ATAS-120A with FT991A | Unboxing and first check

[@digitalanalogueham]

What an excellent presentation for beginners and advanced also. I purchased the mydel 3800 And I have worked the world on it on 50 W. With next day delivery thanks

[@trainliker100]

I have read elsewhere there are times when people didn't think the tuning was working. It had to do with the system not being sure where the antenna was. There is nothing to tell the system of the actual physical position of the antenna. It only "knows" what the SWR is. And sometimes it can be a bit confused. The advice is to wait one minute, and it will sort itself out.

[@gibkcoc1]

As said ATAs needs a good ground I run a 2nd ground and it works all bands perfectly

[@IZ0MTW]

Thanks for your comment. Yes this was more of a first check to see if the antenna would work as I bought it second hand. Sometimes I run the antenna there on the balcony over the Iron table ( metal grid ) and only one counterpoise abt 5meters long. The antenna tunes quite well. Is an amazing product and I think it’s worth the money.

[@FiveCents-X2]

You have to hold the tune button for several seconds to initiate tune.

[@phillipzx3754]

I lost my voice yelling that to my monitor. It's the same if you use the internal unit. Press AND HOLD! 😀

[@IZ0MTW]

@@phillipzx3754actually it doesn’t say on the manual to press and hold and in fact it doesn’t work like this. Maybe with other radios but not the 991. Thanks for your comment

[@phillipzx3754]

@@IZ0MTW I've owned a 991 for many years. 🙂 If you've ever used the internal tuner you press it to activate the tuner function but you have to press and HOLD it to actually do anything. If you previously tuned a frequency, you don't have to "press and hold." If you haven't, you need to press and hold the "tune" button for the tuner to "autotune." The only other way would be to key the PTT on AM (so you donb't have to make any sound), which is what I do sometimes. I use 80 meter coil loaded vertical and an ATAS 120a with my 991 for HF. Also...you can confuse the 120A if you do a bunch of band switching, or try to tune OOB (like 80 meter). In that case, the antenna will sit there as if it's doing nothing. Give it a minute or so and it will get back to business. 🙂

[@IZ0MTW]

@@phillipzx3754 Basically if everything goes right it works normally ( and you don’t need to push and hold to start atas operations, unlike internal atu that needs holding the button instead). But if atas doesn’t stop during the adjusting process because didn’t find a satisfactory swr then either you let it go or you stop it. Once you stop it further pushing of tune button do nothing. Just a beep with high pitch. Needs reset (i.e. going full stop and back) This is how it works on my 991A. Now I’m using it on the car with an 857 and is similar behaviour.

[@phillipzx3754]

@@IZ0MTW You are 100% correct. I don't know WHY I was thinking that (I've been using my 991 in the house with an external auto-tuner with 450 owm balanced line). But you are correct. One touch on the "tune" button activates the 120a tuning. I apologize, and thank you for the correction.

[@AndreaLiverani-iw5ci]

you don't have enought ground to make the antenna work. you need radials 1/4 wave or a better ground plane (you cannot use a magnetic mount in that conditions). I use the atas o my RV on the front bonnet and i manage to obtain perfect automatic tune on every band of the hf spectrum from 40 meters and above.

[@IZ0MTW]

ciao Andrea, grazie per aver commentato. Li stavo solo provando se l’antenna funzionava dato che l’ho comprata usata. Successivamente ho fatto delle prove con la d se tessa base magnetica sul baule dell’auto e a cento tetto e ho potuto accordare ovunque. Saluti

[@AndreaLiverani-iw5ci]

@@IZ0MTW ciao, con la base magnetica riesci anche ad accordare in 40 metri? mi sembra ottimo!!!

[@IZ0MTW]

@@AndreaLiverani-iw5ci si anche in 40. C’era una piccola differenza nella frequenza di risonanza se l’antenna stava sul tetto piuttosto che sul baule. Mi pare che al tetto accordava sin giù in porzione cw mentre posizionandola sul baule si spostava più in alto e riuscivo al minimo assoluto ad accordare nella parte della porzione fonia. Saluti

[@alvarogaitan2529]

Great combination fantastic 73 from kb2uew

[@BrianKolb71]

Try a cookie sheet for that mag mount

[@CT1JRZ]

Belissima antena.

[@IZ0MTW]

Realmente agora que estou a esperimenta-la acho genial. Muito pratica por podê-la sintonizar através do cabo coaxial. Cumprimentos!

[@wireworks616]

You need a ground plane. The mag mount isn't a ground, it's not even connected to the shield side of the antenna.

[@GiovanniScafora]

Ciao, per cortesia mi potresti dire marca e modello di quella base magnetica che hai messo sotto la ATAS120A, visibile dal minuto 06:28 ?

[@IZ0MTW]

purtroppo non ricordo. Forse una ECO ma non ci giurerei. Presa qualche anno fa in offerta da Hamradioshop ad un ottimo prezzo.

[@GiovanniScafora]

@@IZ0MTW ti ringrazio. Le ho trovate su hamradioshop, ci sono di due tipi, una con diametro magneti da 13mm e l'altra con diametro magneti da 9mm. A prima vista la tua mi sembra la prima, ossia quella con diametro magneti da 13mm. Mi confermi che hai preso quella da 13mm?

[@berkayozkan3949]

You should press longer on the TUNE button. you do only one single press. and choose the SWR option to see the what your antenna's SWR is. They are expensive radios, should be carefull dude :)

[@olivierdidonato8722]

Tuning on not free frequency !!!!!!!

[@IZ0MTW]

That’s true, I was concentrating on the antenna operation and didn’t realise. By the way tuning such a small antenna with just 10watt shouldn’t produce much rf out and consequently disturbance. Is not like tuning a KWatt amplifier.

[@alsanderson4917]

Put that antenna set up on the roof of your car where it belongs. Until then, enjoy blowing out the finals in your $1,300 radio.

[@IZ0MTW]

of course, is already on the car. This is the first check after I bought it. Thanks to technology the finals do not blow as you might think.

[@n0gdcjeff75]

You were stepping on other stations. You need to check on your power. It may need more power to test for SWR!

[@IZ0MTW]

Yep my mistake, I was caught from doing the filming and didn’t pay attention. I was tuning with minimum power btw which means 5W so not much interference I’m sure.

[@arkyump]

Use a diamond mobile mount so it will use the rail as a ground. It will work then.

[@radioactive8245]

You do not have a good ground, the atas 120 needs a good grround.

[@IZ0MTW]

You’re right. This was just a test to check the antenna is working as I bought it second hand. Thanks for watching

[@gregoryaisemberg2037]

Is this superior to a horizontal wire dipole?

[@Wrangler403]

No