[Elecraft] Question about forthcoming KAT500

[Don Wilhelm]

Jim,

It has been some number of hours now and we have not heard from Wayne 
(likely doing New Year's eve celebration with the family), so I will 
attempt to answer from my recall of prior information from Wayne.
First, I believe the KAT500 will have a range as great (maybe greater) 
than the KAT3 - so if the KAT3 handles your antenna, the KAT500 should too.

I would also like to say that the stated 10:1 SWR tuning range is not 
absolute, but is worst case.  The matching range of any tuner is more 
limited at low frequencies.  For instance, if the tuner can match a 10:1 
SWR at 160 meters, it may be able to match a 25:1 SWR at 10 meters.  Of 
course, that all depends on the resistive to reactive ratio too - all 
loads are not equal.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 12/31/2011 4:36 PM, Jim Bennett wrote:
> An interesting question!! And it directly affects my situation, too.
>
> So, here is a slight add-on to Phil's query - perhaps Eric or Wayne can shed some light here. My "main" antenna is an 88' foot long doublet at 45 feet, fed with 600-ohm ladder line, and a 1:1 balun where my eight feet of coax from the K3/100 connects to the balanced line. The K3's tuner gives me a match on this antenna on 80 through 6 meters. I'm a happy camper with this antenna working pretty darn well on all bands, although it is mostly NVIS on 80. So, my question is - how close in performance will the KAT500 be to the KAT3? Can I expect the KAT500 to match this antenna as well as the KAT3 does? I'd certainly NOT be happy to spend the dollars for the new tuner to find that it is not capable of doing what the KAT3 can do.
>
> Jim / W6JHB
>
>
>