Thoughts on changing from ACOM 1000 to KPA500?
Thoughts on changing from K3 With ACOM 1000 to K3 with KPA500?
At my home QTH I run four contest stations with three of the stations being
FT-1000MPs and Alpha 99 amps. My fourth station is a K3 with Acom 1000 for
a KW on 6M. The
On 8/2/2013 1:46 PM, Bill OMara wrote:
Or should I stay with the ACOM 1000 because to
the higher duty cycle of contesting and the benefit of extra 500w output?
No problem with contesting duty cycle, and you can run the KPA500 at
full power on RTTY. I don't know about the ACOM for RTTY. The
Hi Jim,
Answers below.
Eric
elecraft.com
_..._
On Jun 18, 2013, at 6:23 PM, Jim Dunstan jduns...@tbaytel.net wrote:
At 02:55 PM 6/18/2013, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Many competing 100-W amps don't cover 160-6 meters, or don't make it to 100
W on 6 meters. Many have poor IMD performance on
Hi Richard,
It's true that there are lower-cost alternatives to the KXPA100, including
backpack-style 30-50 W amps. The latter would be a good choice if you're
looking for minimum size and weight in an amp.
Many competing 100-W amps don't cover 160-6 meters, or don't make it to 100 W
on 6
Regarding Wayne's points. Compared to the KXPA100, the RM Italy 150v (lots
of used ones available for $150) doesn't have 6 meters, has loud fans
relays, suffers from diminishing power output on the bands above 20 meters
and the IMD performance isn't acceptable unless used in the low power
I had a RM Italy amp for about two months and it was horrible. I tried it in my
mobile and it had all sorts of issues and only really worked on 15m. I would
not recommend it to anyone. I sold it for 1/3 of the price I paid for it
warning the guy about it profusely. He has been using it now and
At 02:55 PM 6/18/2013, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Many competing 100-W amps don't cover 160-6 meters, or don't make it
to 100 W on 6 meters. Many have poor IMD performance on some bands
(we bought one of each and tested them in our lab; some were truly
awful). None of them offer a companion
Thanks Don and Rick for all the help.
chuck
- Original Message
From: Don Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com
To: K6LE k...@mac.com
Cc: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 11:16:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external
Thanks guys for all the input.
I have a better understanding of the capabilities of each option.
73.
chuck
af4xk
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Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Hello guys.
Narrowing down the options I 'need' in a K3.
Regarding an internal vs external ATU:
If you were going to operate your K3 at 100 watts (no plans for an
amplifier), radio to be used only at home (no portable operating), and one
of your antennas was a dipole that can be tuned over
As usual, it depends. In this case it depends upon the feedline losses on
your all band dipole.
If it is something like a G5RV doublet fed with ladderline with low feedline
losses, then the internal tuner will work fine. If it is fed with coax of
any appreciable length, then the external tuner
I used my K3 with built in matching unit directly into a low (avg 10ft agl)
doublet of 88ft per leg (somewhat bent) and a short feeder directly into the
PL. No rf earth, isolated mains supply. Worked well across 160 to 10. I
should have used a coax choke but it worked very well. It has
, February 24, 2010 12:44:38 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Hello guys.
Narrowing down the options I 'need' in a K3.
Regarding an internal vs external ATU:
If you were going to operate your K3 at 100 watts (no plans for an
amplifier), radio to be used only at home
Thanks guys. You do make a strong case for the internal unit. My internal
unit on my K2 (15 watts) works great.
My dipole is coax fed - U shaped, no balun, running thru attic and out eaves
to back of yard. My shack is on the 2nd floor (no RF ground)
I've never used an external ATU and was
that in mind if money is a factor. Otherwise, buy both!
Steve
N4LQ
- Original Message -
From: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Thanks guys. You
Most internal tuners, like my FT-920 and Mark-V FT-1000MP, have very limited
range, but the K3 tuner has a wide range, and is very fast. Well worth the
money.
--
View this message in context:
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Sent from the
Steve,
You stated Every time you change bands, you must push the ATU Tune
button.
