What Antenna Tuner For Portable Ham Radio? 

Another Mag Loop fan here. They are definitely a specialized antenna with regard to use. I use mine indoors with my IC705. The are very directional, and very high "Q". I have found that when trying to answer folks, like CQ's, you need to listen a while to make sure you know where they are located, get pointed, and do not expect to break up any pile ups. Wait for a CQ break, then give it a try. You also need to be sure your radio is set up correctly so that your audio has its best chance to get through. Folks will probably be digging you out of the weeds, a lot. I can use the waterfall and correct noise/rf gain settings to actually see when I am getting out of the highest resonance, and needing a "retune" on the dial. Also mine is a star with Winlink HF. Using Vara HF, my 705 and my Alex Loop, I can do rms servers across the country, again from my livingroom. As Winlink is data, you have the added benefit much like the CWers where data is much easier to connect than SSB/Voice. I have had mine for a couple of years, and tried early on at Field day last year and was unimpressed. Been working with it this winter, and finally have the finer points sorted out. I think it would be a poor choice first antenna, but it is an incredible tool in my grab and go bag. Once the weather breaks in my location, I will be doing much more with it outside.

For my WRC I made a jumper to bypass the coil for the higher bands. Works great and I don't have to keep screwing/unscrewing the whip from the coil.

Another great Monday Mailbag video! At 11:22, u mentioned wrapping coax within a bead (or toroid) for greater choking - exactly right! But one clarification, each turn of coax actually squares the number of equivalent beads (because of the exponential inductance effect). For example, one bead with two coax turns is equivalent to 4 beads (2-squared), one bead with 3 coax turns is equivalent to 9 beads (3-squared), The miracle of physics 😀 73 KJ6ER

As always, I love watching your Monday videos for entertainment and new information. What a combo. Thanks.

just activated a park this weekend if my f loop. also activated the same park with a wolf river coil the next day with my ic705 so both works for me. thanks for the video

Thanks Mike, you answered my question on the chokes from the other video lol I love Mailbag Monday, I always learn something!

Mag loops are NOT horrible antennas. They're just different and take some finessing to use properly. When used properly they DO have some advantages over other antennas! Keep up the great work on the videos. 73 VE3KLT

I'm curious why more people don't use an ATU. I'm planning on getting the AH-705, cutting a random wire (probably 148ft as I want to do 80m and have lots of room), attaching that straight to the tuner and away we go. At home, the tuner will sit under the eve of my roof outside my bedroom window, and portable.. I'll figure out whatever works in the situation. Seems so easy, and people who use them seem to have great results (at least when attaching the antenna straight to the tuner, or use open-wire line so there's no, or almost no line loss. Those who use a bunch of coax btwn the tuner and antenna find it quite lossy). I'm watching videos like this to make sure I'm making the right choice and not blowing hundreds of dollars. But a RigExpert is more expensive than a good tuner, and I'm just getting into the hobby so want to get on the air the easiest way possible.

Thanks for the tuner info Mike. I'll be looking for both the 939 (891) and possibly the ATU-10 (818nd) at Hamvention this year. I am normally using resonant antennas when out playing POTA but having a tuner along "just in case" would be nice. I also have the ABR choke you mentioned. Purchased that last year after you mentioned it on a video. Thanks and see you at Hamvention.

HUGE magloop fan here....awesome for my SPECIFIC purposes. Such as, when I vacation...it's 90% in a cabin in the woods. During those times I always take radio (and refer to my trips as "COTA"...cabins-on-the-air). Scenario....during the week I'll use ANY wire antenna. Part of the 'exercise' is to do daily winlink email. On the night of day before last, I usually knock down the wire etc to get ready to leave. HOWEVER, I can still do my winlink email on the last day cuz I have my handy-dandy AlexLoop. With that, and 10w, I have NO TROUBLE doing winlink. As that enough of a reason for EVERYONE to drop big $ on an AlexLoop? Probably not. But I routinely use it for indoor non-band-hopping (aka digital modes) and love it! BTW, I also routinely test like this at home....doing winlink with low power/indoors. LOVE MY ALEXLOOP. Last, not a sad ham here....everyone's welcome to their own opinion per their use requirements. 73, Tim KD9LA

Good thing about the radio I use for portable has a built-in Antenna tuner. I love my Xeigu G90.

I love the LDG tuners as well.

Nice Mailbag Monday. Great info for the newbies on radio stuff. W5KAL

The ATU-10 plays nicely with my TX-500 after a firmware update as well.

Looking forward to seeing this one 😃

Thanks Mike, I always enjoy mailbag Monday. You’re a hoot with good explanations for the questions. Dave K8WPE

I found the Alex Loop antenna was excellent for some specific situations. After having folks trip over radials and counterpoises in hotel lobbies and busy park areas, and having the whip dig into the ceiling, I found the loop to be excellent for HF comms within a few miles which is all that is needed for hamfest HF local operations. It's for those situations where your entire antenna system needs to be restricted to your table. Compare it to the Elecraft AX1 or AX2. If you operate CW or FT8 you can make lots of contacts with these antennas. For SSB you are not going to be a very strong signal and most operators don't want to bother with pulling you out of the noise. Calling CQ is perhaps not the best way to use one unless you are a spotted POTA or SOTA op and especially using CW. One way to think of it is that SSB throws about as much signal effectiveness away (compared to cw or digital modes) as the mag loop does compared to a dipole. So you can use the loop or you can use SSB but don't do both together. :)

I use the MFJ tuner in my mobile. It will easily get me on 17m from a 14m hamstick, and gets me the whole of 40m and 15m from a 40m hamstick. Without the tuner I only get 50khz on 40m and no bueno on 15m. Also I purchased the cable for the IC-7100, so it's easy to tune right from the head unit...

EMTech ZM-2. Matches with my IC-705 perfectly as it is a QRP tuner. Weighs almost nothing. Yes it's manual, but you can tune-up just about anything with it, and no batteries that wear out or need charging. Highly recommend.

I have had good success with loops. Research, experiment, and build your own. Many of the commercial ones are over-priced junk. Design for a single band - tune above or below and efficiency cuts in half.

You are the man.

Tuners are simply impedance transformers! A well built tuner does not lose power as heat - it "transforms" the power into the antenna. I have used an antenna tuner for over 40 years and it has worked admirably (the Heath SA-2040) and before that, a tuner I built myself out of spare parts. I was a part of the MARS system for many years, and my antennas had to do dual purposes - so a tuner was necessary. Also, talk about "capture effect" when discussing antennas. Reasonance is necessary, but capture effect is more important. If you cannot hear the station calling you, then the antenna must be bigger to "capture" the incoming signal.

1. Mag loops Hotels are one place where they may be your only option. Don't set up near the window (or an outside wall) since metal in the frame (or foil backed insulation in the wall) will have lossy closed paths that will couple to the loop and suck away some of your limited power. I was surprise too, and maybe my explanation is wrong, but my Alex Loop really does work better in the center of the room. If you have a balcony, putting it outside is better yet, but a whip clamped to the railing is likely better still, which even works if you just have a small open-able window, but with hotels it's usually either a balcony or nothing that opens. Also, I don't have anything that works as well as the Alex Loop for pedestrian mobile, especially if you are walking where someone may step on the trailing counterpoise that you would need for a whip. 2. Ferrites Yes, always some at the radio end, since even if you also have them (or another form of balun) at the feed point, since the coax will still spend time in the antenna near field and your really don't want RF in the shack, or going to the radio's ground connection. There is a design that I haven't tried in which the beads are a set distance from where the center conductor directly feeds a wire (no N:1), where the outside of the shield acts as the other side of a (possibly off center fed) dipole. so both at the radio and also somewhere along the coax run.

3 years ago. MFJ-9232 "This thing is neat....been playing with it for a couple of weeks....used it inside house and getting signals from all over the place....really, really cool antenna....I've been really impressed....Insanely cool". And then in the park, a contact from Michagan to Vermont. And this was all by this K8MRD dude. Granted, it was pitched to QRP'ers, but what has changed since then Mike? Still like your channel and am a subscriber....just interested in your change of heart. Cheers Phil ZL2VTH

Would love for you build an AD5X Ultimate Portable HF Vertical Antenna. MFJ used to sell it but doesn’t anymore😢. Gets the coil up out of the the high current, and a bit more high Q coil or use the WR coil. Needs some capacitors for 40m but it’s a cool antenna too. 73.

Guys are so close to finish my man pack set for Yeasu ft-891 . I’m not sure it’s gonna be work but lucky I’ve been having a ham in Spain help me out step my step . I’ll keep y’all informed.

another fantastic video thanks Jaison Joshua you good boy 72

Thanks!

I have the mAT-705 tuner for my IC-705 for QRP.👍

For me the one built into the radio.

You can tuna antenna, but can you tune a fish?

ABR is my too go coax. Good Houston company.

If you are going to use an "antenna tuner", the best place to put it is between the feedline and the radiator. This protects not just your transceiver, but your feedline as well. And Wolf River Coils refused to sell anything to me. They do not do online sales properly.

Thank you for the information. To stop the noise have you grounded your coax just before coming in the house? A lighting protection grounded just before it comes in the house stops most RF back in the shack. It grounds the RF. Try that. 73 W4DES

THANKYOU for all your help in our great hobby. Ignore the keyboard warriors, they're just unhappy grumpy HAMS sadly wanting to drag us all into their world. Cheers. 73

I don't really like using a tuner on a portable operation. My G90 has a good tuner built in, otherwise I normally try and use a resonant antenna of some kind. I find my silver bullet coil and a telescopic whip work well, especially if pre-tuned with my antenna analyzer. If I had to use a tuner, it would be the smallest and lightest one I could find that worked.

Hey Mike, I was curious why you said "If your not going to be using QRP" when talking about the MFJ tuner.. I have the same one and I have ran 5 watts with it tuned with my MFJ. Can you elaborate? Thanks.. Am I missing something? Keep up the great videos by the way.

Apologies if I missed it in the existing links: do you have links to the specific box-ferrites you show on your outside feed line at 13:40?

