[Elecraft] ATU vs. External Tuner

[Mike Scott]

>Will the internal ATU work for me visiting other bands
or would I be better off installing a tuner between the rig and the
antenna? 

Frank, go ahead and try the internal K3 tuner on different bands. Your 40M
dipole will work fine on 15M. I have had okay results on 30M. I am sure
losses are high but it works for the casual contacts I have made. It will
probably tune but not work well at all on 80M; at least 80M didn't work at
all for me. I have made contacts on all bands from 60M to 6M using either a
40M inverted V or a 20M dipole, don't remember which one for each band. As
Phil AD5X says coax losses will be high everywhere but 40M and 15M.

Someday I will get a real antenna but for the odd contact on another band I
seem to do okay with the internal K3 autotuner. 

I would love to have a remote balanced tuner. I am building one but that is
another story.



Mike Scott - AE6WA
Tarzana, CA (DM04 / near LA)
K3-100 #508/ KX1  #1311