[Elecraft] KAT500 antenna selection

[Lyn Norstad]

Thanks for that, Rick.  

I have done as you suggested, and while I have not found a "good" match on 630, I have found what I believe is a "somewhat workable" match for use under QRP (< 2 watts) conditions with my existing 360 foot antenna.

If anyone here wants to try a contact, I would suggest FT8 on 0.474200 at 900 Hz as a good starting point.  

Rick, you and I worked on 160m FT8 back in December, and are a bit over 1400 miles apart. When I last experimented with 630, I made a number of contacts at about that distance in the late evening hours. Do you have 630m?

73
Lyn, WØLEN


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Rick Bates, NK7I
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2020 7:39 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KAT500 antenna selection

I'll submit that the KAT500 was designed long before 630 meters was 
generally open and the values needed to present a low SWR are far larger 
than needed elsewhere.  Anything below 160M is a 'specialty' band that 
far fewer will attempt.  However you COULD go through the values that 
the KAT500 offers manually and see if something could work.

You could use an antenna analyzer in SWR mode (fixed freq not sweep) to 
tune the antenna at almost any frequency (at flea power, all legally).

Rick NK7I

On 3/7/2020 11:09 AM, Lyn Norstad wrote:
> Andy -
>
> You bring up some good points, and I will be watching for the input from the
> assembled brain trust.
>
> One issue I have with the KAT500 is that it only goes down to 160 meters.
> My previous tuner would handle much lower frequencies, allowing me to work
> 630 meters.  No such luck with the KAT500.  If there is a workaround, I'd
> like to hear what it is.
>
> Also keep in mind that tuning it on "off band" frequencies requires that you
> transmit a signal of at least a minimal value ... which is technically not
> legal.
>
> 73
> Lyn, WØLEN
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Andy Durbin
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2020 11:10 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Elecraft] KAT500 antenna selection
>
> The KAT500 has continuous frequency coverage for saving and selecting tuning
> solutions and is not constrained to amateur band limits.  However, the
> antenna selection can only be defined for the amateur bands.
>
> Does the KAT500 simply use the antenna selection defined for the amateur
> band closest to the out of band operating frequency?
>
> 73,
> Andy, k3wyc
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