K2 --> K3 upgrade...

[John Ragle]

I am not familiar with the Palstar tuner, but can share with you my
experience with the K2/100 external tuner and with the Flex 3000
internal ATU. The K2 external ATU was excellent/outstanding in its
ability to "match" just about anything. The F3K tuner was junk, and I
ended up buying an external "Armstrong" type roller tuner. The key to
success in the tuners that rely on relay switching of
capacitors/inductances is for the switched reactances to be fine enough
for the bridge circuit to find an appropriate selection amongst them.
This becomes particularly important on the higher frequency bands, e.g.
10 and 6 meters.

My F3K found it impossible to match my 6 meter quad, which is a fairly
high Q antenna. I am assuming that the K3 which I have on order will be
as good as the K2 external tuner was...we shall see, but knowing
Elecraft, I think I am on OK ground.

WRT portability, an external tuner is just one more piece of stuff to
carry along...this may be an important consideration for you (or not)
depending on whether you plan to use the "portability" feature of the
K3. I would opt for the internal tuner.

Best,

John Ragle -- W1ZI
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[Guy, K2AV]

If one has used the KAT2 tuner in a K2, and unconsciously set one's
general level of tuner expectations based upon that kind of
performance, one has set a level that not many achieve.

My KAT 2 has matched random Z's that I could not match with an ATR30
or ATR15, an FT1000MP, and alas no, not with my K3 auto tuner.

On a 160m way-off-of 50 j0 dual wire antenna, the K2 would match it at
the feed (running battery of course), and it was a month before we
could construct a rather odd tuner that would do it QRO without
burning tape and wire insulation, overheating, cracking or arcing to
toroid cores successfully used elsewhere in QRO applications.  We were
encouraged by K2/KAT2 working stuff QRP on it and listening to a band
that was "alive" with signals.  Reading the tuner elements used for
match off the K2 menu was invaluable as the wires were picking up
immense signal levels interfering with the antenna analyst we had at
the time.

It took a PAIR of immense T400A-2  powdered iron toroids
fiberglass-taped-together as a single core and double polyimide wire
plus teflon tubing on the winding to tame it (and run absolutely stone
cold), but we knew it would work and how it would work from the KAT2.

The one area where nearly all fail (including the KAT2)  is the very
low Z's presented looking through an odd quarter-wave length of
standard coax at a high Z.

The simple mental model of   *Rig -- great tuner -- any frequency --
any length of coax -- any antenna*   is VERY hard to achieve in real
life.  If the front of that string is dictated by non-negotiable
issue, then the antennas have to be picked carefully to fit within it.
 God bless ya if the first thing you throw up does it, write that down
in your diary as one of your really lucky days. It's not the rule.

73, Guy.

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 1:58 PM, John Ragle <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I am not familiar with the Palstar tuner, but can share with you my
> experience with the K2/100 external tuner and with the Flex 3000
> internal ATU. The K2 external ATU was excellent/outstanding in its
> ability to "match" just about anything. The F3K tuner was junk, and I
> ended up buying an external "Armstrong" type roller tuner. The key to
> success in the tuners that rely on relay switching of
> capacitors/inductances is for the switched reactances to be fine enough
> for the bridge circuit to find an appropriate selection amongst them.
> This becomes particularly important on the higher frequency bands, e.g.
> 10 and 6 meters.
>
> My F3K found it impossible to match my 6 meter quad, which is a fairly
> high Q antenna. I am assuming that the K3 which I have on order will be
> as good as the K2 external tuner was...we shall see, but knowing
> Elecraft, I think I am on OK ground.
>
> WRT portability, an external tuner is just one more piece of stuff to
> carry along...this may be an important consideration for you (or not)
> depending on whether you plan to use the "portability" feature of the
> K3. I would opt for the internal tuner.
>
> Best,
>
> John Ragle -- W1ZI
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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
>

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