Ronnie, well done. Moving to a different ratio balun is a smart obvious move towards obtaining a better match,

especially at higher power maintaining insulation specs required.

From curiosity what was the model number of the BD 4:1 balun you had initially please ?


On 3/9/20 10:03 am, Ronnie Hull wrote:
The original thread has gone off on some tangents. I truly appreciate all the 
suggestions.

I seem to have cured the problem!

ORIGINAL ISSUE was using a new W7FG 160m doublet with 600 ohm true ladder line. 
The ladder line was hooked to a Balun Design 4:1 ( as recommended by the seller 
of the antenna). The antenna would be matched great in 160M by the internal ATU 
in the K3 but with the KPA1500 inline it all went north really fast, resulting 
in the 1500 faulting out

Earlier today I swapped in a DX Engineering maxi core 4:1 and it worked a hell 
of a lot better but the KPA1500 still could not match it better than 9:1

Mind you this antenna matches superb on other bands with the KPA1500

Also the KPA1500 works great into a dummy load so I knew the issue was the 
antenna or part of it

Last I put in line a DX Engineering maxi core 6:1 and BAM... it worked!
The KPA1500 matches to 2.5:1 which is good enough for now.

Next I will experiment with the 600 ohm ladder line length. Right now I’m using 
57’.  I will add 10’ tomorrow and see what shakes out and will let you fellas 
know

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

Ronnie W5SUM

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