Mark,
There is good reason (assuming the internal tuner in the K3) for *not*
syncing the wattmeters.
With the KAT3 in-line, the SWR is *not* reading the SWR on the feedline,
but instead telling you the SWR at the *input* to the KAT3 - that is the
load that the K3 PA sees, and that is what really matters for full power
output. Remember too that the KAT3 will have some residual reactance
even in bypass mode. That will also make a difference in the SWR seen
by the K3 PA transistors and the SWR on the feedline - it is just one of
"those things". A 1.4 SWR on the feedline may actually result in a 1.1
SWR at the other end of that residual reactance.
The external wattmeter will indicate the SWR on the feedline - at the
output of the KAT3. There is nothing the KAT3 can do to change that.
In addition, many wattmeters are woefully inaccurate when reading SWR.
Most All will be quite accurate for an SWR of 1.0, but at anything other
than that, you will find a variation in the readings on amateur grade
wattmeters.
If you have a good dummy load (non-reactive 50 ohms), you can calibrate
the K3 wattmeter (for power, not SWR). The procedure is in the
Calibration section of the manual.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 11/17/2013 4:57 PM, [email protected] wrote:
John, the problem is that I don't have one of these. But thanks for the
suggestion. One thing I have not tried is hooking up my antenna and external
wattmeter coupler with Antenna 2 instead of Antenna 1. I am anxious to find out
if I get the same readings with #2 as I did with #1. I guess I am rather
perplexed at the thought that there is such a variance between the K3 wattmeter
vs an external wattmeter. Especially, when I connected the coupler to the
antenna #1 with a plug and then attached the antenna coax to the coupler. It's
a shame that the K3 does not have a way of synching up the internal wattmeter
with an external wattmeter. Hopefully somebody from elecraft will read this
email and make a comment on it. Thanks to all with their responses. Mark
Griffin, KB3Z
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