: [Elecraft] K2, LP-100 and HRD etc

[Larry Phipps]

You won't need to do that. I'm planning to allow you to enter a feedline 
characteristic Z, length and loss/100 ft., and then add a button that 
will allow you to display all the parameters as "at xmtr" or "at 
antenna". You could use any feedline type or length that you know the 
published specs on. I am also thinking about adding the feedline data 
entry capability to the standard LP-100 VCP (Virtual Control Panel). I 
would offer the ability to enter several feedlines, which would be 
selected based on frequency. I am considering allowing you to upload the 
feedline table to the LP-100 hardware as well, so that it would display 
correct antenna Z if desired. Since the LP-100 has a built-in frequency 
counter, the table selection would be automatic. I may also add a menu 
to allow the table to be entered at the hardware.

For this to work in the hardware or VCP, you would have to determine the 
sign of X experimentally and enter it on the Vector display using the 
Up/Dn buttons. This would only have to be done once for each antenna. 
The Plot program does this automatically, by looking at the slope of the 
X plot for each data point.

Some of this will be future updates of firmware or software. You can 
update the LP-100 firmware and software over the internet, and there 
will be regular updates offered for both. Updates will be free for life, 
although there will be charges for add-on hardware if it becomes 
necessary to add hardware for a particular option in the future. All 
updates will be backward compatible with the original hardware, however.

73,
Larry N8LP



Mike Walkington wrote:
> Neat,
>
> So will it be possible to do one scan with a 50ohm load terminating the
> cable, then do it again with the antenna connected, "subtract" the plots and
> end up with the antenna characteristics?
>
> Mike
> VK1KCK
> K1 #2599
>
> Message: 20
> Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 13:56:03 -0400
> From: Larry Phipps <larry at telepostinc.com>
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2, LP-100 and HRD etc
> To: Mike Walkington <mike at walkingtons.com>
> Cc: Elecraft-Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <4432B333.9010301 at telepostinc.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>
> The LP-100 Plot software does this already if you use DXlabs Commander 
> (freeware) or TRX-Manager. It doesn't matter what rig is selected, it 
> will work with any supported rig. You set the start and stop frequencies 
> and step size, then hit Run. The program controls the rig and gathers 
> the data. You can select the parameters to plot either before or after 
> running, and save the plots to a file in CSV format for later recall or 
> export to a spreadsheet.
>
> It may be possible to add HRD, but I don't see a linking component for 
> them that accepts all the incoming commands needed.
>
> You can see a screen capture of the LP-100 Plot software at 
> www.telepostinc.com/lp100.html, along with a comparison to a couple of 
> antenna analyzers I own as well as my HP87510A VNA.
>
> 73,
> Larry N8LP
>
>
>
>