If that's true then I have been operating my K2 ATU incorrectly but it seems
to work fine the way I've been doing it. Initially, or after any change, I
run thru the bands tuned to the cw portion and hit the
This isn't true, is it? It's certainly not the case for the K1 or K2
tuners, and I can't believe that the K3 is less capable.
Peter N8MHD
On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Steve Ellington n...@carolina.rr.com wrote:
I'm afraid you have the wrong concept of the internal tuner. Every
It depends on whether the antenna is badly out of balance and whether it is
low or high impedance.
With coax based antenna and when the balun is not required, KAT3 is very
convenient. When one uses unbalanced high SWR antennas fed by ladderline or
TV line, one needs an efficient current balun.
seconds to tune
again.
Willis 'Cookie' Cooke
K5EWJ
From: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 2:12:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Steve,
You stated Every time
You do *not* have to push the ATU button every time you change bands.
See the firmware release notes for MCU 3.03.
The ATU remembers the last setting used on each band/antenna input; in
fact, it remembers the setting for every 20 kHz segment (every 10 kHz
segment on 160m, every 50 kHz segment
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 1:40:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Thanks guys. You do make a strong case for the internal unit. My internal
unit on my K2 (15 watts) works great.
My dipole is coax fed - U shaped, no balun, running
Still confused guys on the Re-Tune issue. So on my coax fed dipole, if I
press ATU TUNE at 7.030, wouldn't that be enough to tune the 7.000 thru
7.060 freq range without retuning whenever I 'band switch' back to 40 meters
and operate in the above cw range?
chuck
--
View this message in
Cookie and all,
That is *not* true for the KAT3 (it was for the KAT2 and KAT100).
Look on page 22 of the new owners manual. The K3 saves up to 30 ATU
setting for both antennas on every band.
However, if you have not yet done so, you will have to do a TUNE at
several frequencies throughout the
follow along as you spin the dial like ICOMs do.
Steve
N4LQ
- Original Message -
From: Richard Ferch ve3...@storm.ca
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 3:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
You do *not* have to push the ATU
Chuck,
The short answer is YES.
The longer answer is if you move far enough away from the original
frequency where the antenna was tuned,. and the SWR increases, just do
another TUNE and that will be remembered for that band segment too.
I believe you also asked about an external wattmeter -
Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com
To: WILLIS COOKE wrco...@yahoo.com
Cc: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 3:09:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Cookie and all,
That is *not* true for the KAT3
24, 2010 3:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
You do *not* have to push the ATU button every time you change bands.
See the firmware release notes for MCU 3.03.
The ATU remembers the last setting used on each band/antenna input; in
fact
Cookie,
Download the latest manual from the Elecraft website - that is where I
found that info.
73,
Don W3FPR
WILLIS COOKE wrote:
I do have a KAT3 and have never owned a KAT2 or KAT100. My owners manual is
the one that came with the K3 in June of 2008. It does not say anything
except
one, sell your Kaycom and get
one!
Willis 'Cookie' Cooke
K5EWJ
From: WILLIS COOKE wrco...@yahoo.com
To: d...@w3fpr.com
Cc: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 3:29:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts
I had to respond to this query, as the K3's internal ATU puts me in
the Star Wars category!
For the past 33 years, one primary antenna I have used is an inverted
vee with fifty foot legs, fed with 40 feet of open-wire line, and up
to K3 time, two switched external tuners with baluns. I could
Amen to that! And it gets *all* of the RF out of the shack as well. I
recently moved my fully balanced homebrew kilowatt autotuner out to my
garden shed about a hundred feet from the shack where it feeds the
ladderline going up to my 160M horz loop. I have been fighting
RF-in-the-shack
Hello Chuck,
That is my situation, and I opted for an external tuner. I did that
to avoid the loses that I would get from using 140 feet of buried coax
to my dipole. My antenna tuner is located at the other end of my
coax, so my loses are minimized. This involves using a remote,
Thanks guys for all the info.
I have one other question about the ATU use with two antennas.
Say I have two antennas connected to the ATU , one is a dipole (non
resonant- need the ATU to 'match') and the other antenna is a Hustler BTV6
(which i've just purchase having never used a vertical)
From: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, February 24, 2010 5:13:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Thanks guys for all the info.
