Money spent on a good manual tuner is well spent. You'll use one for almost anything you concoct out of wire to great advantage.
I got the Palstar AT1KM, the entry level model just to see what it was all about. My only regret was that I didn't suck it up and just buy their top model. The one I got is great but the top model is more efficient yet and will deal with full legal power a bit better.
My tuner has allowed me to tune up a ridiculous, randomly strung, not measured end-fed hunk of wire for use on 80m and it even loads it up on 160m. It's tons easier to tune up than people make it out to be as well.
1) Flip rig to low power on FM
2) Tune rig to band
3) key up and spin the inductor crank until it dips to the lowest swr
4) Adjust the capacitor for lowest swr..sometimes you need +/- a turn on the inductor and another tweak
5) Check again with full power
6) Switch back to SSB or whatever and go.
After a few runs, you get to memorize the inductor setting and it's even faster.
I got the Palstar AT1KM, the entry level model just to see what it was all about. My only regret was that I didn't suck it up and just buy their top model. The one I got is great but the top model is more efficient yet and will deal with full legal power a bit better.
My tuner has allowed me to tune up a ridiculous, randomly strung, not measured end-fed hunk of wire for use on 80m and it even loads it up on 160m. It's tons easier to tune up than people make it out to be as well.
1) Flip rig to low power on FM
2) Tune rig to band
3) key up and spin the inductor crank until it dips to the lowest swr
4) Adjust the capacitor for lowest swr..sometimes you need +/- a turn on the inductor and another tweak
5) Check again with full power
6) Switch back to SSB or whatever and go.
After a few runs, you get to memorize the inductor setting and it's even faster.