Roy,
Getting a really good RF ground for a 2nd story shack may require more than
a 1/2 inch copper pipe, it may be a good ground at DC, but actually may have
a high impedance at RF (depends on the frequency).
The easiest thing to try is a quarter wave counterpoise wire (open at the
far end and out of the way - that end WILL have high voltage RF on it). Cut
one for each band (fan out the ends). The wire can be stretched out on the
floor is necessary, but neater and safer if it is run outside. If you can
get it in a straight line, so much the better, but not a requirement - but
do make gentle bends (radius of a large coffee can) if you cannot run it
straight.
The characteristics of a quarter wave wire apply - high voltage RF on one
end and zero volts on the other. The zero volts end is a good RF ground
point - connect it directly to your KAT100.
73,
Don W3FPR
----- Original Message -----
I thought that installing MCU1.05 there would be ample RF sampling rates
taken to avoid erratic LED displays. The updated firmware seems not to be
the
solution.
With a 50 ohm dummy load on the KAT100 output only the leftmost LED lights
up and K2 SWR is 1:1 regardless of power or band in use. With the
Carolina
Windom 80 attached to the KAT100 output and a Bird 43 wattmeter between
the K2
output and KAT100 input, I found the reflected power stayed at zero and
the
forward power stayed at max (regardless of band or power setting) while
the
KAT100 LEDs and K2 SWR reading were going wild. The wildest LED and SWR
activity occurs on 30 meters but does not occur on all bands.
I have already removed the white wire from pin 7 of the K2 end of the IO
port and put a .01 pF cap from the white wire to the bare wire on pin 1.
My shack is on the second floor (over my garage) and I have tried to be as
attentive to grounding as possible. I use a common grounding point that
attaches to a 1/2 " copper pipe (used only for grounding) that goes down
approx 10
feet to an eight foot buried grounding rod. I believe the K2 erratic SWR
activity will stop when the KAT100 LED stray RF problem has been
eliminated.
Has anyone made any changes or done any bypassing inside the KAT100 to
eliminate stray RF and tame the LED display? Roy Morris W4WFB
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