[Elecraft] KPA-1500 tuner questions

[Jim Brown]

Hi Peter,

It's probably a bad idea to have to antenna tuners in series. Each tuner 
adds loss, and the one in the KPA1500 is integrated with the amplifier. 
No question, one should by bypassed, and I'd be inclined to remove the 
Palstar from the signal path -- that is, connect switched antennas 
directly to the KPA1500 and find a new home for the Palstar.

Why? Well, several years ago when I stopped by their booth in Dayton and 
looked inside the box, I saw really bad engineering -- the circuitry 
relied on chassis return for switching. I asked to talk to the engineer 
for the product, and  the guy in the booth said he was. When I pointed 
out the problem, he didn't understand why it was a problem!   This is 
engineering 101!

BTW -- the otherwise very good Ten Tec tuners are built that way too. 
Trying to make a TDR sweep through them is impossible, and trying to get 
6M through it would be a train wreck, and the Palstar that I looked 
would be as bad!

73, Jim K9YC

On 3/12/2019 9:24 PM, Peter Dougherty wrote:
> Palstar HF-Auto switches to AUTO mode rather than Manual to keep the match
> seen by the KPA below 1.2:1