Sorry to say it, but s/v Illusion must be having a bad day...or a bad dream :-)
First point. Most modern
marine antenna tuners for the consumer market use latching relays to switch in capacitance and inductance, not "servo motors". It's possible that the AT-140 is an exception, but I don't think so (the AT-140 manual is particularly "thin"). It's predecessor tuners all used latching relays, as do the LDG tuners, the SGC tuners, the Kenwood tuners, etc.
Older military and
commercial tuners sometimes used servo motors to adjust, e.g., a roller inductor.
Next point. The Power/SWR meter belongs in the coax between the
radio and the tuner, not after the tuner. Install it close to the
radio. What you want to know is how well the tuner/coupler has tuned the antenna system -- antenna and RF ground -- to the 50-ohms impedence your transceiver is looking for. So you want the meter to "see" what the radio is "seeing", which is why you install it close to the radio.
And a final point. While the
family of
Icom tuners will "memorize" tuning positions for favored frequencies, this feature as implemented by
Icom is not very impressive compared to other tuners. For example, the AT-140 can memorize settings for up to 45 frequencies, but will only retain them for about a week if the radio isn't used. By contrast, the SG-230 tuner has 500 non-volatile memories.
What this means in the real world is that unless you use the radio frequently you'll have to put up with the whirring and clacking of the AT-140 :-)
Bill
Linear Mode
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