Ok so on a 43 foot vertical where would you put the choke. I’ve always thought it should go at the antenna end but not 100% sure considering the coax is I thought was part of the antenna

I can understand your distaste for MLAs and I am a MLA user. Are the great antenna, no... are the functional antenna in situations where antennas are not usually an option, yes. They work very well for anyone indoors (Apts, Hotels, severe HOAs, etc). They are good for areas that 'can' have a lot of foot traffic, where stringing up a wire or running a lot of radials is an issue. Otherwise, yeah, they can be a real PITA. The have a very high Q, so you are constantly having to re-tune, especially with the lower frequencies where the bandwidth is much more narrow. They can also be rather pricey, with most being found usually going for around $400-500+. Although, you can pick up a OM0ET MC-20 (which is what I purchased) for ~$300 + shipping, and it is a solid little piece of kit... That said, they work rather well for digital use (like FT8/4), where you tend to stay on the same frequencies, unless you are changing bands. The first evening I had mine hooked up, I picked up a confirmed QSO from Japan to south central Texas, with it setup in my living room on my X6100...and for POTA, I am able to setup my entire station, including said antenna, on a picnic table...usually in about 10 mins. Even did some testing with WSPR against my EFHW mounted at ~23ft vs it being in indoors. It wasn't entirely scientific, but as close as I could mimic on the fly. While it didn't perform as well as the ENFW, it definitely didn't get a shellacking that many expect a compromised antenna to get. Basically it avg'd about 70-80% of the numbers between 10-15-20m. The higher the frequency, the closer the numbers were....40m took a beating, though. However, it was able to reach out just as far, DX wise....so, quality vs quantity *shrug* Are they compromised, definitely...are they as nice as my 66ft EFHW or WRC w/5.6m whip, not even close...but, they are still rather good antennas under the right circumstances. TL;DR MLAs have their purpose, they just may or may not be yours ;) Keep up the solid vids, Mike... 73 de KC5VAZ

I do like my 939Y with my ft891 & ft991a. However, I only realized after I started using it, thatt it dos NOT go up to 6m. I'll say though, that thing is FAST!

Kitty cameo at 5 min

so, studying now for general, ft-891 paired with the Atas 120a in my search and rescue vehicle build. could you please tell me, - what would I need for some kind of backup in case the auto antenna goes down? (breaks in the middle of nowhere) carry an external tuner and long wire? or?

I love the fact that Satan got his debut hahaha! 73s!

How did you do the firmware update on the ATU-10? Mine has no instructions and it’s not functioning properly. Thx

Suggestions on where to buy a legit, authentic ATU-10 ?

Which Antenna Tuner for Portable Ham Radio.

anyone used this tuner Automatic Antenna Tuner, HY100 HAM Radio Antenna Tuner, 1.8-30Mhz Tuner with Large Display for Tuning Radio (100W) ?

Mike, you don’t call CQ with a mag loop. The output is so low and so focused or directional. I have had fun using my Alex Loop and LNR W4OP remotely tuned mag loop in contests where close to the end of the contest some hams will come back to anyone they can hear just to get the points. They also work well when you are the caller or doing POTA where anyone will respond to get their 10 contacts. It’s just another expensive option to play with. A wire dipole or even an endfed wire up in a tree will work better. Longer, higher is the rule.

It's not that compromised! Can approximate the results of a dipole.

Banana

Thanks for answering my mailbag Monday question about ferrites! KD9TQH

Next up, we'll discuss coil size and placement and how that affects Q!

Damn, Mike, tell us what you REALLY think about the Mag loop! Lolz

So, how do you *really* feel about magloop antennas? Really, don't hold back. :) 73

Bwaaahahahahaha at 11:41... The TPB's are from my home town... so locally everywhere you hear references etc. It's so cool to see the cultural impact in the US. BTW- I think it's hilarious that people are getting butt hurt over your opinion on a friggin antenna... it's like you just insulted their wife or something... to quote J-roc, "that's whack!"

Yes …. PORTABLE loops are “highly compromised”. This is largely down to their modest size. A larger (less portable … but still quite small) loop, if well constructed, with a loop of decent size and conductor surface area etc etc ( it is after all black magic) can perform as well as a dipole or even better. It will be high Q (narrow bandwidth) hence the need for the tuning capacitor BUT it has several factors in its favour - narrow Q means it filters out CRUD (say strong shortwave stations on 40m) AND you can NULL local RFI (this antenna 2 pronounced NULLS). So in a nutshell if your noise floor is horrid worth a try as they are shhhhhhh whisper quiet. Also it gets you on lower frequencies when space is an issue. 73 de VK2AOE

when i travel to hotels i use a HAM STICK, never a MAG LOOP.

I DO think you personally are doing a disservice to the Amateur community with your ON-Screen statements about Magnetic Loops. You only gave it one shot. Not very fair by your own STANDARDS.

Magloop........ has the art of homebrew disappeared..? Why buy one, build one, a larger loop with a larger diameter conductor... Don't listen to cheque book amateur radio gobshoites...........!

Hi Mike, was trying to send you some photos your e-mail not avalible, thanks Pieter, (zl1pdt)