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KAT-500 problem

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John Freed

KAT-500 problem

I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???

KX6F

John Freed

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W4GRJ

Re: KAT-500 problem

Sounds like you have a great receiver
Jack
W4GRJ

> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:14 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>

I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???

KX6F

John Freed

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Rick Bates, NK7I

Re: KAT-500 problem

Check ALL your coax connections (and quality of coax), making SURE that
the connectors are properly attached (soldered or crimped) to the wires
AND that they are securely attached to the mated connector on the KAT500.

A /little/ leakage is normal but unless that station is 40 over 9, you
shouldn't hear it.

My first guess would be that something failed or came loose.

Rick NK7I

On 11/23/2019 1:20 PM, Jack W4GRJ wrote:

> Sounds like you have a great receiver
> Jack
> W4GRJ
>
>> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:14 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>>
> I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
> antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
> in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
> happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???
>
>
>
> KX6F
>
> John Freed
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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Nr4c

Re: KAT-500 problem

Duh? With no coax connected to it, what connectors should he check?

He’s getting distant stations with no antenna, no stations with antennas connected.

It’s magic!

Sent from my iPhone
...nr4c. bill

> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:38 PM, Rick Bates, NK7I <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Check ALL your coax connections (and quality of coax), making SURE that the connectors are properly attached (soldered or crimped) to the wires AND that they are securely attached to the mated connector on the KAT500.
>
> A /little/ leakage is normal but unless that station is 40 over 9, you shouldn't hear it.
>
> My first guess would be that something failed or came loose.
>
> Rick NK7I
>
>
>> On 11/23/2019 1:20 PM, Jack W4GRJ wrote:
>> Sounds like you have a great receiver
>> Jack
>> W4GRJ
>>
>>>> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:14 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>>>
>> I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
>> antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
>> in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
>> happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???
>>
>>
>>
>> KX6F
>>
>> John Freed
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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Don Wilhelm

Re: KAT-500 problem

In reply to this post by John Freed

John,

It sounds to me like you actually do have some kind of antenna effects
floating around in your shack.
Pickup from RF on the outside of the coax being conducted to the ground
plane of the receiver through some "sneak paths".

What happens if you disconnect the receiver from the KAT500?

How close are your antennas to the shack? Maybe direct pickup by the
circuits in your receiver is possible.

Do you have all screws in the enclosure for the receiver, amplifier and
KAT500 installed and secured?

Check the coax between the receiver, amplifier and KAT500 for tightness
- replace with known good coax jumpers as a test.

Try bonding wires between the receiver enclosure, to the amplifier
enclosure, and then on to the KAT500. You can connect the KAT500 end of
that bonding chain to your shack ground. That gives a better path than
grounding each piece of equipment to a single point ground.
Even if you have each piece grounded, try adding the box to box direct
bonding wires.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/23/2019 4:12 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
> antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
> in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
> happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???
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k6dgw

Re: KAT-500 problem

If the KAT500 is not bonded to the K3, external to the coax, and the
combination is not bonded to the building's earth electrode, you DO have
an antenna on the K3 and are demonstrating that its MDS is impressive.
It doesn't take much to make a receiving antenna. Actually, if you saw
my HOA-stealth WOOF antenna, you'd realize it doesn't take a lot to
transmit either. [:=))

73,

Fred ("Skip") K6DGW
Sparks NV USA
Washoe County DM09dn

On 11/23/2019 2:42 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> John,
>
> It sounds to me like you actually do have some kind of antenna effects
> floating around in your shack.
> Pickup from RF on the outside of the coax being conducted to the
> ground plane of the receiver through some "sneak paths".
>
> What happens if you disconnect the receiver from the KAT500?
>
> How close are your antennas to the shack? Maybe direct pickup by the
> circuits in your receiver is possible.
>
> Do you have all screws in the enclosure for the receiver, amplifier
> and KAT500 installed and secured?
>
> Check the coax between the receiver, amplifier and KAT500 for
> tightness - replace with known good coax jumpers as a test.
>
> Try bonding wires between the receiver enclosure, to the amplifier
> enclosure, and then on to the KAT500. You can connect the KAT500 end
> of that bonding chain to your shack ground. That gives a better path
> than grounding each piece of equipment to a single point ground.
> Even if you have each piece grounded, try adding the box to box direct
> bonding wires.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR

Jim Rhodes-3

Re: KAT-500 problem

I have worked DX on a cantenna and a TR-4. It was setting on the workbench
in the back of the room when we were doing a multi-single in the 10 meter
contest many years ago. The radio was turned on as someone had been messing
around with it. I walked past and heard an HK call from the speaker. The
main radio was working a European pileup so yelled for them to hold up for
a second and gave him a call, got an answer right back and we put him in
the log. Of course at that time you could work the world on 10 with a wet
shoelace.

