[Elecraft] Reflected power

2019-09-16 Thread Stephen Rabinowitz
Many thanks to all of those who responded to my message and shared their
experiences and thoughts: Dave WO2X, Mike VA3MW, Bob K4TAX, Jim K9YC, Victor
4X6GP, and Alan N1AL. With a dummy antenna (Cantenna) on 7MHz, and a 1.1:1
match, using 10w drive the KPA-1500 puts out 605w at first, then settles
down two seconds later to 384w with 8w reflected power. With 25w drive, the
initial output is 1431w, settling down to 1105w after two seconds, with 20w
reflected power. So, the fault seems to be in the antenna, not in the
amplifier.
The same initial power surge occurs on 14MHz using the dummy antenna. I
don't know if it originates in the transceiver or the amplifier, but it
doesn't have much effect on reflected power except with the defective
antenna. Answering some of the questions that were posed, the double bazooka
in this case is the high power version from Radiowavz, two years old. A
common mode choke from DX Engineering sits between the end of the feed coax
and the antenna. Several Mix 31 snap-on chokes from Palomar are on various
short coax jumpers in the shack, and the ground system is very good.
The double bazookas I use on 80m and 30m work well and are from
iacantennas.com. I am ordering a 40m version from them to replace the one
that seems to be faulty. I will try to report the result after I install it.
Many thanks again to all,
73, Steve K2SN

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[Elecraft] Reflected power

2019-09-15 Thread Stephen Rabinowitz
My KPA-1500 switches from operate to standby due to reflected power more
than 200w whenever drive power exceeds about 8 watts on 7 MHz. The forward
power at that point is about 400w. The antenna is a double bazooka that
shows an SWR of about 1.2 on a RigExpert AA-230Pro antenna analyzer. A
Telepost LP-100A digital wattmeter shows SWR 1.3 with Z=52, R=49, Ph=17, and
X=15. The KP1500 tunes to an SWR of what it labels 1.1 on that frequency.
The latest firmware, version 2.27 is installed. This problem does not occur
with double bazooka antennas on 80m or 30m, or with Yagis from 20m to 6m. It
seems to me that there is a brief surge in reflected power at the very onset
of the transmission that triggers the response, but that the reflected power
quickly decreases to normal levels of just a few watts. Any ideas for
dealing with this problem would be much appreciated.
73, Steve K2SN

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