[Elecraft] T1 Operational Question

[James Bennett]

Hi Wayne, 

Thanks for the reply, but……. you are supposed to be wrapping Christmas presents!!! :-)

Understood about the size and cost thing. Unfortunately, it pretty much means that it is actually a “semi-automatic” tuner. And, since the band changing is being done from within a program K1JT’s WSPR, I have a feeling I’ve got no way to do the remote control stuff per the manual. I’ll investigate the feasibility of user mods to WSPR, but not holding my breath at this point.

Thanks again, and have a happy holiday.

73, Jim


> On   Thursday, Dec 24, 2015, at  Thursday, 9:24 PM, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Jim,
> 
> The T1 does not have RF sensing capability. That would have increased the size and cost of the tuner. 
> 
> It does, however, have remote-control capability, as described in the manual. You can send a simple pulse stream to the T1 to go to a given band (160-6 m) and recall the last-used settings. A microcontroller or PC program could be used to create the pulse stream. You should only have to tune up once on each band, assuming you don't change antennas. 
> 
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
> (Taking a brief break from Christmas wrapping)
> 
> 
> On Dec 24, 2015, at 8:50 PM, James Bennett <w6jhb at me.com <mailto:w6jhb at me.com>> wrote:
> 
>> I hope I haven't made a $150 mistake. I'm looking for information from other T1 Automatic Antenna Tuner owners ---->
>> 
>> A couple months ago I built a SoftRock RXTX 1 watt transceiver to use as a WSPR sending and receiving rig. My intention was to use it on at least 20 and 30 meters, with the WSPR software doing "band hopping". The WSPR software, when set to do band hopping, can be made to send a few seconds of continuous tone RF so an attached antenna tuner could do it's thing before the WSPR stuff is transmitted. The antenna I use is an 88 foot long doublet fed with 600 ohm ladder line. Obviously this antenna needs to be used with a tuner. I purchased the Elecraft T1 for this purpose.
>> 
>> I was under the impression that the "automatic" part of the T1 meant that it would recall L/C values from memory automatically, so that when the WSPR software changed bands on the SoftRock and the radio sent out it's tuning signal, the T1 would see the RF frequency and automatically set the recalled L/C values. Mine does not.
>> 
>> I am testing the newly-built T1 with my KX3. Here is what happens: First, I put the T1 into auto mode, and then I set the KX3 to a frequency on 20 meters and make the T1 tune. This works fine; my SWR on the KX3 goes from ugly to 1:1. Then I go to 30 meters and do the same thing. If I now put the KX3 back on 20 meters on that exact same frequency and press my key, I have the ugly SWR back again. I thought this tuner would recall the previous setting when it saw that 20 meter RF. But alas, it does not.
>> 
>> So, my question is - have I messed something up in building the tuner, am I doing something wrong in my procedure, or have I bought myself a Christmas present I can't use?
>> 
>> Jim Bennett / W6JHB
>> Folsom, CA
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