QRP Z-Match Manual Antenna Tuner 3-28 MHz for HAM Radio

This is the perfect little manual tuner for your QRP setup!It's as tall and as wide as the USDX+ QRP radio, and works like a champ! I was working stations two states away on 40 and 80 meters on a homemade NVIS antenna on only 5 watts!

Surprised how easy this was to use with my QRP rigs. So far I've had no problem tuning up multiple home brewed wire antennas as well as verticals I've built using this little tuner. I've double checked the SWR using an SWR Meter to check the SWR when using the little LED on the tuner and it's basically spot on showing very low SWR on reasonable antennas.

I'm just using it on a receive antenna, so can't speak to SWR. It does seem to work over the advertised frequency range. For some reason the the capacitors are rather stiff. Perhaps they will loosten up with use.

Great little tuner. Works very well. Exactly what I needed.

They ran out of solder at the factory. I went to tune an antenna I knew was 1:1 on 40, and had to turn the right knob to its extreme to get any kind of dip in the light. I went back and read all of the reviews on here - and did I have the courage to open the lid and see if I too - like several others - had missing solder in the toroid pcb holes. Sure as shinoa - no solder, and barely any solder there. I think they have a box of these that a kid made in the factory who was like, "Nahhh, I don't want to put my solder gun tip all the way in there" and they're hoping we sort thru the units for them. It's a shame because this is a nice unit - super small. Just for those few joints - it's okay. I hope the seller sends me a new tested unit - and I'll change my review.

I use this with various QRP labs QRP rigs including QMX and QMX+. It works great seems to tune any where from 80 thru 10 meters. The little led swr tuning indicator works perflectly. I only run 5 watts max thru it, it is for QRP only . When you take this to a pota activation you don't need a separate swr bridge. It's a compact quality product. Just don't put over 5 watts into it!!

While this tuner feels solid and looks well-made, using it was more frustrating than I expected. The tuning process isn't intuitive, and despite multiple attempts, I struggled to get reliable matches on the advertised bands—especially 10m and 40m. My tuning success felt more driven by my mathematics in the initial antenna layout, rather than what the tuner could accomplish. CW output was, accordingly to the LED light, successfully tuned but SSB was hit or miss. I appreciate the compact metal design and BNC connectors (for CRP), but that doesn’t make up for inconsistent performance. I’m also skeptical of the build quality inside, as others have noted soldering issues, which might explain the erratic tuning. Overall, it’s a nice idea, but not one I’d recommend without serious reservations. A good, used automatic tuner might do you better than this.

I bought this thing just for kicks, but it's actually turning out to work quite well. I checked the Z Match's tuning with a traditional SWR Bridge, and it's within safe limits (usually 1.5:1 or better). Not sure on this, but looks like the LED gets it's power from the RF from the radio, so no batteries needed. This was just what I need for going out camping or kayaking, etc. and taking ham radio with me. The radio I used to test it is a uSDX HF Transciever I bought on Amazon a few months back for about fifty dollars. One thing about the Z Match Tuner ... be SURE you don't exceed 5 watts for tuning, 10 watts for operating. You'll likely burn out the innards of the tuner if you do. I looked inside. It's made of some very lower amperage rated components and is intended for QRP (under 10 watts) operation. If you use it as intended, should work quite well. Just don't try to tune your 200 watt Yaesu or Icom with it unless you turn the transmit power below 10 watts.