High SWR below 40 meters

[Jan Ditzian]

My K3 has been having RF feedback problems with an 80 meter antenna.  In
order to resolve things, I built an 80-meter dipole to use as a test
antenna.  While all this was happening, over the past few months, I also
added a used KAT-3 tuner and a KXYN3A to replace the original synthesizer.

After building the dipole, I was puzzled that it would not tune up on
80.  I do not know why it took me a week, but I finally checked out the
rig on my dummy load.  It shows a high SWR on the dummy for all
wavelengths greater than the 40-meter band--60, 80, and 160. The rig
works just fine on 14 mHz. and up, and I can certainly tune it up on 40
meters.  Further checking shows that there is no output on 60-160,
whether using the Tune mode at 5 watts or CW mode at 70 watts.

I have no idea when or why this happened, but I really need to know the
how it happened, so I can fix it.  Can someone give me some guidance on
what to look at to figure this out?  It is possible that resolving this
problem will also result in a resolution of the RF feedback problem,
although I won't count on that.

73,

Jan, KX2A
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[George Dubovsky]

Now that you have a KAT-3, you have 2 antenna ports. Is there any chance
that the wrong one is selected for those bands?

73,

geo - n4ua

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Jan Ditzian <[hidden email]> wrote:

> My K3 has been having RF feedback problems with an 80 meter antenna.  In
> order to resolve things, I built an 80-meter dipole to use as a test
> antenna.  While all this was happening, over the past few months, I also
> added a used KAT-3 tuner and a KXYN3A to replace the original synthesizer.
>
> After building the dipole, I was puzzled that it would not tune up on 80.
> I do not know why it took me a week, but I finally checked out the rig on
> my dummy load.  It shows a high SWR on the dummy for all wavelengths
> greater than the 40-meter band--60, 80, and 160. The rig works just fine on
> 14 mHz. and up, and I can certainly tune it up on 40 meters.  Further
> checking shows that there is no output on 60-160, whether using the Tune
> mode at 5 watts or CW mode at 70 watts.
>
> I have no idea when or why this happened, but I really need to know the
> how it happened, so I can fix it.  Can someone give me some guidance on
> what to look at to figure this out?  It is possible that resolving this
> problem will also result in a resolution of the RF feedback problem,
> although I won't count on that.
>
> 73,
>
> Jan, KX2A
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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[Jan Ditzian]

George and Jim,

8 minutes after my post hit the reflector, I received the following two
e-mails.


George: "Now that you have a KAT-3, you have 2 antenna ports. Is there
any chance that the wrong one is selected for those bands?"

Jim:  "Antenna selection is per band. Perhaps you have the wrong antenna
selected for those bands."


There ya go!  New dipole tunes up.  Probably did nothing for the RF
feedback on the vertical, though, hi.

Thanks to both.

73,

Jan, KX2A
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