I just discovered the following video by VUJ Lab. on YouTube showing the AH-705 ATU being unboxed, connected to the IC-705 and even operated a bit.
The video is in Japanese, but frankly it’s easy to understand what’s going on. It’s the first time I’ve actually seen a production AH-705 in action.
I don’t know if you have heard but Elecraft will shortly come out with a cable to connect the 705 to the T1 tuner. On the Elecraft Reflector, Wayne Burdick said this:
The T1 ATU is ideal for use with low-power transceivers. While it can be used manually in all cases, we offer an adapter for the FT-817 that tracks that rig’s band changes, and we’re testing a version for the IC-705. This is the result of a collaboration, details of which will be provided in the product announcement.
Our adapter is housed in a custom enclosure that measures only 2.5 x 1.2 x 0.4.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
Bill, W8BC
Well, I’m trying to find something good to say.
The thing is HUGE. I’m disappointed with the size. Why does it need to be that big with such low power specifications. Even if it had a 1:1 balun in it with only a 10w rating the 1:1 balun would still be the size of a nickel at the most. Icom’s internal tuners typically don’t match above 3:1 so I suspect this is the same unlike the T1, MAT-705 & Z100 705 which would match significantly higher. I think I read where this is meant to be left outside. The whole thing just seems a little strange to me. Maybe Japanese people living in apartments want to leave their tuner outside, that’s all I can figure. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an Icom fanboy as some people might say. This just seems like a swing and a miss from such a reputable company. Will it tune? Does it work for the application? Sure. Is it the best option. Probably not.