Different Types Of Antenna Tuning/Matching Units.

L match, T match, SPC and Pi, what does it all mean? Oh, and I forgot to mention on the video... the last and cheapest device shown is the only true 'antenna tuner' of all the units shown, all of the others are impedance matching devices not 'tuners'.

[@Rickg6uzt]

I love watching this video once in a while. It cheers me up! Thanks chap!

[@jamesleem.d.7442]

Nice point about the L-match especially. Very simple, very easy to understand, thanks, 73.

[@vk6cs456]

Thanks for the feedback... 73.

[@jamesleem.d.7442]

Actually, the pair of scissors shtick at the very end of the show here is not a joke. One of the ingenious matching tricks for an inverted-L that is fed against ground radials is to choose antenna wire length a few % longer than a calculated quarter wave would be at your frequency of interest, put a variable capacitor in series with its feed point, and then "tune out all reactance" by twiddling the capacitor while watching the results with your antenna analyzer connected at the feed point. What you are doing is electrically "trimming the wire length" since your antenna wire will present an inductive reactance (i.e. would be too long) at the frequency of interest prior to any capacitor twiddling. In other words, your "pair of scissors" is the capacitor. This is an old trick used, for example, on 160 meter inverted L wires and it most certainly works great on any band. Be sure you are using ample system of ground radials mate; I use about 40 of them, each 40-50 feet or more in length. Killer Antenna, no shit.

[@vk6cs456]

Yes, I don't doubt it. You can't beat a good ground system for the lower frequencies. And the scissors... I have cut dipoles with scissors many times when I haven't had an ATU or other matching components.

[@adelarsen9776]

There are many different kinds of Tuna's. Yellowfin, Bluefin, Makrel, Bonito, Giant Bluefin, Northern Bluefin, Albacore and others. For matching a radio to an antenna you need an Impedance Matching Device.

[@adelarsen9776]

+Ade Larsen NB : A Tuner is a guy with a pair of side-cutters.

[@vk6cs456]

+Ade Larsen Indeed it is.

[@ralphmills7322]

Being a Ham of Scot-Irish descent I can understand Angus. I myself run HF QRP which keeps the cost down. An IC-720a at QSO would require something more substantial than the $13 USD T-match Chinese "Days" manual ATU kit I build (

[@vk6cs456]

He's probably already bought some scissors...

[@vk6cs456]

To NAYJL1975: I can't approve your comment for some reason the 'approve' box is greyed out. I can't find any info on your RX tuner. The difference between a transmit tuner and a receive tuner is the the transmit tuner components are rated for high voltages. There's no high voltages present in a receive tuner so the capacitors have small spacing between the plates and band switches etc aren't usually suitable for the voltages present when connected to a transmitter. That said, 10W isn't much power. You could always try it and see, maybe start with 1W and if all is well increase the output power 1W at at time until you get to 10W. If the tuner is unhappy the radio will show intermittent high SWR and fold back the output power so you shouldn't see either unit damaged. Try this at your own risk, but that's what I would try.

[@hubercats]

Helpful video. Thank you for sharing, Mr. Cecil B. DeSponge! ;-)

[@m1aws]

a good mag loop can be made for the price of a tuner.... and it tunes.

[@martymctry20]

With the L tuner Angus could save the switch by changing the input - output cables...

[@MirlitronOne]

...and the Pi-matcher is just both kinds of L-matchers combined - but one of the capacitors is always redundant.

[@peterclifford8305]

You should teach this stuff at Ham College! Very informative!

[@vk6cs456]

Hi Peter, congratulations on passing your advanced exam. Thanks for the kind words, a few years back someone from Ham College asked me if I was interested in doing that. I declined as my job is too unpredictable and I wouldn't want to let them down. If there's a spot going when, or if I get to retire I might apply for it.

[@eugenepohjola258]

Howdy. I believe VK6CS is right. One can tune the antenna to resonance with a Pi network at different loading cap. settings. The antenna will be in resonance with different radiation power. In my location the max. input power used to be 15 W in the novice class. I remember hamsters fiddling with the loading cap. and retuning to resonance watching the end tube anode current not to exceed the allowed power. Our radio authorities were paranoid in those days. One could face huge fines and equipment confiscation if caught running on overpower. Regards.

[@satyakrishnanunna1766]

Sir, please tell me the design equations of L match for impedance calculations

[@radioarchives101]

Shunt / Hairpin Match?

[@rfmonkey4942]

nice one !

[@luckydubeinrc5165]

I'm liking the scissors :) , anyway ...maybe get Angus to wind a toroidal balun match to get the high impedance to 50 ohms :) no caps etc, well until he changes band... 24.5m wire ? there are better lenghts to match easier... Anyways Steve, how are the input coming along on the gs35 project.

