Tuner Genius and a doublet antenna

Mr Radio · November 2020

Unfortunately TG has no provision for connecting a doublet antenna. Usual solution is to connect a 1:4 balun to the output of ATU. My concern is that , considering PG's high power output, it may result in excessive heat losses. Are there some other options apart from using a dedicated ATU with a symmetrical output? Any comments/suggestions?
Tom

Mack W4AX · November 2020

@Mr Radio as you note the best solution for many antennas is to use a balanced antenna tuner. Many hams force an antenna into an unbalanced condition using a BALUN. There is no way around the laws of physics and you will have heat losses. You may need to run your rig at reduced power to prevent self-protections from activating. The good news with the PGXL and the TGXL is they have very fast self protections to prevent damage to their systems. My advice is to use a very high quality BALUN from BALUN Designs. Their BALUNS are the best I’ve seen. Start testing at a couple of hundred watts.

73,

Mack

W4AX

TGXL Program Manager

Ignacy · December 2020

Most amps limit matching SWR to 3:1 to avoid failures. New Experts amps set a limit at 5:1. At home I use MFJ-998 with up to 1.5KW, expecting it to fail every time, and it keeps on going for years, even when running. I use 1:1 baluns because of lower losses - see

http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/tuner_balun/.

One balun is by Balun Design. Second by running bifilar teflon 18 ga wire around FT240-61. Little heating and no evidence of problems in either. 4:1 baluns are sometime preferable if the tuner is weak. Less range required from the tuner but higher losses in the balun. Higher losses are usually low in casual operation but may be excessive when running at full power.

PGXL is, I think, targeted for serious contesters, who usually have low SWR antennas. For them the tuner is unimportant, perhaps with the exception of 160m.

Ignacy NO9E

Tuner Genius and a doublet antenna

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