[Elecraft] KPA500

[Fred Jensen]

On 2/13/2012 11:51 AM, Don Etters wrote:
> The KPA500 is a great Amp. but it does not like SWR over 1:5 –1

Mine works fine up to 2:1 on most bands, although on 160, it starts to 
get a little annoyed at that point.  Pretty common for "no-tune" solid 
state amps.

an
> band width seems narrow .

Don't know what you mean by this.  My 160 antenna BW is pretty narrow 
[10 KHz], 80m is better [~50 KHz] but that has nothing to do with the 
KPA500, into the 1:1 dummy load, frequency doesn't matter.  The SWR seen 
by the K3 looking into the KPA500 is 1:1 all over all the bands too.

How have you handled this with you
> antenna’s . Is anyone using a tuner

I use some wires multi-band, so yes, I use a tuner, especially on 30, 
40, 80, and 160.  Haven't tried the antennas on 60m but probably will 
after 5 Mar since CW will be allowed then.  Waiting with credit card "on 
warm" for the KAT500 announcement.  Hope this helps,

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org