Six Meter Transmatch (Tuner)
I don't have a dedicated 6M antenna (up anyways) and my auto tuner has difficulty tuning my 40-20-10 fan dipole ...so I rolled my own dedicated 6M tuner. Technically it is a Transmatch or Coupler. Antenna tuners are located at the antenna, but the term tuner seems to be widespread for such units now. The typical configuration of most tuners is either an L or T. I selected the Pi configuration because it is simple and the caps I selected (for small size and range) would be grounded. |
Yes, there are no knobs. These are air variable trimmers and adjusted with a screwdriver. I use one part of 6M so it is "set and forget". Unlike wide range HF tuners, this one is band specific so the inductor doesn’t need to be adjustable. I just picked a typical value and went with that. It is a classic Pi network with the coil in series and a cap on either side to ground. The caps are not critical, but should be the same values. |
![]() (CTA) APC-140 |
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The coil is 6 1/2 turns of #20 with a ~3/8" ID and 1 1/2" long. A handy form on my bench was the body of an ink pen. The wire springs open a little once wound so it’s a little larger than the 3/8” form. No worries. As wound, this coil is ~0.09µH. I ended up using just four turns of the coil, for a final value of ~0.06µH. You can use larger wire if you wish, it is just harder to work with in tight spaces and small diameters. |
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1 Mar 2016 |
V73NS |