[Elecraft] KX3 and KPA1500 compatibility

[Fred Jensen]

AF5LQ wrote, "Unable to call anyone, especially on Elecraft 80 m Sunday 
nets."

In mild dissent to several of the replies ... from very savvy folks ... 
one of the truly enlightening things that J. C. Maxwell worked out back 
in the 19th century was, "If you can get alternating current to flow in 
a non-buried, non-submerged conductor, it will radiate."

Many years ago, in a far away land, while installing and operating a 
heavy mobile troposcatter system on a sand dune about 180 m AMSL, we 
just laid the dipole for our HF SSB intra-unit net [KWM-2A's] out on the 
sand.  It worked fine.  We finally found the masts in our pallets of 
gear and strung the dipole up.  There was no appreciable difference in 
how it worked.

Today, we're HOA dwellers [by choice], my antenna at home is a 43 m wire 
strung on a wooden fence on plastic electric fence insulators.  It is 
about 2 m high with a 90 deg "corner,"  and is end-fed through what I 
believe is an 8:1 transformer.  It works ... on all HF bands.  It is a 
compromise of course, a Sterba curtain would work better, but I make 
lots of Q's with it including DX.

I suggest a high likelihood that you aren't managing to get enough 
alternating current to flow in any of the antennas you've tried, and 
that's where I'd start.

Regarding the question about KX3-->KXPA100-->KPA1500:  Be careful.  All 
amplifiers generate some distortion that wasn't present at the input. 
Each succeeding amplifier amplifies that distortion.

73,

Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

john at kk9a.com wrote on 3/6/2023 4:58 PM:
> Your questions regarding if you can use a KPA100 and KPA1500 together has
> been recently asked on this list and the answer was YES.
>
> I suspect, as K9YC noted, that the real issue is with your antenna.  You did
> not specify exactly what you have tried.  A 1/4 vertical with a decent
> counterpoise will work very well but I suspect that the vertical you tried
> was something else. A simple center fed 1/2 WL dipole with the center as
> high as possible should also get you into the net with your 100 watts amp,
> no tuner needed.
>
> John KK9A
>
>
>
> Karl AF5LQ wrote:
>
> I have a KX3 and a KPA100 amplifier but despite various attempts at
> verticals, end feds, OCFs, and loops, am unable to call anyone, especially
> on Elecraft 80 m Sunday nets on 3.784 or 3.786. Reception is adequate with
> most 5/8 or 5/9 and verify against the call- in list. A lot of people seem
> to get by with a KPA 500 but reception is not as solid as those running the
> legal limit. My understanding is that the KX3 is compatible with the KPA
> 500. What about the KPA1500?
> Question: Is it possible / practical/ safe to daisy-chain a KX3 to a KPA100
> and drive a KPA1500?
> Thanks and 73,
> Karl AF5LQ
>
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