[Elecraft] K3 / KPA500 / KAT500 Tuning

[Jim Bennett]

Thanks Fred!

Unfortunately, the KAT500 utility does not see my KAT500. Been doing exhaustive testing with Elecraft support and they've concluded that I have a bad circuit on the KAT500 board. I've tried two different cables (known to work with the 2 meter module), two different operating systems (Mac OS X and Windows) and two different computers (MacBook Air and iMac). They are sending me a replacement board so it looks like I'll be re-assembling the KAT500 later this week!

Jim

(Looking forward to that K-Line book!!)


On   Tuesday, Nov 12, 2013, at  Tuesday, 12:59 PM, Cady, Fred wrote:

> Jim. Be sure to set up the KAT500 Configuration:
> Amplifier Key Interrupt Power = Optimize for KPA500 (not the default 30 w)
> Amplifier Key Interrupt VSWR Threshold = ~2.5:1 (not the default 99:1)
> I set the Autotune VSWR Threshold to 1.8:1 (or maybe that is the default)
> 
> In the K3 set PWR SET to Per Band and TUN PWR to nor.
> 
> Cheers,
> 73,
> Fred KE7X
> "The Elecraft K3: Design, Configuration and Operation 2nd ed"
> "The Elecraft KX3 - Going for the summit"
> www.ke7x.com or www.lulu.com
> (Coming soon with explanations of all this: "The Elecraft KPA500 and KAT500 - the K-Line Dream Station")
> 
> Fred Cady
> fcady at ieee dot org
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-
>> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Buck - k4ia
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 1:32 PM
>> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 / KPA500 / KAT500 Tuning
>> 
>> Is it possible that your antenna is tuned already?  If it weren't, and
>> the SWR were too high, you would not get 500 watts out of the amp.  You
>> would get a FAULT message and the whole thing would shut down.
>> 
>> Buck
>> k4ia
>> 
>> On 11/12/2013 2:40 PM, Jim Bennett wrote:
>>> Folks, sorry if this has been discussed on the reflector before, but
>> I've looked through the archives and drew a blank. I know I saw it but
>> try as I may, can't find any related posts.
>>> 
>>> I just this week added a KPA500 and KAT500 to my K3 station.
>> Documentation sez that the KAT500 tunes best when the K3 is set to 25
>> watts of tune power. OK, got that set. But, what ideally should happen
>> is that if the amp is in OPER mode and I press & hold the TUNE button
>> on the K3, the amp should temporarily go to STBY mode until the tuner
>> has finished doing it's thing. It doesn't - the amp fires out 450 - 500
>> watts - not cool.
>>> 
>>> Have I missed a setting somewhere that will make this happen, in case
>> I forget to put the amp in standby mode, before I run a tune cycle?
>>> 
>>> Tnx, Jim / W6JHB
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