Tuesday, July 19, 2016

I am currently running a Yaesu FT-901 transceiver ...

Q John, N9QC, asks, “I am currently running a Yaesu FT-901 transceiver with a Cushcraft triband Yagi antenna. I’m considering adding a long-wire antenna for 80 and 160 meters and upgrading to a more modern transceiver. Do you think the automatic antenna tuners included with many of today’s rigs would work for both antennas?”

A Most of the auto tuners incorporated into new rigs have limited tuning ranges. They’ll only deal with SWRs up to about 3:1. That may be sufficient to extend your ability to use your tribander beyond its 2:1 SWR bandwidth on each band. Don’t count on the built-in tuner having enough range to handle the long-wire, though. You will need a separate, wide-range tuner to load your long-wire.

From QST June 2001