Trouble with the ATU

Jay Woods · May 2023

The ATU has worked as supposed to until this morning. I tried to tune the Flex 6500 with the Antenna Tuner on 20 meters This morning and it wouldn't give me a success Indicator with ATU Button Illuminated. It also wouldn't give me a Success Byp indication because ATU cannot achieve a successful match. Also it wouldn't give a Byp indication stating the ATU isn't able to to provide a better impedance match and the SWR of the antenna system in Bypass is greater than Max SWR threshold. The ATU Button just stays Illuminated. The only Band the ATU works on is 40 meters. I have tried other antennas and the only one it works on is the 40 meter antenna. So has anyone had this trouble before. Thanks for your help.

Jay Woods

WA7YDM

VE7ATJ_Don · May 2023

hi Jay... first step would be to check all your antenna connections, etc. Do you have an antenna analyzer or other device (SWR meter) to check them? Then, connect a dummy load and try again -- to make sure the radio/software is working properly.

If those are all OK, I would suggest erasing all the ATU memories. (right click on the ATU button and a 'Clear ATU memories' should come up). Then, try to set the ATU again on a frequency you know previously worked.

If that doesn't work, then try a factory reset of the radio -- sometimes config files, etc. get corrupted and need to be reset.

And.. if it's still not working properly after all that -- time to create a Help Desk ticket! :-) The guys are really good at working through this stuff, and I'll bet their first suggestions will be roughly the same as the ones above.

oh yea.. you didn't say what version of software you are on. There were earlier versions of both 3.x and 2.x that had problems with the ATU not tuning properly or 'losing' matches. I would strongly recommending upgrading to the latest 2.x or 3.x version of the SmartSDR software/firmware.

Trouble with the ATU

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