PS: The FC-40 includes nearly no instructions for use at all. Yaesu makes beautiful products with excellent worksmanship. With these two faults, I could not recommend this product especially when you need to match a wide difference in impedance (such as an end-fed wire.) This is a shame. Very important: Yaesu's FC-40 design will reject all antennas that show above a 3:1 SWR. Both the built-in matcher and the remote matcher are nearly identical in design and range. Second issue: Those looking for a wider range of antenna compensation from an FC-40 over the antenna matchers incorporated into a Yaesu transceivers will be disappointed. Everything rides on a single co-ax cable. LDG makes a remote tuner that sends control from shack to antenna much like phantom powering a microphone. I have heard that others have home-brewed extended length control cables using CAT5 cable - providing you can find mini-DIN connectors to match and you possess good soldering or crimping skills. This is barely enough to mount it right outside your window. The FC-40 comes with a 15 foot length of co-ax and a 15 foot control cable.

It also requires a multi-conductor control cable incorporating one of many varieties of the dreaded mini-DIN connector. Of course, you need a run a co-ax cable to carry your signal. Two things you should know about the Yaesu FC-40: The system requires TWO cables from your transceiver to the remote unit outside. It’s early, time will tell, but 5 stars for now. If you are looking for a tuner that integrates wel with the FTDX-10, the FC-40 is a good performer. I wanted to share my positive experience with this group. You have to avoid wire lengths that cause very high feed point impedances on the bands of interest. It also balances current in the balanced feedline.ģ. The balun makes the doublet ‘look’ like an end fed wire to the tuner. I’ve used similar tuners from Icom (AH-2) for years, and you have to do some things to make them work with a doublet:ġ. In no case would the internal tuner work for any of these bands. * a bit of guessing here as the meters aren’t calibrated over 5:1. This is the Vswr I’m seeing from my antenna unmatched, running 5W and using the FTDX-10 swr meter and my Autek WM-1: The matching range is pretty wide - on some frequencies my antenna feedpoint impedance is quite high. If I have a valid tune near the frequency I want to operate, it will automatically engage so no action is required on my part. It has been able to match my antenna on every band from 160m to 6M with less than 1.2:1 Vswr. It also comes with a U-bolt kit for mast mounting.Ĭonnection and setup are super easy - just change the tuner select option to in the operation setting menu. It comes packaged with a 5m control cable and a 5m coaxial cable so there is no additional cable to purchase for most installations. It is working very well, meeting or exceeding my expectations. So despite some unfavorable reviews here I tried the Yaesu FC-40. Not a big deal, but sometimes you need to raise the power a bit to make a contact. And it had a 30W digital power limitation. It matched my antenna, a 200’ doublet fed with 450 ohm ladder line and a 4:1 balun.īut it didn’t give me one button tune from the radio. I started out with an LDG Z-100A as recommended by the fine folks at HRO.

That is one button tuning from the radio. I’m an Icom convert and was looking for the same functionality I had with my IC-706MKII and AH-2. Excellent tuner with great integration with FTDX-10

Remote antenna tuner reviews