[Elecraft] Report on KPA-1500 #171 driving with a K3S

[K9MA]

On 5/19/2018 20:03, Ed Gray W0SD wrote:
> ATU is great for stations with one antenna per band or less or even 
> for more than one antenna such as for DXing.  It does not do the job 
> for contesting with multiple antenna's per band if they have some 
> SWR.  It is not a problem if the SWR is low then you can just use 
> BYP   Wayne says this will eventually be addressed via firmware. Until 
> that happens I need to do some antenna work outside so I have low SWR 
> for contesting with multiple antenna's per band. This is always better 
> anyway.  The ATU will retune on the "FLY" but to me does not seem 
> useable for contest switching of antenna's, way to slow,  if there are 
> significant SWR differences.   For me It will depend on the firmware 
> fixes and how they are implemented.  My solution will be to do some 
> antenna work this summer..  I could get by with tube type amplifiers 
> but with SS not so much! 

This was my concern, as well, when first considering buying a solid 
state amp.  (KPA-1500 is on the way.)  I want a control input on the amp 
I can connect to the switch that selects antennas so the ATU will switch 
between at least two sets of settings for each band.  As that didn't 
seem to be forthcoming, I built a tri-band tuner box, with 6 L networks 
and relays.  That gets both my tribanders down to close to 1:1 on all 
bands, at least in the CW segments.  It would still be nice if the ATU 
in the amp could follow the antenna selection.

BTW, I use a little toggle switch to select the tribander.  I can switch 
it several times while a station is calling to determine which antenna 
is better.  There's absolutely no way one could do that with a mouse.  
Maybe hot keys would work, but I like the idea that the station can 
function independently of the computer, even though I use one for contests.

73,

Scott K9MA

-- 
Scott  K9MA

k9ma at sdellington.us