[@vk6cs456]

+Lucky Dube in RC Hi Johan. I think Angus... being a tad careful with his cash would use a separate piece of wire for each band. The GS-35B amplifier is coming on slowly, dribs and drabs here and there but I haven't looked at the input circuit circuit seriously yet. I have recently done the heater 'burn-in' that's supposedly required with these NOS tubes so I can put some HT on the tube. I'll wind up a tank coil and connect the output tank circuit and HT so I can get a realistic look at the input impedance. Then I'll take it from there. it will be interesting to see what the IMD is like without any feedback on the bias FET to stiffen it up.

[@nk14zp]

What about the link coupled tuner?

[@jakobthiesen3385]

Hey there mate, So i´m fairly new to the antenna stuff, i do however find it highly intriguing. So i have got a question for you. I have made a regular Dipol antenna for 41.5 Mhz and also need one for 70 Mhz. works great all is well there, however i figured i would make one that is fairly easy to change from 41.5 to 70 Mhz. Now the way i did this was by taking an Iron core and rolling each end of the dipol around it, essentially creating an inductor on each end of the dipol. Works quite well, gives me an SVR about 1.8/2 However i would very much like to do the math behind this, and i´m having a bit of trouble finding any help. I´m guessing it´s somewhat similar to an L network however im not quite sure.

[@shallhonda85]

Subscribed because we are in WA

[@Migueldeservantes]

Hey , I have been watching every single possible video on antenna tuners that I can find in order to understand everything I can about this devices, I have a modem receiver that have this single wire antennas that come with a ATU unit "Two of them" each have a this totally miniaturized version of it.. but range on this particular unit really stinks. Now its my hope to increase the range by installing a good set of choked dipoles but don't know if I have not other choice but to use the same type of ATU? with the same value on the capacitors & inductor....your advice will mean the world to me!!

[@vk6cs456]

Good heavens. If you're only using the antenna for receiving you won't need to bother with choked dipoles, and a simple 'L' match should be able to peak the signal up without any trouble. If you're using wire antennas try stringing them out close to the ground, maybe only a foot or two high.

[@Migueldeservantes]

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer.

[@ronaldkristijanto3796]

Compare to a perfectly build matched antenna (50 Ω)where you don't have to use any of the matching mechanisms ... Do you lose any energy or do you have any disadvantages in transmitting by having any of the tuners/matchers attached to a lets say (260 Ω) antenna ? ... thank you

[@vk6cs456]

Hi Ronald. Good question, many will tell you that a resonant antenna like a quarter wave that presents around 50 Ohms will radiate more efficiently than a random length antenna that is just impedance matched with an ATU. In theory this sounds good as there is going to be some loss in any ATU. In practice this is not always the case. I tried an experiment with a local station where I cut and 'length tuned' a quarter wave antenna for 80m. This presented a good 50 Ohm match to the radio with a 1:1 SWR without an ATU and the local station noted the signal strength. I then took it down and put up a slightly longer antenna of the same shape, an inverted L, with the same anchor points and impedance matched it with an ATU. This non-resonant antenna produced a stronger signal with the same local station. This experiment was done on the same frequency within an hour during daylight. So, if your antenna presents 260 Ohms at the feedpoint, and you transform that to 50 Ohms with an ATU or some other device to keep your transmitter happy it would have every chance of performing as well if not better than a resonant 50 Ohm antenna, especially if it was a bit longer than a quarter wave length... in my opinion.

[@ronaldkristijanto3796]

+VK6CS ... Wow ... Do you think that stronger signal was due to a radiation pattern that happened to be stronger in the direction to that receiving station ? Who knows ... However ... My question is ... Do ATU's absorbed that reflected power and turn it into heat ? Or are they actually become part of the antenna and transmit the full power ?

[@vk6cs456]

The antenna had the same anchor points so the orientation would have been the same. It was about 20 feet longer... could it be due to a slightly different pattern, who knows, may be. The ATU doesn't absorb the reflected power, it reflects it back to the antenna, hopefully in phase so it adds to the energy in the transmitted signal, and doesn't degrade it.

[@ronaldkristijanto3796]

VK6CS I see ... Thank you ... That gives me revelations about an ATU ... Awesome ... Yes, it better be in phase ...

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Every inductor you drew had shorted turns. C'mon, you can't mean that, can you?

[@vk6cs456]

Of course I did... it saves drawing the shorts on afterwards.

[@Graeme_Lastname]

@@vk6cs456 LOL

[@robthorn3910]

Wudda been great if you gave design eqns. I know them for the Lmatch, super simple.

[@cheetahfly17111]

TNX ,

[@vk6cs456]

Thanks for the comment.

[@djamalbendaoud5325]

VK6CS Hello from North Africa Why didn’t you talk about the Z tuning system ? Is it that difficult ? I have found two capacitors of about 250 pico farads What can I do with such things ? Please Vy 73 de 7X5AV

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

good job angus kg6mn

[@g4joe]

Wow, to miss the "Z" match. 👎🇬🇧

[@ghostedyoutuber263]

you really do have a love affair with the word "UH".

[@dopeyjake]

Bloody sponge. LOL