4/5 stars
The LDG Z-817 is a purpose-built antenna tuner for the Yaesu FT-818/817. The Z-817 interfaces with the FT-817/818 via an 8-pin mini-din cable, and includes a pass-through port for allowing the tuner to pass CAT commands from a PC to the radio while leaving the tuner plugged in. The form-factor of the Z-817 matches the radio, and it will handle an output power of 20 watts, leaving some headroom to run a lower power amplifier if you so desire.
The Good:
Wide matching range. The tuner boasts a matching range of 6-600 Ohms. This should theoretically be enough range to match a random wire with no transformer. Indeed, I can confirm that my 33′ EFRW and my slinky vertical do tune up okay with no transformer on most bands from 40 – 6 meters. Though a 9:1 transformer does usually improve the match a bit.
Simple operation. Using the Z-817 with the FT-817/818 is a breeze. With the tuner and radio properly connected to each other and to an antenna, a 1 second press of the tune button handles everything. The Z-817 puts the radio into PKT mode, lowers output power, transmits a carrier, tunes for a match and then returns the radio to its previous mode and power settings. Operating the Z-817 with another radio or without the data cable is also pretty straightforward. Simply transmit a low power carrier manually, press the tune button for one second and wait for the tuner to complete a tune cycle. Note: on the US version of the FT-817/818 the automatic tune function does not work with the 60 meter band, as the radio will not transmit in PKT mode on any of the 60 meter frequencies. I was unable to get a work-around for this verified, but I suspect just tuning “manually” with a low power CW carrier on 60 meters would work fine.
Light Weight. The unit is very lightweight, but despite this it feels quite sturdy. It lends itself well to portable operations, including SOTA.
Low power consumption. The Z-817 takes 4 AA batteries, and the case must be opened to install/change them. The unit uses latching relays, so power consumption is low, and it consumes no power when not actively tuning.
The Bad:
Battery Door / holder. This isn’t a huge concern, but if my batteries die in the field, I’d prefer to change them without needing a screwdriver. In addition, the whole battery holder seems like a last-minute kludge on the part of LDG. It’s a standard 4AA holder that is held in place (on top of one of the relays) with double stick tape and a strip of adhesive backed foam keeps it from moving around once the case cover is installed. Again, it works fine but could be better. It would be fairly simple to modify the unit to accept external DC power and simply forget about the batteries all together, if a person was so inclined.
The interface cable. This is more a word of caution than a criticism of the product, and really only applies if you want to run digital modes. The supplied cable is high quality and has nice large arrows on top for easy pin alignment. However, it’s a few feet long. This creates a serious RFI problem when trying to operate digital modes while portable. If you can’t achieve a good distance between your station and antenna, the interface cable picks up all the RF. I’ve found that for digital modes I have to unplug the interface cable between the tuner and the radio and plug my CAT cable directly into the radio otherwise my CAT control goes completely haywire when transmitting. This is the case even with the interface cable run several turns through a large 43 ferrite bead. A much shorter cable would likely alleviate this problem.
Loose connectors on the rear panel. I operate portable 100% of the time. This means that my kit is set up and taken down many times. Often more than once in a day. After less than 2 weeks of use, the retaining nuts on both SO-239 connectors and the ground lug on the rear panel of the unit came loose. These are actually a huge pain to tighten again due to the very tight clearances between connectors on the inside of the rear panel. I’ll likely end up desoldering the connectors to gain access in order to crank these nuts down hard with a touch of Loctite.
All in all, the Z-817 is a very capable tuner at a reasonable price. If the unit were to get lost or broken, I would likely replace it with the same unit, or perhaps another similar offering from LDG. The light weight pairs well with the FT-818 for SOTA operations and general portable use. It’s not as slick a solution as having a radio with a built-in tuner, but such is the life of FT-817/818 operators. I find the extra cabling manageable and the extra hassle minimal. There are some modifications I would make to the unit if I had the opportunity to redesign it, but overall, it’s a great piece of kit.