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K3 antenna tuner.

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w4giw

K3 antenna tuner.

I am trying to decide on an antenna for use at a DX location for 40 meters and up for an upcoming trip to V4 land.

I can put up an inverted V dipole at 40 feet high with a length of up to 45 feet on each side of center. I plan to use a 4 to 1 Balun and 450 ohm window line 30 feet long.

Anyone have any experience on how the K3 antenna tuner would handle this antenna. on 40 through 10 meters.

Thanks for your help. Van W4GIW & V47GIW a ham for 59 years.
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John Ragle

Re: K3 antenna tuner...

Van...

My recent experience with automatic antenna tuners is the
following: K2 ATU, FLEX 3000 ATU, K3 ATU. I believe that your proposed
antenna will be easily handled by the Eledcraft ATU's. You do specify
that your TX is a K3, but I throw in my experience with the Flex 3000
ATU for the general readership...I strongly suspect that it would <NOT>
be satisfactory. My FLEX would not even match a Mosley tribander on 10
meters, and I had to use an external manual tuner for 15, 10, and 6
meters with it. The 6 meter antenna was also a Yagi, and I examined both
the Mosley and the 6 meter beam with my VNA and neither showed an
unusual mismatch.

John Ragle -- W1ZI and a ham for 65 years.

=====

On 1/19/2011 1:40 AM, van fair wrote:

> I am trying to decide on an antenna for use at a DX location for 40 meters and up for an upcoming trip to V4 land.
>
> I can put up an inverted V dipole at 40 feet high with a length of up to 45 feet on each side of center. I plan to use a 4 to 1 Balun and 450 ohm window line 30 feet long.
>
> Anyone have any experience on how the K3 antenna tuner would handle this antenna. on 40 through 10 meters.
>
> Thanks for your help. Van W4GIW& V47GIW a ham for 59 years.
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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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Chuck Shefflette

Re: K3 antenna tuner.

In reply to this post by w4giw

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 19, 2011, at 1:40, van fair <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I am trying to decide on an antenna for use at a DX location for 40 meters and up for an upcoming trip to V4 land.
>
> I can put up an inverted V dipole at 40 feet high with a length of up to 45 feet on each side of center. I plan to use a 4 to 1 Balun and 450 ohm window line 30 feet long.
>
> Anyone have any experience on how the K3 antenna tuner would handle this antenna. on 40 through 10 meters.
>
> Thanks for your help. Van W4GIW & V47GIW a ham for 59 years.
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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

73 - Chuck, AA3CS

Chuck Shefflette

Re: K3 antenna tuner.

In reply to this post by w4giw

Moral of the story: don't reply until after coffee! That should work fairly well. One of my home antennas is an inverted vee with parallel elements cut for 40M and 20M. It works well on 40/20/17/15 and I have used it on 12/10. I have a second I have used when portable. Both are coax fed and the K3 tuner is perfectly happy with them. If you go this route, be prepared to cut the elements a bit long, they do affect each other a bit.

73, Chuck - AA3CS

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 19, 2011, at 1:40, van fair <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I am trying to decide on an antenna for use at a DX location for 40 meters and up for an upcoming trip to V4 land.
>
> I can put up an inverted V dipole at 40 feet high with a length of up to 45 feet on each side of center. I plan to use a 4 to 1 Balun and 450 ohm window line 30 feet long.
>
> Anyone have any experience on how the K3 antenna tuner would handle this antenna. on 40 through 10 meters.
>
> Thanks for your help. Van W4GIW & V47GIW a ham for 59 years.
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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

73 - Chuck, AA3CS

Steve Ellington

Re: K3 antenna tuner.

In reply to this post by Chuck Shefflette

You almost have the ZS6BKW antenna. 45' on each side, 40' of 450 ohm window
line and a 1:1 balun would make the best match. Don't even think about using
a 4:1 balun!
http://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/ZS6BKW-2.pdf
There are still a few bands that might be a problem with the auto tuner in
the K3. I've found this to be a good general purpose antenna.

Steve
N4LQ
----- Original Message -----
From: <[hidden email]>
To: "van fair" <[hidden email]>
Cc: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 antenna tuner.

>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 19, 2011, at 1:40, van fair <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> I am trying to decide on an antenna for use at a DX location for 40
>> meters and up for an upcoming trip to V4 land.
>>
>> I can put up an inverted V dipole at 40 feet high with a length of up to
>> 45 feet on each side of center. I plan to use a 4 to 1 Balun and 450
>> ohm window line 30 feet long.
>>
>> Anyone have any experience on how the K3 antenna tuner would handle this
>> antenna. on 40 through 10 meters.
>>
>> Thanks for your help. Van W4GIW & V47GIW a ham for 59 years.
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> 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
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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

Ignacy

Re: K3 antenna tuner.

If you are going to be not far from water, it is hard to beat a vertical. I used some 50ft of wire attached to a 40ft spiderpole with a few 20ft radials. Some 20ft of TV line from the balcony to Elecraft BL2. KAT3 matched it on 80-10, and a coil was needed on 160m. When at the FL coast I worked DX on many bands including 160m!

One issue is the balun as it heats up particularly on 160m. Adding a big external one would be an overkill. A small transformer for 160-80 does better and is much lighter.

Ignacy