Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 52 minutes ago
How to get the CGJ-100 antenna tuner ready for work and why we need to talk about it? Well, actually, not only this nice little tuner, most of ham radio gear I buy from China I try to inspect for quality of soldering, assembly etc. because one can find very different quality in this huge world market, from really good, to medium and not acceptable, depending on the brand, price, seller. I'm not afraid of buying things from China, the opposite! Recently, I received my new NanoVNA-F network analyzer. The quick look under the lid revealed an excellent quality of assembly and soldering, the inscriptions printed out on the PCB proved this was a real product of the manufacturer I wanted.
The inspection of the Mini Automatic Antenna Tuner CGJ-100 revealed the antenna and the transmitter sockets left unsoldered to the PCB fully. No problem, I've fixed that but if I hadn't check it the tuner simply would not have worked properly.
The CGJ-100 tuner is an incarnation, one of many of the famous tuner designed by the ham radio operator David N7DDC. It's an open source project and there are many manufacturers around the world making the tuners of his design , mostly in Russia, Ukraine and of course China. Wherever the tuner would be made the display always shows the N7DDC callsign on power on.
I've bought this tuner for my field operations as it is really small (~130X80X35 mm) yet full 100W RF capable. It is not a QRP tuner, 5W is a minimal power needed for tuning, but better quality achieved with more. It's got an automatic tuning regime allowing for remote tuning. All these features I am going to review in my other videos, this video was devoted just for the inspection and checking theme. So please stay tuned for the test results, consider subscribing and be the first to know! Happy and safe New Year! 73 Linas LY2H
How to get the CGJ-100 antenna tuner ready for work and why we need to talk about it? Well, actually, not only this nice little tuner, most of ham radio gear I buy from China I try to inspect for quality of soldering, assembly etc. because one can find very different quality in this huge world market, from really good, to medium and not acceptable, depending on the brand, price, seller. I'm not afraid of buying things from China, the opposite! Recently, I received my new NanoVNA-F network analyzer. The quick look under the lid revealed an excellent quality of assembly and soldering, the inscriptions printed out on the PCB proved this was a real product of the manufacturer I wanted.
The inspection of the Mini Automatic Antenna Tuner CGJ-100 revealed the antenna and the transmitter sockets left unsoldered to the PCB fully. No problem, I've fixed that but if I hadn't check it the tuner simply would not have worked properly.
The CGJ-100 tuner is an incarnation, one of many of the famous tuner designed by the ham radio operator David N7DDC. It's an open source project and there are many manufacturers around the world making the tuners of his design , mostly in Russia, Ukraine and of course China. Wherever the tuner would be made the display always shows the N7DDC callsign on power on.
I've bought this tuner for my field operations as it is really small (~130X80X35 mm) yet full 100W RF capable. It is not a QRP tuner, 5W is a minimal power needed for tuning, but better quality achieved with more. It's got an automatic tuning regime allowing for remote tuning. All these features I am going to review in my other videos, this video was devoted just for the inspection and checking theme. So please stay tuned for the test results, consider subscribing and be the first to know! Happy and safe New Year! 73 Linas LY2H
