[Elecraft] KX3 - buy without KXAT3?

[dombaines at yahoo.com]

Mike,

I own a KX3 with the internal tuner and another without. The first sees 
a lot of use /P and on DX trips and the internal ATU means I do not have 
to even think about it. I tend to use resonant antennas but the odd 
random wire gets used too. The other I have to be VERY aware that there 
is no ATU and that means resonant antennas only and I have used it /P a 
couple of times and I use an Elecraft T1 with it. I never bought the 
internal one because I had that ATU. It is second nature now to connect 
the ATU between the KX3 and antenna so and I have one extra short BNC 
patch lead for just this purpose and a nice velcro strip on the KX3.

I plan to use the second KX3 for transverter use mostly where the ATU is 
redundant.

To be honest if you never intend using it 'barefoot' or /P and you can 
always trust whatever you are driving transverter, PA or antenna then 
you can get away without it. I would not even think about operating the 
KX3 without some sort of match to 50 ohms though.

Remember that the KX3 has some protection in place anyway if the VSWR is 
too high it will fold back.

You might notice on occasion the KX3 WITH the internal ATU can 
momentarily on a new band/frequency when tuning it starts at a very high 
VSWR and a HI CURR message can appear but it drops fast enough towards 
1.0 if it can find a match!

72

Dom
M1KTA

On 20/05/13 04:28, mike wrote:
> I am getting close to buying a KX3 and want to get my options right.With the
> KXPA100 coming out soon with an internal tuner, it would seem there is no
> need to purchase the internal KXAT3 with the KX3. Am I reading this
> correctly?
>
> ..mike  AI6II