Built-in Automatic Antenna Tuner in Action!

When I used the build-in automatic antenna tuner in my HF radio for the first time, I was rather scared by the rattling noise from the radio and wild swinging of the needle on the meter as well as the red ‘High SWR’ light coming up in between. Here is a glance of it for you.

I was relieved only when my friend called me after seeing my post on Twitter or X and pacified me saying that it is all normal behaviour of modern amateur radios with built in automatic antenna tuners. It is trying out various combinations before settling with the optimal SWR for the frequency which you are tuning on and memorizing it as well. The radio automaticlly lowers the RF output during the test so that you don’t have to worry about bringing down the RF power output during the tuning process. It is all software driven, like the other processes in a software defined radio known in short as SDR. Great to know that there a lot of protective mechanisms built-in these radios which are a bit expensive for a person who has operated only homebrew setup earlier. As those were hand made by one self, we knew in and out of the functioning, unlike these new ‘black boxes’!

Short press of the TUNE button calls in the automatic antenna tuning function. A long press initiates the tuning process. TUNE is displayed in the main screen during the tuning process. Once the tuning is over, the radio returns to usual RX mode.