The Auto tuner chosen was the SGC 239 made in the US.  It is one of the more basic tuners at only £175.95 from Haydon Communications here in the UK but don't be deceived.  It can tune lengths of wire from 7ft to over 100ft working at 200w. The instructions show how to install in a car, boat or if you have one, an aeroplane. End feeding is what it does but it can feed balanced systems if you should want to. So it is quite versatile.

I fitted the tuner in the loft near the eaves.  The wire feed attached to the tuner and an earth wire to a stake in the ground just under the aerial. Tests showed that the tuner tuned up on all bands better than 1.5:1 including the WARC bands, but 40 and 80m bands proved a bit problematic with regard to RF in the shack.  A read of the manual did say that the counterpoise must be longer than the antenna although, it can be in several lengths. For a single 20ft antenna wire, use two lengths of just over 10ft as a counterpoise.  I hope that makes sense. Well I added a 3m length of wire slung in the loft.  All was now cured and RF problems now disappeared.

The first station worked was AE1AQO on 17m using the maximum power for my M3 license of 10w with a 5/5 report.  Not bad for a piece of wire 55ft long.  The best set up was working in the garden on a garden table, can of beer, the sun shining down, wow.  The tuner's feed was terminated with a crock clip hooked to the wire in a windom set up (The feed 2/3 way along the wire).  This worked well and I may try this when working portable.  The best thing with this set up is that the feed point can be moved to alter the lobes and bring in a weak station. Well that's the theory.  I will let you know what happens.

The Auto Tuner Revolution

The problem with most aerial installations is obtaining planning permission.  Not from the local authority, oh no, but from our beloved wives.  Yes, one of the biggest hurdles is satisfying "Her In Doors".     

A wire aerial would satisfy the planning department and now that I have purchased an auto tuner, things should be a bit easier on the HF side. My back yard is only able to support a wire of 55ft in length from tree to house, and with no way to feed the centre of the wire to make a dipole or any other balanced system, I chose to end feed. I may be able to get a bit more length by moving the tree to the corner of the garden, but that is another project.  I wanted to avoid the wire going over the roof of the house, even though I have a very large tree in the front garden.  I don't want to bring attention to my activities and the possibility of causing TVI due to the aerial being directly in front of the neighbour's and my own TV aerials.  I guess that a lot of you out there have the same sort of problems. Small town houses, rented property with landlords who don't want to know our problems. 

Don's Roach pole can be seen here.  This orange pole by the car telescopes down to about 1/2 a metre.  It has an element of wire threaded through the centre.  He uses an Icom Auto-tuner.