Automated Transmitter Gain Calibration - accolade

[Don Nelson]

Hi,

I have tried and like the automatic transmitter calibration test. The reporting of the SWR for each test provides useful information. Thank you for adding it to the utility package.

The trouble/benefit of us human beings is that we will ALWAYS want more.

I ran the test with a poor quality coax (I did not know it at the time) and saw the SWR increase with frequency such that during the 12m test on 5w, the SWR exceeded the threshold and the test stopped. At first I thought it was my instrument grade dummy load. I replaced the coax and the test went to completion.

My request is to be able to run just one test, say the 10m test only. If I had had this capability, I would be able to see if the SWR failure was on 12m only. As the test sequencer works now, I know where a test failed and I do not know anything beyond that failure point.

By the way, you have provided us with a tool to test the quality of coax (and dummy loads) over the frequency range of 1.9 MHz to 50 MHz. Now I suppose we will want to be able to change the frequency of each test and to move the report to the printer or a file.  And if you would consider ..........

Don, N0YE

[Dick Dievendorff]

Hi, Don.  

My objective was to automate a tedious procedure and to keep the end-user
choices very limited.  If I add a "per band" capability (per band per power
level?), then there are more choices to make, and that makes things more
complex for every user.  

You can certainly use the K3 to test coax on any band!  Just connect the
suspect coax to the dummy load, press the bandswitch to get to the band of
interest, set the power to some low value (you're not calibrating the radio
any more, you're testing coax), set the KAT3 into BYP and press the TUNE
button to read the SWR.

Transmitter Gain Calibration is one of the more complex parts of the K3
Utility.  Even with lengthy field testing and a prototype, I released a
version with at least two significant bugs that were discovered on the first
day.  The "state machine" necessary to keep track of where I am in
multi-band calibration is over 200 states, and there's a bit of code that
responds to various input in different ways for each of the states.  I'm
fighting hard to make it less complex...

I'd rather keep it a simpler procedure and work the errors out of it than
add more choices, complexity, and opportunity for mistakes.

OK?

73 de Dick, K6KR




-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Don Nelson
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 2:26 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] Automated Transmitter Gain Calibration - accolade


Hi,

I have tried and like the automatic transmitter calibration test. The
reporting of the SWR for each test provides useful information. Thank you
for adding it to the utility package.

The trouble/benefit of us human beings is that we will ALWAYS want more.

I ran the test with a poor quality coax (I did not know it at the time) and
saw the SWR increase with frequency such that during the 12m test on 5w, the
SWR exceeded the threshold and the test stopped. At first I thought it was
my instrument grade dummy load. I replaced the coax and the test went to
completion.

My request is to be able to run just one test, say the 10m test only. If I
had had this capability, I would be able to see if the SWR failure was on
12m only. As the test sequencer works now, I know where a test failed and I
do not know anything beyond that failure point.

By the way, you have provided us with a tool to test the quality of coax
(and dummy loads) over the frequency range of 1.9 MHz to 50 MHz. Now I
suppose we will want to be able to change the frequency of each test and to
move the report to the printer or a file.  And if you would consider
..........

Don, N0YE

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