Jim Rhodes
K0XU
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Rick Bates, NK7I

Re: KAT-500 problem

In reply to this post by Nr4c

Smart mouthed answers are not required, least of all here in this group. You know better Bill.

He has at least one coax running from the radio to the KAT500, plus there may be other coax and/or switches attached in that path.

All should be checked. No magic involved in that.

If he continues to get a signal with coax removed from his radio, the points to an issue at the radio.

73,
Rick NK7I

Smell Czech corruptions are inevitable

> On Nov 23, 2019, at 2:24 PM, Nr4c <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Duh? With no coax connected to it, what connectors should he check?
>
> He’s getting distant stations with no antenna, no stations with antennas connected.
>
> It’s magic!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> ...nr4c. bill
>
>
>> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:38 PM, Rick Bates, NK7I <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Check ALL your coax connections (and quality of coax), making SURE that the connectors are properly attached (soldered or crimped) to the wires AND that they are securely attached to the mated connector on the KAT500.
>>
>> A /little/ leakage is normal but unless that station is 40 over 9, you shouldn't hear it.
>>
>> My first guess would be that something failed or came loose.
>>
>> Rick NK7I
>>
>>
>>>> On 11/23/2019 1:20 PM, Jack W4GRJ wrote:
>>> Sounds like you have a great receiver
>>> Jack
>>> W4GRJ
>>>
>>>>> On Nov 23, 2019, at 4:14 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>>>>
>>> I have a KAT-500 at least 4 years old. I can hear stations without any
>>> antennas connected to it. I live in Clarksville, TN and I copied station
>>> in Bradenton, FL 600+ miles away on 14.3 MHZ. I have had the same thing
>>> happen on 40 meters as well. Any ideas???
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> KX6F
>>>
>>> John Freed
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> 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]
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> 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]
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
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>

Vic Rosenthal

Re: KAT-500 problem

In reply to this post by Jim Rhodes-3

Great story!
I worked a station in the USA last night on 40m with 5w. I had just
adjusted my antenna tuner (yes, I know, but it is impossible to find a
totally clear spot during CQWW), and I forgot to restore normal power
and turn on my amp. I wonder if he noticed the difference when I came
back with my exchange at 1300w.

73,
Victor, 4X6GP
Rehovot, Israel
Formerly K2VCO
CWops no. 5
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
On 24/11/2019 3:02, Jim Rhodes wrote:

> I have worked DX on a cantenna and a TR-4. It was setting on the workbench
> in the back of the room when we were doing a multi-single in the 10 meter
> contest many years ago. The radio was turned on as someone had been messing
> around with it. I walked past and heard an HK call from the speaker. The
> main radio was working a European pileup so yelled for them to hold up for
> a second and gave him a call, got an answer right back and we put him in
> the log. Of course at that time you could work the world on 10 with a wet
> shoelace.
>
> Jim Rhodes
> K0XU

ANDY DURBIN

KAT-500 problem

In reply to this post by John Freed

KAT500 antenna port isolation is not impressive, at least not after using an Alpha Delta 4 port switch. I have ANT-3 port connected to an Alpha Delta switch that selects either my dummy load or a back yard antenna. The other KAT500 ports are connected to a 40 m dipole and my SteppIR.

Several times I have not realized I was still selected to the dummy load as I was receiving so many stations. Not worked anyone in that configuration yet though.

It doesn't surprise me a bit that some sneak path could bring a signal in through the KAT500 with no antenna connected to an ANT port. One of my wish list station improvements is to have a remote controlled antenna switch that has more ports than I have antennas.

Andy, k3wyc
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Edward R Cole

Re: KAT-500 problem

In reply to this post by John Freed

Something is acting as an antenna. I made several hundred mile
contacts with a 100w light bulb "dummy load" on 40m in the 1950's.
Might be ground system is working as antenna or radio as found
connection via other equipment.

Be interesting to find out what you discover.

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
Dubus-NA Business mail:
[hidden email]

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