I have one other question about the ATU use with two antennas.
Say I
Chuck,
While you cannot have one antenna set to bypass and the other one for
tuning - there is an easy way to accomplish that.
Since the K2 and K3 tuners remember the settings for each antenna jack
separately, just pre-tune the one you will not use for tuning into a 50
ohm dummy load. Then
I'll weigh in on this one, too, since I'm considering this option quite
seriously.
With my home-only station running QRP CW I use a nice 100+ Watt external tuner
(even for QRP). It has the obligatory cable connected between it and the radio
plus a grounding cable plus a power cable and
To: WILLIS COOKE wrco...@yahoo.com; d...@w3fpr.com
Cc: callen1155 callen1...@yahoo.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Well, I switched my 160 inverted L to 15 meters and tried it. The first pass
: [Elecraft] Thoughts on internal vs external ATU for K3
Cookie
Now switch back to 160m. Don't touch anything. Is your receive level ok? Now
transmitDid receive level improve? Did the tuner go back to it's 160m
setting WITHOUT transmitting at all? Just curious.
Steve
N4LQ
- Original Message
Have to disagree Don!
I have a ladder line fed doublet (with outside balun) attached to Ant 1 and an
R7 on Ant 2.
I have Ant 1 set to use the ATU and Ant 2 Bypassed since I don't need the tuner
for it.
When I switch between Ant 1 and 2 the ATU indicator comes on for 1 and off for
2.
Slick!
Rick,
OK, that may be possible with the KAT3, but it certainly is not possible
with the KAT2 or the KAT100. I do not have a tuner in my K3 because I
have all resonant antennas - no tuner required, so I bow to your experience.
73,
Don W3FPR
K6LE wrote:
Have to disagree Don!
I have a ladder
I couldn't agree more. Thank you.
2009/12/19 van fair g...@bellsouth.net
Gentlemen, I am a two year veteran of the FT2000 reflector and I am
beginning to see some of the same type of thoughts that turned that
reflector into a total mess. Most of us including me think the K3 is a fine
rig
Well and fairly said.
73, Mike NF4L
van fair wrote:
Gentlemen, I am a two year veteran of the FT2000 reflector and I am beginning
to see some of the same type of thoughts that turned that reflector into a
total mess. Most of us including me think the K3 is a fine rig and I have
been
Gentlemen, I am a two year veteran of the FT2000 reflector and I am beginning
to see some of the same type of thoughts that turned that reflector into a
total mess. Most of us including me think the K3 is a fine rig and I have been
instrumental in selling 5 of them for Elecraft thus far.
We
One thing I would like to see is a way to send text to the K3 that is
then sent as PSK31. Currently you can do this by sending morse with a
key. But, being able to send text directly through the serial port
would allow simple keyboard operation from a terminal program.
Doug -- K0DXV
K2/100
I think Elecraft have a keyboard planned for the future - there is a k/b
port on the bottom
So maybe typing direct on a k/b connected to the K3 :-)
On 28/11/07 16:36, Doug Person [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:
One thing I would like to see is a way to send text to the K3 that is
then sent as PSK31.
Too bad they didn't use the same standard mini-din used on virtually all
pc keyboards.
Doug -- K0DXV
K2/100 #5837, K3/100 #77
David Ferrington, M0XDF wrote:
I think Elecraft have a keyboard planned for the future - there is a k/b
port on the bottom
So maybe typing direct on a k/b connected
Please do NOT attempt to connect a keyboard directly to the K3. Right now that
port is ONLY for the boot loader.
This port may be available for a keyboard in the future, but not now.
-
73,
Greg - AB7R
Whidbey Island WA
NA-065
K3#0009
On Wed Nov 28 11:43 , David
That's mini din is a PS2 std and the K3 probably doesn't have a PS2
interface
Plus with this way, they could provide other peripherals
On 28/11/07 16:56, Doug Person [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:
Too bad they didn't use the same standard mini-din used on virtually all
pc keyboards.
