[Elecraft] zeroing K3 internal tuner

[James Bennett]

Steve, you didn't say how long your antenna is, but I feed an 88-foot long doublet with about 110 feet of 450 ohm ladder line. Sometimes I use the KAT3 tuner, sometimes my KAT500. Both of them have no problem getting close to 1:1 on 40-6 meters and about 1.6:1 on 80. In no instance does the K3 fold back power for me. I assume you have some sort of balun between the K3 and the ladder line... Mine is a Balun Designs 5KW 4:1 model. Any chance you are getting RF back into the K3 causing it to act goofy?

Jim / W6JHB


> On Oct 23, 2014, at 1:33 PM, zabarnick . <zabarnick at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Since I exclusively use balanced ladder line fed antennas, I have been
> using an external Palstar balanced tuner rather than my K3 internal
> KAT3 tuner. Recently, I've decided  to give the internal tuner another
> try.
> 
> I find that on some bands, even though the KAT3 brings the SWR match
> below 2:1, the transmitter output power is reduced from 100 watts to
> the 60-70 watt range. I don't see this issue with the external tuner,
> but I can almost always find a 1:1 match. Is this because my muti-band
> non-resonant doublet is providing impedances that are too difficult
> for the KAT3 to match? Or is something more sinister afoot?
> 
> Steve N9SZ
> 
>> On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 2:11 PM, zabarnick . <zabarnick at gmail.com> wrote:
>> My K3 SWR meter no longer reads 1:1 into a 50 ohm dummy load or
>> matched load. The lowest it will read is 1.2:1. Is there a calibration
>> or zeroing I should redo?
>> 
>> Steve N9SZ
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to w6jhb at me.com