[Elecraft] TUNE power, low vs high

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Arno, your original message caught my eye. Many SWR bridges become very
inaccurate at low power settings, so I tried my KX3 into a 2:1 load (25 ohms
instead of 50). The SWR did change but only slightly. It was 1.1:1 at 0.9
watts and 1.2: 1 at 5 watts. 

That isn't enough to care about. Indeed, anything less than 2:1 isn't going
to produce a significant difference. 

73 Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Arno Dienhart
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2013 7:29 PM
To: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] TUNE power, low vs high

Thank you, Don and Jack, that makes sense.

 

To explain a bit more, I only operate portable, so my antenna situation is
practically never the same and I need to tune anew. For my wire antennas I
use the ATU. If I use the magloop, I bypass the ATU and use the TUNE
function. That is where I reduced power to .8W.

 

After reading your posts, next time I will tune again with .8W and then
increase tuning power to 3 and compare the SWR. If I did that for enough
different bands and frequencies, with no discernable difference, I guess I
would be safe to keep it at low power from then on, right?

 

73 de Arno K7RNO