I have followed this discussion with interest. I do agree with Jack
the issue seems to be related to a grounding issue. And I agree with
Jim as his assessment likewise. His work and that of W. Silver from
ARRL does support this thinking. [The ARRL publication Grounding and
Bonding for The Radio Amateur is a MUST HAVE for every station.]
Three points:
(a) each piece of equipment should be connected to the station supply
via a dedicated ground/bond conductor.
(b) the 12 ft driven ground with 0 ohms resistance is questionable. And
if this ground rod is not bonded back to the AC Mains ground outside of
the house, this must be corrected as it presents a dangerous condition
and clearly is not in compliance with NEC.
(c) the power strip being used for the station equipment, from my
experience, is usually questionable in terms of integrity.
I would disconnect any station ground to the outside. Anyway, any and
all of the lightning protection devices should be applied to each feed
line and rotor line outside of the structure and connected to the driven
ground. Again, this ground must be bonded back to the AC mains ground.
I would connect each piece of equipment with a dedicated ground/bond
conductor to the station power supply ground terminal. For this I use
#10 AWG auto primary wire with a suitable ring terminal which is crimped
and soldered on each end. As to the power supply ground point, do note
that the DC negative may or may not be connected to power supply ground.
For station AC power distribution, lacking dedicated wall outlets, I
make quad boxes using good quality duplex outlets and caps {plugs} and
do not use the "stab" type connection. Hook the wire around the screw
clockwise and tighten the screw. Use #12-3 rubber covered,{ SJ as I
recall} for the pigtail.
I would then re-evaluate the condition of concern.
73
Bob, K4TAX
On 12/30/2018 8:30 PM, Ken B via Elecraft wrote:
Thank you - I followed Fig 3 on page 10 which is specific to ICOM. Yes all
cables ohm'd out with no shorts
From: Jack Brindle <[email protected]>
To: Ken B <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2018 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KAT500/KPA500 with Icom 7600 accessory cable
Great! Thanks for the detail. Table 2 on page 8 of the KAT500 manual should have given you the exact connections you needed to make for the Molex to KAT500 cable. Note that the plug o the KAt500 end is stereo with tip, ring and sleeve. Please recheck these connections to make sure that pin 4 of the Molex does indeed go to the sleeve of the mini-phone plug. It would be best to ohm out the cable to make sure the signals go to the right places and there are no shorts between pins.
Table 3 on that same page shows the Key-line connections, which I suspect are
correct at the point. In any case be sure to check that cable as well.
73!Jack, W6FB
On Dec 30, 2018, at 4:13 PM, Ken B <[email protected]> wrote:
Good evening The Icom IC-7600 KAT500, and KPA500 are each grounded to a single
terminal strip with a #10 cable directly to a ground rod 15 ft away. The rod is
12 ft deep. Both the KAP and KTA were factory built as my soldering skills have
diminished since the Army training.
The IC7600 - In the back of the 7600 is a 4 conductor molex connector. The Icom
made cable splits into 2 connections on the KAT, the first is plugged into DC
power, and the second is plugged into the Tuner connection
- In the back of the 7600 is also a 7 conductor DIM connection (Acc2). I made a
cable to connect pin 3 to the KAT PTT RLY
The KAT - Other than mentioned above ant1 goes out to the antenna- XMTR is
connected via a 2 ft piece of LMR400 to the output of the KAP- The unlabeled
connector above the PTT RLY goes to the PA Key of the KAP
The KAP - Other than what is mentioned above the only other connection is a
piece of LMR400 from Ant1 on the 7600 to input on the KAP.
From: Jack Brindle <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2018 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KAT500/KPA500 with Icom 7600 accessory cable
Yeah, but we really want to get the problem solved so you can enjoy your KPA500 and KAT500 as much as we enjoy ours.That connection list will be most helpful in this effort.
