[Elecraft] Tuning your radio and amplifier to your amtenna

[Phil Wheeler]

Good point in the "On the other hand", Jim. I'm 
not sure the original poster specified 
KPA500/KAT500 or a 3rd party amp -- and it does 
make a difference.

Phil W7OX

On 8/27/14, 10:50 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On Wed,8/27/2014 9:22 PM, kd7gc wrote:
>> I have never heard of anyone suggesting that 
>> tuning
>> should begin with anything close to 4 watts.  I 
>> generally go thru 3 or 4
>> steps, but I start with my transceiver set to 
>> about 25 or 30 watts output.
>
> Agreed. My Ten Tec Titans (a pair of triodes) 
> drive with a bit less than 50W. I have tune 
> settings for each amp for each band on a yellow 
> sticky next to the amp, so I set those, then hit 
> it with about 25W, tweak, run drive to see close 
> to 1500, and retune for maximum smoke as 
> indicated by the SWR/power meter. I tune with 
> dits, so the duty cycle is 50%, less stress than 
> full power carrier, but gives me correct tuning 
> for full power.
>
> On the other hand, if you're tuning an auto 
> tuner like the KAT500, you want to tune it with 
> drive power only, the amp off.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC