Aloha to all,
Having essentialy given up on the ARRL DX test (heard little
DX ;out here, hubdreds of mainlander signals, of course,
lots of JAs and others, but nothing over either pole) have
turned my attention back to my tuner quest, as there were
others here in KH6 land who are better CW ops than I am
anyway to give out the multi.
Thankyou to the nearly two dozen of you who responded
to my query re Viking tuner and 160 operation. The summary is
that only one (!) of you spoke well of the unit; most felt it was not
too great: arcs on 10, does need added caps for 160 (why not
added by the factory) some of the mechanical linkages are
poor, the switch contacts appear to be really home made from
the heads of small bolts (!), one of you has used two of them
in a more or less commercial situation, found them not at all
mechanically reliable, and is using one of them now as a
foot rest!
Also rcvd several comments re HRO's policy to immediately
charge to your credit card many times months before they have
the product and can ship same. I called HRO Sarurday and
cancelled the order, and received assurance I would receive
a credit memo slip refunding the charge to my Visa account.
So that is taken care of; however, HRO says that is the policy which
comes down from the owner, W6RJ, Bob Ferraro.
Several of you mentioned other tuners which had served you well,
tho not many comments regarding use at full legal output power
into high VSWR ladder line into a 160 or 80 meter dipole being
used well away from resonance and its 70 some impedance.
A couple of you pointed to the XMatch high power tuner; advertised
in NCJ, by N4XM. In fact Dave, K4JRB has offered to send some
info on the unit. The picture in the ad shows only one capacitor knob,
and the inductor tuner with counter, and the antenna selector switch.
Apparently no metering. I have looked about in various books and
mags, and can find no reference to an X-match tuner; just all the
usual stuff on T, L, and Pi circuit tuners (I would really like to have,
I think, and L or Pi tuner, why I had the Ten Tec, and thot I wanted
a Viking).
Anyway, any users of the XMatch care to offer any comments?
Reliable at power, operatrion on 10 and 160, mechanical construction,
(really was surprised to have a few of you say the Viking was "junk").
Is there a balun in the unit, not mentioned in their ad?
Thanks in advance, and will summarize again if enough of you are
interested.
73 and Aloha,
Jim Reid, AH6NB (Happily retired on the Island of Kauai)
Hawaii, USA Email: jreid@aloha.net
|