Repair of LDG automatic antennatuner

I blasted my LDG antennatuner some time ago. Or …. I thought I blasted it….. It appeared that it was only the resistor in the SWR detector circuit that got burned out. I replaced that resistor and now its ok again.It was easy to repair. However these small LDG tuners dont take more than 100W max. The designers have used ferrite cores, whereas it would have been a much better idea to use carbonyl cores or air core inductors. The latter doesnt get so easily saturated.

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However I must say that the design of the LDG equipment I have seen so far is not very impressive. Why use that BIG chasis when you dont need it? Why use DB9 style connectors on a chassis that is supposed to be watertight? Look at that coax termination there. Both on the board and on the PL259 chassis connector. Why use RG174 teflon coax when you have such crappy terminaions? Perhaps it would be better with no coax at all 🙂 However when the tuner works it works fairly OK. Just dont trust this kind of equipment in a contest or on a dx expedition.

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4 Comments

  1. Tony Batchford M6NQK

    HI I like what you said “Blasted”….I connected my ldg z11 reverse polarity and now its pretty dead on tuning..the occasional click.
    Could this be the same resistor in your opinion??
    Stupid mistake..Dont talk while connecting battery!!!
    Any thoughts most welcome. Thanks

    • Hehe, that happens sometime. Learn and go on 🙂

    • Hi Tony I have same issue. IT100 tuner is not working. Did you solve your problem

      • Yes I solved the problem. However I am disappointed by LDG as they do not anymore publish repair information, schematics and protocol info.

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