On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:09:34 +0000, Larry wrote:

I've been absent from the NGs for a while but found an old post about your
problems with the Icom M802 HF/SSB antenna tuner. I didn't see a message
about a resolution, though. Just wanted to ask what was wrong with it and
what fixed it.

73 DE W4CSC

Funny you should ask. As you'll recall the 802 was showing a high
SWR indication on xmit and the signal was not getting out. I checked
everything obvious and didn't find anything.

I called our local electronic techs in SWFL and it turned out that
there only HF radio guy had retired and they would have to bring
someone across the state from Ft Lauderdale at great expense.

So, I went to the MFJ website and ordered a dummy load, SWR
Bridge/power meter, and a couple of factory made coax jumpers. I
disconnected the 802 coax from the tuner and sent that to the input of
the bridge, with the output of the bridge going to the dummy load. Put
the rig on xmit using a Pactor calling sequence and the bridge showed
1:1 SWR and 120 watts output, so there's nothing wrong with the 802.

Here's the strange part. I left the 802 connected to the bridge and
sent the output to the autotuner instead of the dummy load. Went to
xmit and the SWR still looked good, the high SWR indicator on the 802
is gone, and the signal is getting out ! Disconnected the bridge and
the signal is still getting out and the 802 is still not showing a
high SWR. Go figure. Apparently there was a hidden bad coax
connection at the input of the tuner which got cleared up in the
process of installing the test equipment.

The test equipment was a good investment compared to the cost of
bringing a tech over from the east coast. I've got it aboard for our
Caribbean cruise and recently used it to help someone else get their
rig working while we were docked in the Turks and Caicos.