KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog
In between a few jobs around the QTH over the weekend, I ran across an article in the eham.net website concerning the "Maxcomm Automatic Antenna Tuner". The reviews of this product ranged from "0" to "5" depending on the experience of the amateur radio operator using the device. I'm still amazed that anyone would use this product, which is just a 50-ohm resistor network and a torroid. Back in the 1980s, the ARRL rejected the claims of the manufacturer because the tuner was just a dummy load. Of course, the device protected the transmitter, since it presented a 50-ohm load to the transmitter. I'm not saying the maxcomm won't give you a few contacts...even a dummy load with a wire attached can do that. A few weeks ago I tried an experiment after I took down my Drake MN-4 ATU for some long-overdue cleaning. I connected one end of a UHF "T" connector to my dummy load (Heath Cantenna) and the other end to my RG-6 coax going to 4:1 b