Comet / NCG CAT-300 and LDG Z-100A
For those high-frequency operators looking for increased compact manual antenna tuner performance, I tested the new Comet / NCG Company CAT-300 manual tuner, with great success.
Increased RF output performance is achieved from a slightly larger internal inductance coil, along with large(er) high(er) quality variable capacitors. The Comet CAT-300 can easily handle up to 300 watts, once you tune it up at a more reasonable level, like 50 watts. Don’t tune on high power CW and rotate the inductance click-click switch on any manual tuner. This could arc the coil contacts.
First tune up on RECEIVE! Yes, listen for your rig’s background band noise to increase at resonance.
Step one is to set the inductance switch to the band you wish to tune, again listening for your transceiver’s background noise to slightly increase. Now quickly rotate both TR and X variable capacitor knobs for maximum receiver noise, and work them back and forth rapidly to get the most white noise
