[Elecraft] K2 ATU question

[Ullrich von Bassewitz]

I've recently build my K2 (serial 4377) which works great, and I'm very happy
with it. Unfortunately, I can only use indoor or very small outdoor antennas,
so I'm currently experimenting with mag loops. While doing so, I noticed that
ATU use becomes very inconvenient. This is my scenario:

I'm using an indoor wire antenna for all bands except 30m, where I'm testing a
home built mag loop. The wire antenna is connected to ant #1, the mag loop to
ant #2. The mag loop is resonant and doesn't use the ATU, while the wire
antenna needs the ATU.

Now each time, I change to 30m, I do have to disable the ATU manually by
switching it into CALS mode, which is very inconvenient. Alternatively, I can
connect a dummy load, tune the ATU into the dummy load on 30m, and then
reconnect the mag loop. The problem with this second approach is that after
accidently tapping tune, I will have to repeat the whole process (disconnect
antenna, connect the dummy load, ...).

Since the given setup (having a resonant antenna and another one that needs
the ATU) seems pretty common to me, I do assume that there is a simpler
solution. Is it possible to disable the ATU for one of both antenna
connectors, or for a specific band? Any other trick to make changing bands
simpler?

Regards


        Uz


-- 
Ullrich von Bassewitz                               elecraft at musoftware.de