[Elecraft] Dusting off the old K3 & Considering a KAT3A

[Jim Brown]

Please don't perpetuate that myth, Bill.  Tuners do NOT reduce the SWR 
unless they're at the antenna end of a transmission line. The SWR exists 
on the transmission line, and it is determined ENTIRELY by the match 
between the transmission line and the load.

What tuners at the rig do is get the rig to put power into the tuner 
(and hopefully, onto the transmission line).  If the SWR is high without 
the tuner, it is equally high WITH the tuner. Depending on the cable, 
the frequency, and the SWR, much of the power that the rig puts into the 
tuner gets to the transmission line, but is turned into heat by the SWR 
in the line and doesn't get to the antenna.

A better way to talk and think about this is to say that the tuner can 
match a wide variety of loads to the transmitter sufficiently well that 
the rig can pump the maximum power from its output terminals, whether 
it's feeding a short wet string or a nice long wire we've launched into 
a tree. And if there's no transmission line, SWR has no meaning!  So SWR 
is the wrong way to talk and think about it.

73, Jim K9YC

On 8/30/2017 10:15 PM, Bill Frantz wrote:
> My experience with the tuners in both the K3 and KX3 are that they 
> will reach an acceptable SWR with anything. I always check the antenna 
> when they take a long time to reach a match. (I.e. lots of clicking.) 
> Most of the time I find I am trying to match an open antenna connection.