[Elecraft] Re: Typical dB losses for KAT1

[Wayne Burdick]

"phoon.usinet" wrote:

> Getting power to the antenna without intervening losses is vital for
> portable QRP work, when you don't have much power in the K1 to spare to
> begin with.
> 
> I lean towards full matching AT THE ANTENNA, and not bothering with the
> KAT1.

Hi Peter,

The KAT1 uses very high-Q components and redundant pairs of relay contacts for
low resistance. Losses should be negligible on all bands with most antennas. Of
course the losses will be higher if the load presents an extremely high SWR on a
particular band, but this can be avoided by using a random wire length that is
not a multiple of a half-wave on any band to be used.

You can eliminate the feedline entirely at these power levels by just connecting
both the radials and the antenna lead directly to the back of the K1. The
antenna wire can then be tossed into a tree, etc. If the SWR is extremely high
and causes problems (such as a "hot" chassis or key), you can usually work
around it by altering the antenna length slightly or by using a balun between
the rig and the antenna/ground system.

I would welcome any actual efficiency loss measurements of the KAT1, but I'm
confident that you'll find its performance to be quite good. You should be able
to carry with you just a few lenghts of wire and perhaps a balun--no feedline or
extra inductors or capacitors--and let the KAT1 do the work. (I hate getting out
of a tent at night!)

73,
Wayne
N6KR