I've got a K3, a hand me down Ameritron AL-811 amp, an LDG AT-600 Pro tuner, and often use somewhat strange antennas. (See picture at www.ha19.no/la4rt/ ).
I'm considering replacing the LDG tuner with a KAT500. The LDG unit isn't bad, but it's got a confusing user interface, and it's so noisy that I can't let it run a full tuning cycle while people are sleeping next door. It also doesn't match quite as well as the built in tuner in the K3. Can the field testers comment on what the KAT500 sounds like. Has anybody had the opportunity to compare both tuners? The el cheapo amp will stay for the foreseeable future, so I'm interested in if and how the combination will work. I found an old thread with a lot of info: On 06/23/2012 06:38 PM, Dick Dievendorff wrote: > Fred: N6TV took a good back panel of my prototype unit at Visalia: > http://www.elecraft.com/KAT500/kat500rear_visalia.jpg. It's sitting atop a > KPA500. > > The KAT500 back panel has two 15-pin ACC connectors labeled "control". One > cable (XCVR) goes from your K3 to the KAT500, another (AMP) goes from the > KAT500 to the KPA500. Will the cable from the K3 be useful even with a "dumb" amp? > .. > The two RCA connectors labeled PTT RLY are not needed for the KPA500 as the > amp key line interrupt is in the 15-pin ACC cable (along with band change > lines and AUXBUS). If you're using another amplifier, you'll want to put the > KAT500 in the keying/PTT line between the transceiver and amplifier. The > KAT500 wants to hot-switch relays at exciter power, not QRO. I guess this means that the PTT line goes [ K3 ]---[ KAT500 ]---[ AL-811 ] And that the K3 tune button will tune the KAT500 when it's inline, and the KAT500 won't let the amp key up unless the tuner is ready. Correct? Jon LA4RT Trondheim, Norway ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
