJ manual tuners that are easier to use.

@LB0FI Месяц назад

Wow, you're as positive as always.

@vladtepes481 Месяц назад

@@LB0FI Have fun with your tuner. I am just stating my opinion.

@ruffdog272 Месяц назад

8:53 @@vladtepes481 are you thinking 8010 lw atu

@DD5LP 2 месяца назад

My Chinese QRP Z_Match Tuner has just arrived and works well, except ... The left-hand capacitor has a break in the track between numbers 7 & 8. They have used the cheap variable capacitor that used to be used in transistor radios, so I suspect I got a faulty one. I have sent the seller a message and we'll see what he says, otherwise, I'll be testing out the Ali Express complaint process. 73 Ed DD5LP.