I have a 991 and after 15 days, it was sent back to Yaesu due to finals blown, HISWR, and same story everybody knows.Once repaired the same problems occurred (HISWR and ATU not working properly) but Yaesu Italy (CSY) has been so gentle to handle again this radio, noticed the fact that the internal ATU did'nt even try to match and gave me back the radio with some fixings. The first week the 991 was perfect, the ATU worked perfectly with my R8 but suddendly something happened and the HISWR was back, same initial conditions.I think for some unknown reasons ATU memory screwed up...
I decided to try an external tuner, a friend of mine gave me temporary a LDG AT-100proII that worked perfectly and I decided to buy a LDG AT-200proII, so I could use eventually with TS-950SDX (150W) Unfortunately the entire LDG shipping was canceled due to import problems from italian distributor I don't know. In the meanwhile I've seen many of yout are using MFJ tuner with this radio and are happy.
The question is: to buy LDG tuner or MFJ (and eventually the cat cable) ?In your experience wich model best matches this radio and have better tune ratio ?
I have used both the MFJ-939Y and the LDG tuners, the AT-200Pro and the AT-100ProII with my FT-991. The MFJ-939Y works with the tune button on the 991, it is very fast and matches just about anything. The LDG 100 and 200 have an auto tune mode but they do not work with the tune button on 991. I changed the menu item in the 991 so CW would work in SSB mode. So if I key the 991 either with a small switch or CW key, the 991 will switch to CW and activate the LDG tuners. I set the power in the 991 for about 10 watts in CW, power is saved for each mode. With the LDG tuners in auto mode this works pretty well and it is like using tune button on the 991.
Both are great tuners but assuming the MFJ-939Y lasts, holds up well with time, I think it is a better deal, less expensive and works with the tune button on the 991. Also, I have had LDG tuners for years, used them in many ways, they last and never a problem. I even asked LDG if they would make a cable for their generic tuners to work with the tune button on the FT-991 but that was many months ago, nothing heard. The LDG YT-1200 works with the tune button on the FT-991 but its price is higher.
