How have I not discovered this cool little EFHW tuner (http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/mountain-endfed-halfwave-tuner-40-17m-kit-or-built/) until now?! This thing is awesome......... and freaking cheap, about $30 with shipping. I don't need a tuner for my KX1 as it has an internal auto tuner, but it'll work perfect with my Mountain Topper rig.
http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/mountain-endfed-halfwave-tuner-40-17m-kit-or-built/ (http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/mountain-endfed-halfwave-tuner-40-17m-kit-or-built/)
The circuitry is the same as the SOTA Tuner (http://qrpkits.com/sota.html), but the SOTA also has the SWR indicating LED which is a requirement for me. Unfortunately if you need one soon QRPKits.com isn't taking orders for a little while while they relocate.
I'm getting one of these once my code is up to snuff.
Is it really as easy as tuning for noise?
I already have a SOTA Tuner so in all truthfulness I don't really need a Mountain Tuner but at that price I couldn't pass it up, so I ordered one last night. I to wish it had the SWR indicator like the SOTA tuner does, I'm not sure how well the claim of tuning to peak noise will work. If nothing else I could likely add one fairly easily as long as I can find enough room inside. What I really like about the Mountain Tuner is the ability to stake it down and/or tie it off. Let's be honest though, it's just another inexpensive, cool little QRP kit I get to build and play with. 8)
Yes, you can just tune for max noise.
I love the Tayloe SWR indicating LED for one important reason. When you throw the switch to Tune mode, no matter how bad the antenna match is, the radio will never see an SWR worse than 2:1. I also like that once you've tuned it, the brightness of the LED gives you some idea of how good a match you got.