Follow-up: Well, I did my own experiment. I forgot briefly that I have a KAT3 which is also described as a 10:1 matching tuner. Well, it does not seem to match most of my bands on the delta loop. So, the KAT500 is not on my to-buy list until I get this antenna fixed to match better. I have a lot of ideas but I am waiting for warmer and dryer weather -- good because the KAT500 should be well tested by the field by then.
73, phil, K7PEH On Dec 31, 2011, at 12:33 PM, Phil Hystad wrote: > Did I read right that the forthcoming KAT500 would be able to match up to a > 10:1 SWR? > > So, this should mean that the impedance range of the tuner is anywhere from 5 > to 500 ohms (absolute value of Z). > > I currently use an AT1KM tuner with impedance range of 20 to 1500 ohms. I > use this with a horizontal delta loop and I am able to match all of my > important bands that I operate on this antenna which are 80, 40, 30. I use a > 5-band hex beam for the other bands. > > But, I can easily get a good match well under 1.5:1 using the AT1KM. But, I > also measured the impedance and SWR at the point that the coax hooks into the > AT1KM. These measures are then of the raw, un-tuned, antenna system (coax > and delta loop) made with my MFJ-259B. According to these measurements, the > raw impedances I need to match are more then 10:1 for some of the bands. > Indeed, I am close to 24:1 for the low part of 80 but I operate fine in this > region using the AT1KM. > > Should I then assume that the KAT500 will not work for me with my current > antenna system? I also noticed that other auto-tuners have similar wider > ranges. For example, MFJ-998 supports a matching range of 12 to 1600; and, > the old Palstar AT-Auto supports a matching range of 15 to 1500 (now Kessler > Engineering). Apparently, the new the new Palstar HF-Auto is reported as > 10:1 SWR which may be the same as KAT500. > > Therefore, can someone (Wayne, Eric or others in the know) confirm that with > my current antenna configuration, I will probably NOT be able to use the > KAT500 for 80 meters (at least). My options I suppose are not to use the > KAT500 at all, not use it for 80, or reconfigure my delta loop (although, my > degrees of freedom for this are small). > > 73, phil, K7PEH > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 ______________________________________________________________ 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
