[Elecraft] SWR Question

[George]

Q # 1:  My homebrewed single 3-500 tube linear has no tuned imput circuit.  When I drive it with my K2, the K2 is working into about 3:1 swr, and indicates HI REF, but seems to suffer no harm.  Is that too high an SWR, and does this condition lower the quality/purity of the transmitted signal??  Will it do harm to the K2?

Q # 2:  If I used an Elecraft antenna tuner, would it resolve the problem and lower  the fig to 1:1??  Or does the tuner only work with antennas at the other end?

Q# 3:  Any idea how the tuner in the Icom Pro 3 would handle the same situation?

Still having lots of fun with the K2 after 2 yrs.

Tnx,
 N4YM  (K2 #4758)