[Elecraft] K3- SWR accuracy

[Bill Conkling]

Gang, 

My antenna is a loop (approx 300 foot, non resonant, nearly horizontal at
average 35 feet)  with 450 ohm ladder line to the window feed thru.  Inside
the window is a 9" length of ladder line, and a balun.  Now six feet of
RG-8X to the LDG and 18" of coax to the K3.

Using the same 18" jumper to the Dummy Load, I get 1:1 all across the bands
on the K3 SWR readout.

...bc

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Ellington [mailto:n4lq at carolina.rr.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 9:18 AM
To: Bill Conkling
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3- SWR accuracy

Bill
You probably have some "common mode" currents on the shield of the coax 
causing the meters to read nutty. I'm curious what kind of feedline and 
antenna you are using and how long is the coax between the K3 and your LDG?
I use an MFJ-998 which is 100 feet from the K3. The meters never read the 
same because of all this coax. The K3's meter is really accurate however. I 
also have the K3 internal tuner and it is really good. Matches almost 
anything.
Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Conkling" <nr4c at widomaker.com>
To: <Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 12:25 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3- SWR accuracy


> Gang,
>
>
>
> I have recently built my K3 and have had it on the air about 3 weeks.  I
> started small, with 10 watts, added the PA3 and DVR.  My next purchase 
> will
> be the ATU module.  In the meantime, I am using an LDG-200Pro Auto-Tuner.
> It works great, but I have noticed that especially on 40 meters, I can 
> have
> the tuner go through a 'tune' cycle, and it will show 1.0:1 SWR, but my K3
> shows 1.3 ro 1.7 up to 1.8 to 1 SWR.
>
>
>
> I recorded a short call response with the DVR and when I play it back, the
> radio shows SWR of more than 1:1 but the tuner indicates full power and 
> low
> SWR.  Which do I believe?  Most other bands are normal, with tuner/radio
> agreement.   But not always, and especially on 40.
>
>
>
> I tried to manually tune the tuner to 1:1 and usually only took a couple 
> of
> clicks, but no matter what I did, I could not get it to hold those 
> settings;
> ie, when I went back to the frequency I 'manually' tuned, and tried to
> memorize, it tuned again, often only a Memory Tune, but went back to it's
> settings of 1.3:1.
>
>
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
>
> ...bc      K3  #4536  (nr4c)
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html