[Elecraft] Put my new KAT500 thru the wringers today

[KD7YZ Bob]

Howdy K3' people:

Got my factory-built KAT500 today. Despite the missing cable (paid for)
E850463, I figured out how to run it manually. They did send along a
strange 3ft RCA RG59 cable though. right now the cat's playing with it.

Getting an automatic AT, for me, was kinda just a laughing point. I
quizzed Dave about it rather heavily. Me and Marconi weren't sure young
Dave could be right on all counts since he hasn't seen the wire here.

But I thought it would be fun to switch bands rapidly, and without my
short clip-board and penciled columns of the current  settings for the
wonderful Palstar AT2K tuner.

Well, I started at 160m and went thru 60m and finished at 10m. Didn't
miss anything.

There was the clattering expected; the metering reported wonderfully
high SWR's as she tried to figure out how to match the 110' section of
450 fed with a few loops of coax at the shack end.

I got to  raise my eyebrows in that All-Too-Certain of ones-self that we
get after operating on a few continents with wire and one of the combat
tours I had a 1500 foot V-beam ... That was before most of your
respective times though.

So I was about to say "Ah HAH!" when the noise stopped.

"Gave up, did ya??" .. The last number I saw on the K3 was something like
98:1  ... hahahahahahahahaha ...

But it was quiet and now the K3 said !.1:1 "One-point-one to one?" I
asked ..

OK, I lost that one on 160 .. so on to make it fail somewhere else.

By 30 meters I was having fun because  the pragmatic side of me knew this
was going to be wayyyy tooo KEWL ... "IF" she made it to ten. Somewhere
in 280 feet of wire at 80 feet, there must be a rotten mis-match that
the slim little beastie can't handle.

Guess I was wrong.

Kudos to Dave at Elecraft for steering me to the KAT500. K# is perched
on a thin mat of that rubber-cloth ya get at Wal-Mart sewing area. Who
knows, if I get a cable I think it will be automated.

There is a "Computer Interface Cable" which has a 3.5mm one-end and USB
the other. That's into the computer now but I have no idea who talks to
it. K3-Utility didn't anyway.

Nice piece of gear. In a week or two my 1200' wire goes up .. gotta have
something for the diversity setup. Wonder if I can bamboozle the KAT500
on that one. Coax-balun to 600-ohm ladder to the wire .. heh heh heh heh

If you don't have one and wonder if it will load into your stealth
clothesline, there is a good chance it will. Afterall, I am loading some
of the 80 foot oak trees.

KAT500: Good for the shack!


-- 
73
KD7YZ Bob