[Elecraft] ATU vs. External Tuner

[Jeff Wandling W7BRS]

I'm very interested in what happens when the K3's ATU is added to my 
station.

My current station uses two tuners for one radio and one amplifier.

<Non K3 rig> - <300W tuner> - <SB-200> - <1.5kW tuner> - <Antenna>

The rig get's as close to 50ohm as I can manage on the little 
tuner. The amp get's as close to 50ohm as I can manage on the big tuner.

(By 50ohm I mean as low an SWR as I can manage to get.. 1.1 - 1.3 typical)

It's a pain but it let's me optimize the antenna system to the point where 
when I'm tuned, I get as good as I'm gonna get.  I can get 1300PEP W on 
20m with the big tuner's Watt meter using 95W drive on the rig.

Now when my K3 arrives, it will have the ATU.  I'm not going to use the 
wee 300W tuner for the K3.

The K3 schematic will be

<K3 w/ATU> - <SB-200> - <1.5 kW> - <Antenna>

Everything is now and will be connected via coax.

I will probably decide to use the little tuner in bypass to use it's Watt 
meter to see that the interface between the SB-200 and K3 w/ATU is 
revealing power output concordiant with the settings on the K3.

My antenna for all HF bands is a single dipole raised 70ft up over ground 
outside.  It's cut for 40m but is tunable for 20-80m in the 
aforementioned setup.

This has been working out so far, so good.  I've  neer had an automatic 
tuner so I'm about to find out what happens when the ATU kicks in and 
tries to work out the match.