[Elecraft] Problem with KAT500 firmware v. 2.05

[G4GNX]

I’ve been following this topic for a couple of days. Here are my observations:

I don’t use 80 metres much, mainly due to horrendous local noise. On Christmas Eve, I wanted to join a Santa Claus net and checked the tuning solution for my antenna (which is not very good for 80 metres) and it seems to have changed since I last set it up for the particular frequency. I tried a re-tune and could not get a very good match. I was rather surprised as I’d always heard and found that the KAT500 could match an iron bedstead. 😀

I decided to ignore the poor match, thinking it would be ‘good enough’, but on transmitting SSB at 100W, after a very short while, the tuner went into a Fault condition. A further attempt at matching (20W power) produced the same Fault result. I’ve not made further tests yet on 80m but 40m is as good as ever (1.2:1).

I checked the firmware and although I thought I had the latest, it appears that I had not updated the utility and it reports v1.75v ask being up-to-date.

I’ve downloaded the later utility, but not applied it yet, I now wonder whether to upgrade, or will I be opening a new can of worms? Should I try to get a better tuning solution with v1.75 first?

Having started to install a Mac mini in the shack, I also downloaded (but not installed) the Mac version of the utility and I notice that there is about a two year difference between that and the Windows version. Are they the same utility, or should there be an updated version for Mac?

73,
Alan - G4GNX



> On 2 Jan 2022, at 17:46, Bart Campbell <ns4x.bart at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I upgraded one of my KAT500 tuners to firmware version 2.05.  I had already
> upgraded the KAT500 utility to the current version, so no issues there.
> After the upgrade, the KAT500 is unable to find a tuning solution on my 80
> meter dipole.  My first thought was that there was an issue with the
> dipole, but I checked it with an AA-230 antenna analyzer and there was no
> change from previous measurements.  I then switched the upgraded KAT500
> with another KAT500 that I have which was running firmware version 1.75.
> It found a tuning solution on the dipole just fine, as has always been the
> case with the first KAT500 prior to the firmware upgrade.  So, I
> "downgraded" the updated KAT500 to firmware version 1.75 and it once again
> was able to easily find a tuning solution for the 80 meter dipole.  It
> seems that something in the tuning algorithm was changed in the latest
> firmware that affects the tuner's ability to find a tuning solution on 80
> meters (I did not notice this issue on other bands after I updated the
> firmware, but I concentrated my troubleshooting on the 80 meter dipole).
> 
> Any ideas?  I really want to use the latest firmware to take advantage of
> the capability to accept transceiver TX frequency messages in Kenwood
> format.
> 
> Bart, NS4X