Ed, you didn't mention the length of the wire you are using. Certain lengths will present an impedance outside of the range of the tuner - especially the KX1 tuner. The KX1 doesn't have as much matching range as other tuners. The L and C combinations had to be limited to fit it into the tiny space.
It's not unusual for a wire to tune very differently when moved from one place to another. Nearby objects can have a large effect on its electrical length and so its resonant frequency. I'd try a different length of wire - if you don't want to cut the wire, just fold back some of the far end a few feet along itself. Even if insulated, such a wire then looks like one thicker wire to RF since RF does not flow through the conductor, but travels along the outside of it as a wave. Bare wire is fine for an antenna, provided it's not touching any other conductors. Even insulated wire should be spaced well away from conductors. And be sure your bare wire connected to the center conductor isn't shorting to the outer metal ring of the antenna connector. Ideally you'd have a second wire attached to the KX1 case (or the shiny outer ring of the antenna connector) to act as a counterpoise. More than one wire attached to the case is even better. If they're elevated off of the ground, one for each band 1/4 wavelength long is the best. That would be 33 feet for 40 meters, 16 feet for 20 meters, etc. If they're lying on the ground the length is unimportant. The ground will detune them anyway. In that case the more the better. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- Hello, My KX1 has been having problems getting a low SWR. At home I had a long wire strung out the up stairs window getting 1.2:1 to 1.6:1. I took the same wire with me on a trip and now I cannot get the Antenna Tuner to tune. I'm getting 9.9:1 on both 20 and 40m. I'm in Anchorage Alaska and I'm not receiving any signals as well. There must be some on 40 meters I would think. The only difference is that I broke one of the wire connectors from the wire so I tried attaching bare wire to the antenna connector. I did a inductor/capacitor relay check using a dummy load on 20 and 40m and this is what I have found: 20m Watts SWR L0 .6 1.0 L1 1.2 2.1 L2 1.2 9.9 L3 .9 7.9 C0 1.0 9.0 C1 .7 7.3 C2 .6 7.0 C3 .5 5.8 n1 .6 1.0 n2 .5 1.0 40m Watts SWR L0 1.1 1.0 L1 1.0 1.2 L2 1.2 2.1 L3 .9 6.0 C0 1.0 3.2 C1 1.0 3.0 C2 1.0 2.8 C3 .8 3.1 n1 .5 1.0 n2 1.0 1.0 I am away from home and was planning taking the KX1 camping next week. I have no access to any equipment for the time being so it looks like I may ended up leaving the radio in the car. Your thoughts would be appreciated! 73, Ed ke7hga -- ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
