Tuner functionality added to Portable Setup

Portable Setup Upgrades April 2024

I’ve made some additions to my Portable Setup.

• Auto tuner added, with a wider tune range.
• BalUn added to work with ladderline.
• Tuning Aid added.

Auto tuner

I had owned an ATU-100 tuner for a while. But I had a lot of problems with that. Coils that quickly went into saturation and then burned out.

I was a bit done with this.

Fortunately, I came across a commercial tuner for a nice price. the mAT-180H tuner from the MAT-TUNER brand.
I must say that I am very impressed with this tuner, it looks and feels solid. And tunes very quickly too. What was also important, it also fits in my case :-), otherwise this would have been quite a challenge.
The tuner works seamlessly with my ICOM IC-7300.

BalUn (Transmission Line Transformer)

I also wanted to be able to connect a ladderline system very easily, without any extra fuss.

For this I placed a TLT (Transmission Line Transformer) on the back.
In such a configuration that I can easily switch between Coaxial, Single Wire and Balanced line.

The Balun is made with an FT240-43 core. Bifilar wound with the Reisert principle.
A total of 16 turns, with a transition after 8 turns.

Tuning Aid

Even though the tuner does a fantastic job.
The Tuner can also Fine tune, using 4 push buttons, Cup, Cdown, Lup and Ldown.

To make good use of this, you must quickly put the set back into tune mode. And read the SWR on the radio.
Only this is not possible if you use the External Tune function of ICOM. (ICOM please fix this!)

To achieve this, I created a TuningAid that works via CI-V.
Full article of this project can be found here: CI-V Tuning aid for ICOM Radios