Doug --
Hi Doug,
The connector on the bottom of the K3 front panel is not a keyboard
connector. It is a used during manufacture for initial programming of
the K3 processor boot code.
It could possibly used for general I/O, but nothing is designed at this
time. Anything hooked up to this connector
Sorry everyone - I stand corrected, it's not a k/b port - although I swear
there was a mail back in May saying it was - perhaps I mistook, could be,
for is :-)
Avoid ole in't bottom - like the plague!
On 28/11/07 17:04, Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ Elecraft [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:
Hi Doug,
The
On Nov 28, 2007 4:36 PM, Doug Person [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
One thing I would like to see is a way to send text to the K3 that is
then sent as PSK31. Currently you can do this by sending morse with a
key. But, being able to send text directly through the serial port
would allow simple
Eric,
Thanks for explaining that. I think being able to send text directly
will be a very worthwhile feature. It would be an interesting project
then to create a simple keyboard-to-serial controller to allow PSK
operation without the need for a pc.
Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ Elecraft wrote:
Hi
On Nov 28, 2007 5:04 PM, Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ Elecraft
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
We -do- plan to allow users to use the 'KY' serial command to send text
to the K3's PSK encoder in a future K3 f/w release.
Do you also plan to have a command that would allow software to poll
for packets of
I would want to poll for the data, anything else would be problematic to put
it mildly.
To be honest I doubt that I'll use the built-in PSK / RTTY engines - I'm
more in favour of software such as Digipan etc.
Simon Brown, HB9DRV
- Original Message -
From: Julian G4ILO [EMAIL
On Nov 28, 2007 5:53 PM, Simon Brown (HB9DRV) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would want to poll for the data, anything else would be problematic to put
it mildly.
To be honest I doubt that I'll use the built-in PSK / RTTY engines - I'm
more in favour of software such as Digipan etc.
I've
... But one that can do
digimodes without a sound card would be unique to Elecraft, I think.
I could use it with my Acorn A4 laptop or my RISC PC, assuming you write
this in BBC BASIC!
73,
Lyle KK7P
PS - Note that BBC BASIC URLhttp://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic.html
is a
On Nov 28, 2007 9:55 PM, Lyle Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I could use it with my Acorn A4 laptop or my RISC PC, assuming you write
this in BBC BASIC!
Sorry, I'm a Pascal man.
Lazarus is based on Free Pascal. It can create code for a lot of
current platforms, the main issue is the UI
Steve Kallal wrote:
Further to yesterday:
The common fix for this problem is to use the tx frequency lock feature in
most of the digital comm software. Can I assume that the tx and rx
frequencies will match if I use the same filter for tx and rx? In my case,
this would be the OP1 filter. I
I've really loved the K2 since getting one second hand back in July. I've
added the KPA100, KSB2 and the K160RX options.
But there is one really sore point with me. That is the small frequency
shift when changing filters. It is not a big issue when using CW or SSB. I
can live with that. But it is
Steve Kallal wrote:
I understand there is a FINE RIT feature that can correct this frequency
shift. I have the RTTY mode filters set up as:
I would say the RIT steps were part of the problem, rather than part of
cure, but basically you will need frequency measuring equipment with 1Hz
or
Julius, N2WN wrote:
I'm near the point of installing an old 205BA (5 element 20M yagi) that
will be serving a dual purpose. It will also act as a tophat for a
160/80/40 vertical. I'd like to ground the driven element. Any thoughts
as to the best way to feed it?
--
The Hi-Gain 205BA
Hello All,
It is noticeable on this Reflector that occasionally folk become annoyed by
any critical comment about the K2 in its various configurations, e.g K2/100.
Although such a reaction is understandable, we are human, it might be useful
to take a look at what underlies critical comment. As I
Installing prefilter IN STEAD of KNB2 gives the possibility to
place 5dB 140 ohm attenuator on the same board in front of the prefilter.
Then the 5dB pad should be temporarily taken out of function on main rf-board.
Installing prefilter on top of KNB2 :
-Input of KNB2 seems to have the
Wayne - I wonder if you - or anyone else for that matter - has found any
values that work better then the default?
Don
W6ZO
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