[Elecraft] three basic firmware questions

[Wayne Burdick]

Steve Jackson wrote:

> 1. I have a K1 running v1.09 with a KAT1 at v1.20 firmware.  What
> improvement does the 1.30 KAT1 firmware version yield?

Rev 1.3 works a lot harder to find a match with difficult loads. Without it, you
may occasionally see "PLO" (power too low) during auto-tune.


> 2. My K2 is running 2.01H firmware.  An upgrade to 2.02H would yield what
> changes?  Should I wait for some of the other pending upgrades, such as the
> keyer improvements recently discussed, or maybe mode storage per band per
> VFO (poor man's band stacking registers) ?

If you upgrade at this point you'll get 2.03d and a new revision of the I/O
controller, too (1.07). These provide support for the KAT100 and KPA100, as well
as much faster VFO update as you spin the knob. There are a also number of minor
bug fixes. If you do the upgrade, I'd recommend doing it in conjunction with the
"Rev A to Rev B Upgrade" mod kit and instructions, which will be posted next week.


> 3. Also in my K2:  how can I tell - from the display - what version of KAT2
> firmware I'm running?  Or do I need to pop the lid off and peek at the chip
> label?  If it makes the question of firmware revision predictable, my KAT2
> is an original revision, from 2000.  The newest KAT2 firmware offers what
> changes over the revision I now have?

You can check this in the ATU menu entry (e.g. "F1.00"). The latest KAT2
revision provides a very slight improvement in initial SWR achieved when you
press TUNE.

73,
Wayne
N6KR