In article ,
"Keith" wrote:

Well, I had a tech come out and check out my system. M-802 with the
automatic antenna tuner. He said that the radio is only putting out about 50
watts, and should be putting out 100-150 watts, so he thinks something is
wrong with the radio (new, right outta the box...)

He also mentioned that the automatic antenna tuner should be closer to the
ground plate. In the Icom manuals, they said to mount it as close to the
antenna as possible, so it's on the flying bridge, and the conductor from
the tuner to the antenna is about 3'. I can move it about halfway between
the antenna and the ground plate in the engine room. Who's right?

The final thing is that I ran a 2" ground foil strip from the radio to the
ground plate as well, as required by the ICOM manual... he said this isn't
necessary and should be disconnected. I'm really confused now.

Help!

At this point, I'm going to take the radio in to the dealer and have it
checked out and anything corrected as needed, then see how things work
before I start moving the tuner around.



Hello Keith,


I don't know the guy you hired to do your HF Radio work, but from the
sounds of things, he isn't one of the greatest Tech's to walk down the
dock. First thing, is to transmit into a Dummy Load, and see if the
radio is capable of putting out it's rated power, into a perfect antenna.
If yes, the problem isn't in the radio. If no, then the radio needs to
be realigned. (tuned) Second, understand that any SSB Radio maybe
transmitting rated power, and it doesn't nessesarily show up on a
non-peak reading Wattmeter. There are many reasons to have the
autotuner mounted at this polace or that place. Most are related to
what type of RF Ground System your vessel has. From a strictly RF
standopoint, closer to the Ground Plate is better, and 2" copper foil
is minimal for any connection to a RF Ground System. what is the length
of the copper foil in feet? The longer the foil, the worse the ground
impedance will be, and the harder the tuner will have to work to tune
the antenna. You don't tell us anything about the vessel construction,
RF Ground System, or antenna system. Knoing these would be critical
in advising you on your installation.
Points of interest.
1. If your foil is longer than 3 or 4 Feet, then what you are asking
that autotuner to do the almost impossible. Think it as if the tuner
wan't sitting at ground but at some point above ground and that point is
the length of the copper foil. Lets say 15 Ft, as you say it is on the
Flying Bridge, and that is say 15 Ft above Waterline. Now you
effectivly have the tuner in the middle of a diopole antenna and trying
to reconcile impedances on both antenna and ground at the same time.
BAD IDEA. The firmware in the tuner only looks at the antenna
impedance, with refernce to the Ground lug on the tuner. If the ground
lug isn't at RF Ground, then the tuner firmware gets REALLY FUNNY DATA
from it's internal sensers and it doesn't deal with funny data well.
2. If the tuner is moved to a place, say 3 ft from the RF Ground, then
you must add wire to the antenna, and that wire becomes part of the
antenna, and therefore gets tuned by the tuner. This is a GOOD THING,
if people, or Ground don't come to close to it while you are
transmitting. By adding wire (length) to the antenna you are effectivly
lowering the frequency that the tuner will tune. This again is a GOOD
THING, on a plastic or wood vessel.
3. As Larry and Jim have stated, check and BE SURE, that the radio is
in TUNER MODE, and not THRU MODE. If your in THRU MODE, the tuner isn't
even going look at your antenna, let alone try and tune it.


More information!


Bruce in alaska
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