My thinking on the ground issue is that the power-plug ground is completing a
circuit that should not exist and thus disruptingoperations on band change. The
question would be what is connected to ground that should not be, and where?Are
the KPA and KATs kits or did they come assembled?
73!Jack, W6FB
On Dec 30, 2018, at 2:22 PM, Ken B <[email protected]> wrote:
Please allow me to clairify. Everyone deserves time off. I work 60 to 70 hrs
per week and appricate the down time
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 5:07 PM, Jack Brindle<[email protected]> wrote: The folks in Watsonville are taking a well deserved rest, but some of us are still around. This sounds a lot like a grounding issue in your setup with ground being completed through the wall power ground pin. Tell me exactly all of the cables/connections going to the KPA500 (and from where). While you are at it you might as well do the same for the KAT500. I’ll try to decipher what is going on from this information and hopefully get a good solution for you quickly.
73!
Jack, W6FB
Elecraft Engineering
On Dec 30, 2018, at 1:55 PM, Ken B via Elecraft <[email protected]>
wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion
Sorry for the delay the wife and I went out. The only way I can get it all to
work properly is to:- Remove AC power from the AMP (simply turning it off dowes
not work) - On the radio (icom 7600) select the band (ensure auto tuner on
Radio is off) - On Radio select AM and depress PTT - While holding PTT, hit the
tune button on the KAT500 - Let if get to 1.2 and stop - Let go PTT and select
SSB on Radio- Plug in AC power to KPA and power on - On KPA select the proper
band- On the KPA select operate from Standby
All works until I change bands then it is start from the top Cleared all memory
Wish Elecraft was open on Monday.
ThanksKen
From: Don Wilhelm <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; "[email protected]"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2018 8:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KAT500/KPA500 with Icom 7600 accessory cable
Ken,
If that Send cable is the only one you have connected between your Icom
and the KAT500, you need to feed a bit of RF to initiate a TUNE
The KAT500 will first look for a saved L/C combination for that antenna
and frequency and will switch to that rather than doing a TUNE.
Secondly, it will compute the SWR and if it is below 1.5, it will go
into bypass - no tuning is necessary.
Is it possible that either one of those conditions exist?
73,
Don W3FPR
On 12/30/2018 6:12 AM, Ken B wrote:
Yes from the 7600 accessory 1 pin 3 to the kat500
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
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On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 4:52 AM, Don Wilhelm
<[email protected]> wrote:
Ken,
Do you have the cable wired first to the KAT500 and then on to the
KPA500?
The KAT500 must interrupt the keying of the KPA500 when it needs
to tune.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 12/29/2018 10:13 PM, Ken B wrote:
> Thank you Don.
> The pin 3 (send) did the trick perfectly. Now it works at 300 to
400
> watts out with 20 in. The problem i have now is when i switch bands
> the kat will not tune unless i remove all AC power from the amp.
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>
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>
> On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 11:36 PM, Don Wilhelm
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> Ken,
>
> Look at your Icom 7600 documentation. I believe the
'keyword' may be
> "Send" or Keyout or something of that nature (PTT should be an
> input to
> the transceiver, not an output, but some manufacturers mix
them up
> causing confusion - check the documentation).
> Connect that output from your transceiver first to the KAT500
AMP KEY
> connector and from the other KAT500 AMP KEY connector to the
KPA500.
> That allows the KAT500 to disable the amplifier keying if the
KAT500
> needs to tune.
>
> You should then be "good to go" with the basic cabling. When
you get
> the proper cable, it will integrate better with your Icom,
but the
> basic
> cabling will get you on the air with your new toys.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> On 12/27/2018 11:14 PM, Ken B via Elecraft wrote:
> > Just received my the kap500 and found out it was missing the
> accessory cable which goes from the icom 7600 to the kat500.
> Elecraft is sending one but it might take a week. In the mean
time
> does anyone have the accessory pin outs to rca plug so i can make
> one and use my new toy.
> > Thank youKenKc1icn
>
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