Ed,
Your proposed solution sounds similar to my current configuration, except
that remote antenna switch selection is derived from a connection on the
K3S - not the KAT500.
I have two main coax cables leaving the shack - one goes to a remote switch
at the top of the tower for selecting bands 6m - 20m; the other to a second
remote switch for selecting among dipoles and loops for 30m - 160m. The
KAT500 automatically determines which coax to use (Ant1 for 6m - 20m coax or
Ant2 for 30m - 160m coax), while a band decoder attached to the K3S selects
which specific antenna on those remote switches gets activated.
This arrangement exploits the standard features of the KAT500 and the K3S
without any additional hardware or programs. You might be able to accomplish
the same thing using the band select outputs from the rig.
-larry (K8UT)
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed G
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 7:51 PM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] Proposed New KAT500 Option
Hello,
As part of my work designing and maintaining a remote station, I can
think of several ways to use a tower-mounted RF-actuated programmable coax
switch. So I'm wondering how hard it would be to add an optional external
coax switch for use with the KAT500? This would offer a couple benefits -
ability to tower-mount a coax switch (but maintain control of that switch
via the KAT500 circuitry and utility program), and it would increase the
number of available antenna ports from the current three to perhaps 6.
If this option were available, it could be implemented using a small
RF-sensing control box which would allow the KAT500 to remain as-is. The
KAT500 PC Data line would then run through the external control box to the
user's computer so that the utility program, once updated, would be able to
show coax switch status and allow the utility to program how the
tower-mounted switch responds. The user could hook the external RF-sensing
control box to ANT1 on the KAT500 (so ANT1 would be the position to select
if/when one wanted to use the tower-mounted switch). A switch control line,
and the RF coax would be the two lines running to the tower-mounted switch.
I'm posting here because it seems like the circuitry to sense frequency
and actuate the switching is already designed, and could be mostly
duplicated in the external RF-sensing control box. Would anyone else be
interested in such a "smart RF coax switch" option? I suspect the numbers
may not support this as a new product, but I am curious, as what I would
like to see is frequently out of phase with what others need ;)
--Ed--
---
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