KAT500-- is a great tuner, but I think they get weary. I bought a second one three years ago because the repair service was taking so long on the first one. Now that one seems to be getting tired. I don't know what the repair service found, except that it came back, and after a while, it started acting strange again. So I have two acting strangely. Sometimes I get crappy tunes but when I add power, the SWR goes to normal limits, things like that. Other times, the antenna tunes, and the next day it does not. I have all new coax this month, 100' nominal to the ladder-fed dipoles. (Ladders checked, free and clear) Since the coaxial cables are ~six years old and run underground in conduits from my garage, I replaced them after some checks with the analyzer and cantenna. Seemed not so "flat" anymore. Since I have three antennas, I select around and use whatever one is acting properly. There's the G5RV high in trees on a ridge N-S, the ZB6BKW about 100 ft away E-W between trees 40', and a SteppIR Small IR in the middle on a metal carport roof. They are all inconsistent, but not enough to put my finger on it. Is anyone else experiencing this? //dave WB7ELY
> On 07/15/2025 2:00 PM PDT Graydon Jensen <n7...@outlook.com> wrote: > > > (private message) > > Thank you for posting this Dave. > > I'm just getting ready to put a new-to-me KAT500 & KPA500 pair in service. > > Please let me and/or the group know, what you find and how things turn out. > > Thanks, > > Graydon > N7RXL > > > --------------------------------------------- > From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net <elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net> on > behalf of dave ingebright via Elecraft <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2025 10:18 PM > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> > Subject: [Elecraft] KAT500 autotuner odd operation > > I have a KAT 500 Autotuner and its been acting oddly for the last few weeks. > I am using it connected to three antennas and it will not tune the antenna in > the #3 socket. During troubleshooting, I have hooked it to a dummy load, with > new coax and it says high SWR. Tuning on the other antennas seems to be > suboptimal. It has intermittant high SWR on the other antenna outputs but now > #3 seems to always show high SWR. Has anyone seen this or has any ideas? I am > running it with a KPA 500, but never over 250 watts. The antenna is a G5RV. > The antenna matches OK using the internal FlexRadio 6400 tuner... > //dave > WB7ELY > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to n7...@outlook.com > ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
