Tuner for IC7300

Equipment
1

I have an ic7300 and tried to use it with a random wire (not for SOTA), but it can’t tune the random wire. I’ve never had an external tuner cause my home end fed is resonant on 10,15,20,40 and 7300 will tune 12, 17,and 30.

Any recommendations for tuner? I don’t need it to be portable. I checked dxengineering and the LDG Electronics Z-11ProII Automatic Antenna Tuners Z-11PROII and LDG Electronics Z-100Plus Automatic Antenna Tuners Z-100PLUS look reasonable.

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2

You can activate the emergency tuning mode in the settings of the 7300. This will limit to output power to 50 watt but will allow tuning of higher than 3:1 swr antennas.

Worth a try I guess.

Otherwise I have built the ATU-100 kit from N7DDC.

That would be another option for your list. Ebay/AliExpress and other marketplaces sell those ready to use.

73 Joe

3

The ATU in the 7300 is like many radios, it has a narrow range. It is more for flattening small mismatches, such as a 40m dipole cut for CW being used on SSB. Some ATUs have much greater ranges such as the Elecraft KX2.

You need some kind of impedance transformer to bring the high impedance of the random wire to the range the 7300 can match.

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4

If a remote tuner is your thing, Icom’s own AH-730 is excellent. It’s never failed to tune anything I’ve thrown at it.

5

I have used the LDG IT-100 with my 7300 for years with great success.
W6LEN / Jess

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6

I’ve never been able to use the emergency ATU of the IC-7300 satisfactorily, so I got a mAT-180H. Their more recent battery powered RF-sensing model, the mAT-125E, could be (ab)used as a remote unit.

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7

Hi Pat,

If you have different coaxial lengths you can try to change the one you have between the TX and the “EF antenna box” if this is the case…

73, Eric

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Hi Pat,
if your random wire antenna does not already have one, and before you add any additional tuner - add a 9:1 UNUN at the end of the wire before the coax and then switch the IC7300 into “Emergency mode” and see if the internal tuner provides the wished-for result. If that does not work, you can look at the more expensive options but don’t forget any external tuner will also need the correct control wires from the IC7300.

73 Ed.

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9

How about what I run at home, a home-brew T network with a decent roller inductor?

Other option to consider is one of the MFJ T match tuners. They work well.

10

I have the Automatic Antenna Tuners Z-100PLUS. Very happy with it. It works fine.

Geoff vk3sq

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In my opinion, the tuner belongs directly to the antenna and not to the coaxial cable.
I use the LDG RT-100 with its feed unit…and a current balun at the tuner

73 Armin

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12

They do indeed! I have an MFJ-949E and it will match anything - and considering that I bought mine well used at a rally twenty years ago it will last forever!

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13

I’m using a LDG-Z-100Plus since many years and it works fine except for 80 m and 160 m (antenna is a short 2 x 13 m dipole).

Using the right adapter cable to the control port of the IC7300 you can start matching via the IC7300 like for the internal tuner. In this configuration the internal tuner is disabled and you don’t need an extra supply voltage for the tuner.

But don’t remove the control cable when the TRX is switched on. I’ve heard about a broken control circuit inside the IC7300.

73 Ludwig

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14

Hi All, Thanks for all the advice. I decided on the LDG Electronics Z-100A-DXE ($199) instead of the LDG Electronics Z-100Plus ($199). According to DXEngineering, they are essentially the same tuner except the DXE model comes with 7 cords to link tuner to many different radios, and of course one of the cords is for the 7300. With the patch cord, the 7300 bypasses the internal tuner and uses the external tuner when you push the Tune button on 7300.

Certainly, the LDG tuners got the most recommendations here and on the US SOTA Slack group.

Thanks again.

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