[Elecraft] K2 Antenna Tuner Question

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

An interesting thought. So if the ATU achieved a match to the
non-antenna, what was the efficiency of the ATU at that setting? To
provide a match, it has to absorb all of the r-f power being put out by
the rig, since the "non-antenna" clearly is not...

So, an ATU efficiency of Zero percent? (Great smokin' toroids, Batman!
All that r-f is "heat" in the ATU!)=20

Many wide-range ATUs will provide a "match" to some bizarre "loads", but
in the case of a non-load like this, it must do so with settings that
provide zero percent efficiency in transferring power to the load, so it
can absorb all of the r-f and show a 50 ohm match to the transmitter.=20

It's a serious problem when the ATU does that when connected to a "real"
antenna, absorbing most or all of the r-f instead of coupling it to the
antenna to be radiated!=20

I would suspect that the algorithm in the Elecraft ATU's avoids this as
it looks for a match, but it is very easy to do that with many
manually-tuned "wide range" ATU's, producing settings that "look"
excellent to the SWR meter but which provide dismal performance on the
air. The popular "T" matches sold by MFJ and others are especially easy
to adjust so little of the r-f finds its way to the antenna, while the
SWR meter reports a "perfect match" to the rig.=20

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289

On 12/24/02 6:53 AM, Tom Hammond N=D8SS at n0ss@earthlink.net wrote:

>It's done more than that! In a couple fits of extreme stoopidity (SIC),
>I've actually managed to match an EMPTY SO-239.