Design and implementation of fast antenna tuners for HF radio systems

A description of fast HF antenna tuners from the functional and implementation standpoint is presented. The realized fast antenna tuner is specially useful for mobile or transportable HF radio system applications, including adaptive communications, frequency hopping and electronic countermeasures. This study comprises: the equipment design requirements, the basic configuration of the fast antenna tuner, the optimum matching network synthesis, the choice of the general tuning strategy, the implementation of the matching network with emphasis on components technology, and the advantageous monitoring scheme based on measurements in the reflection plane.