K3 - Elecraft Antenna Tuner KAT3

I am curious as to the experience of others on the list concerning the KAT3.  Mine works find, but never finds that 1.0 to 1 match.  It will find 1.2 or so (which is OK I know) but does not seem to find anything better.  Yes, I do the tune procedure twice within 5 seconds.  Latest firmware.  It also seems to increase over time a tad....and I am not moving around on frequency that much either.  I am kinda addicted to running stations.

Antenna is a Force-12 which is about .14 to 1.6.  I really don't need to use the tuner but I do.  The 40 meter vee and the 80 mter vee do the same thing when I run the antenna tuner.  I do not on 40 CW and the 80 meter dipole is tuned to mid band since I try to work both SSB and CW.  All this has bee checked by an antenna analyzer.

Just asking another one of my brilliant questions...

Lee - K0WA :>)




In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it. If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense. Is Common Sense divine?

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[Jack]

Lee,

I had the same problem.  I redoing the Wattmeter 5 and 50 watt Calibrations and the Transmitter Gain Calibrations (for all bands) fixed the problem.

 

Background: KAT3 worked after initial install. 1.0 SWR into a 40M dipole resonant in the CW end but tunable thru the SSB end and 1.0 into a 20 M vertical (1.2 SWR w/o tuner) at the CW end and 1.0 at the SSB end. After a power output problem with SSB on 40 and 80 was solved by a firmware upgrade the KAT3 degraded to the symptoms you described.  It has been working FB since then, as has everything else.

 

Renne at Elecraft recognized the symptoms immediately and walked me thru a few diagnostic steps to confirm the diagnoses.  Have a dummy load ready and give him a call!

 

Jack AE6GC

 

---

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Lee Buller
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:00 AM
To: Elecraft Reflector
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 - Elecraft Antenna Tuner KAT3

 

I am curious as to the experience of others on the list concerning the KAT3.  Mine works find, but never finds that 1.0 to 1 match.  It will find 1.2 or so (which is OK I know) but does not seem to find anything better.  Yes, I do the tune procedure twice within 5 seconds.  Latest firmware.  It also seems to increase over time a tad....and I am not moving around on frequency that much either.  I am kinda addicted to running stations.

Antenna is a Force-12 which is about .14 to 1.6.  I really don't need to use the tuner but I do.  The 40 meter vee and the 80 mter vee do the same thing when I run the antenna tuner.  I do not on 40 CW and the 80 meter dipole is tuned to mid band since I try to work both SSB and CW.  All this has bee checked by an antenna analyzer.

Just asking another one of my brilliant questions...

Lee - K0WA :>)




In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it. If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense. Is Common Sense divine?

 

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[NZ0T]

I usually get 1.0 to 1 on a variety of antennas including my 160 sloper cut for 1.947 down on the CW portion of the band.  Sometimes it's not quite as good but that's when I'm trying to make a really bad match work.

Bill NZ0T

Lee Buller wrote

I am curious as to the experience of others on the list concerning the KAT3.  Mine works find, but never finds that 1.0 to 1 match.  It will find 1.2 or so (which is OK I know) but does not seem to find anything better.  Yes, I do the tune procedure twice within 5 seconds.  Latest firmware.  It also seems to increase over time a tad....and I am not moving around on frequency that much either.  I am kinda addicted to running stations.

Antenna is a Force-12 which is about .14 to 1.6.  I really don't need to use the tuner but I do.  The 40 meter vee and the 80 mter vee do the same thing when I run the antenna tuner.  I do not on 40 CW and the 80 meter dipole is tuned to mid band since I try to work both SSB and CW.  All this has bee checked by an antenna analyzer.

Just asking another one of my brilliant questions...

Lee - K0WA :>)




In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense divine?
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