[Elecraft] BIZARRE OFFERING FROM MFJ

[Wayne Burdick]

> On Apr 7, 2019, at 9:15 AM, Dr. William J. Schmidt <bill at wjschmidt.com> wrote:
> 
> There isn't really much in the way of smarts on the clone board.  It's simply the tuner elements (coils and capacitors), a few relays, the relay driver chips, and gas tubes.  The actual tuning smarts comes from elsewhere within the K3.  This isn’t much of a stretch for a clone.
> 


That's correct. The heart of any binary-weighted L-network ATU is in the firmware, which we've been improving since I first wrote the code for the KAT2. The latest incarnation of this code is in the KAT1500, the ATU included in the KPA1500 amp. My colleague K6KR has done a great job of tweaking the algorithm to eek out that last tenth of an SWR unit on every match.

Wayne
N6KR

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Doug Person
> Sent: Sunday, April 7, 2019 11:00 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] BIZARRE OFFERING FROM MFJ
> 
> MFJ has been a leader in automatic tuner technology for years. It was probably a very simple engineering process for them to use what they have to create a K3 tuner. You may have a dislike of MFJ products. But, that doesn't preclude the fact that their tuners work very well. They have been selling the K3 tuner for years. It doesn't seem the least bit surprising given the modular nature of the K3 and the long history MFJ has with automatic tuner technology. Maybe it's actually a complement to Elecraft that MFJ takes the K3 so seriously.
> 
> Doug --KJØF
> 
> On 4/7/2019 10:26 AM, KENT TRIMBLE wrote:
>> Ozarkcon yesterday. Break-time.  Pile of MFJ catalogs on a table. Took 
>> one back to my seat to kill time.  Opened it up to the second page and 
>> in the lower left corner is a box-ad with the following:
>> 
>> 
>> "MFJ ATU PC Board for Elecraft K-3 Rig.  MFJ-950K3 is a super clone of 
>> the KAT3 optional tuning board for the superb Elecraft K3 transceiver.  
>> MFJ-950K3 is a direct plug-in PC board for the Elecraft
>> K3 10 Watt or 100 Watt model. Covers 1.8 to 54 MHz.  This automatic 
>> antenna tuner PC board features an L-Match design and can match SWR up 
>> to 10:1. It handles 100 Watts.  The ATU PC board has a second antenna 
>> port, and a sub-rx SMA port.  All antenna ports are protected with gas 
>> discharge tubes.  Super sensitive relay allows excellent low current 
>> drain.  MFJ-950K3 is 4W x 3 1/2H x 1 1/4D inches and easily slides 
>> right into the K3’s tuning board slot. Weighs less than 1/2 pound.
>> Pick up this great accessory for your K3 today and save $$$!"
>> 
>> 
>> What in the world is that all about?  What possible market are they 
>> shooting at?  Who would put anything "MFJ" in anything Elecraft?
>> 
>> Someone enlighten me!  Did I sleep through April 1st?
>> 
>> https://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-950K3
>> 
>> 73,
>> 
>> Kent  K9ZTV