KAT500 question

[Bob KD7YZ]

Howdy K3' people:

I have a KAT500. The "Auto" green LED is lit. I have previously tuned to
the best it could get on 17m.

This morning it is drizzling. The 450 ladder can sometimes act up when
it is raining.

So I begin a JT9, one-minute long, sequence. Next I hear a little
chatter and see the Red-LED come on for SWR>=3.

The "Auto" LED is now flashing. No tuning is taking place and the
one-minute transmission finishes.

I press & hold the XMIT/TUNE button and the KAT500 finds a nice SWR of
1.1 .

Next sequence comes around and the K3 switches to xmit. The KAT500
chatters maybe once and the Red SWR LED comes on again. The "Auto" LED
is now flashing. I can do nothing about this while the K3 is
transmitting. Technically I should kill the XMIT and correct the SWR
problem. We all know this.

Fortunately I was running  but 5 watts on the JT9-1 mode so I don't
believe I did any damage.

When I used my Palstar AT2K tuner, and it was raining, I'd see the VSWR
climb, and knowing the cause, would just manually turn a knob and keep
the SWR down. Was jut something ya do when it's raining,

Is there something I am overlooking with my new automatic-tuner?




--
73
KD7YZ Bob

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[Bob KD7YZ]

On Monday Claire used a Straight-Key to send:
-------------Original Comment-------

> The blinking MODE light says it's ready to tune once you apply enough RF
> power. Five watts won't do it. The KAT500 cannot tune with less than 10
> watts of RF applied (20 watts is required for the most accurate tuning).

I upped the power to 20w to see if it could tune itself during a
transmit sequence. It seems that it can,  though I only got one chance to
see it as the drizzle let off,

Keeping such high power though on this mode is not only unnecessary but
it also serves to Jam a lot of the other guys who are using this weak
signal mode.

Usually 1 to 5 watts is sufficient for the continents I have worked.
Very occasionally on what seems to be a dead band here, I have used 50
to work the EU area.

--
Best regards,
Bob  KD7YZ    Win7-64bit + K3

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[Bob KD7YZ]

On Monday Claire used a Straight-Key to send:
-------------Original Comment-------
> You don't have to keep that power level, Bob. You only need it if the KAT500
> needs to retune, and then only for the retune cycle. For that you might QSY
> a few KHz

On CW or SSB I could try that. With some of these WSJT-Like modes, it's
pretty important to be on the same freq u were on, within Hertz; And,
call me old, but with about 6 to 10 seconds before the other cycle
starts, there isn't a lot of time to QSY and retune.

> to a clear spot although between five and twenty watts you are
> only talking about a one S-unit difference in signal.

thanks. Although I was more worried about damaging the K3 than the
signal strength.


> The next thing is to find out why your antenna is so sensitive to moisture.

hmmm, true.  Same when there is ice on it or snow. The other night in a
45mph wind, the 160m DP was going up and down about 30 feet it looked to
me. I use blocks and pulley to let it "float"  It was graceful to watch
but worrisome too.


--
Best regards,
Bob  KD7YZ    Win7-64bit + K3

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Bob,

You could easily turn on XIT and move your frequency up or down a bit,
then increase power to TUNE (set TUN PWR in the menu)
When it has tuned, clear XIT and you should be good.

73,
Don w3FPR

On 12/24/2012 2:01 PM, KD7YZ Bob wrote:
> On CW or SSB I could try that. With some of these WSJT-Like modes,
> it's pretty important to be on the same freq u were on, within Hertz;
> And, call me old, but with about 6 to 10 seconds before the other
> cycle starts, there isn't a lot of time to QSY and retune.

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[N5GE]

It seems like I've heard someone suggest that spray-on car wax does a
good job of making the ladder line real slippery.  I haven't tried it
yet, but I have two ladderline pieces on my NVIS loop. Twenty seven
feet of feed line and a ten foot stub at the opposite corner that
detune a bit in the rain.  However when the loop needs to be
re-matched I just hit the straight key here and the KAT500 finds a
match that works.  However I seldom run less than 100 watts.

73,
Tom
Amateur Radio Operator N5GE
ARRL Lifetime Member
QCWA Lifetime Member



On Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:01:19 -0500, KD7YZ Bob <[hidden email]>
wrote:

>
>On Monday Claire used a Straight-Key to send:
>-------------Original Comment-------
>> You don't have to keep that power level, Bob. You only need it if the KAT500
>> needs to retune, and then only for the retune cycle. For that you might QSY
>> a few KHz
>
>On CW or SSB I could try that. With some of these WSJT-Like modes, it's
>pretty important to be on the same freq u were on, within Hertz; And,
>call me old, but with about 6 to 10 seconds before the other cycle
>starts, there isn't a lot of time to QSY and retune.
>
>> to a clear spot although between five and twenty watts you are
>> only talking about a one S-unit difference in signal.
>
>thanks. Although I was more worried about damaging the K3 than the
>signal strength.
>
>
>> The next thing is to find out why your antenna is so sensitive to moisture.
>
>hmmm, true.  Same when there is ice on it or snow. The other night in a
>45mph wind, the 160m DP was going up and down about 30 feet it looked to
>me. I use blocks and pulley to let it "float"  It was graceful to watch
>but worrisome too.

73,
Tom
Amateur Radio Operator N5GE
ARRL Lifetime Member
QCWA Lifetime Member

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[Vic Rosenthal]

I don't know about spray-on wax. I used to smear it with paste wax. Now I use open-wire line.

On 12/24/2012 11:24 AM, Tom H Childers wrote:

> It seems like I've heard someone suggest that spray-on car wax does a
> good job of making the ladder line real slippery.  I haven't tried it
> yet, but I have two ladderline pieces on my NVIS loop. Twenty seven
> feet of feed line and a ten foot stub at the opposite corner that
> detune a bit in the rain.  However when the loop needs to be
> re-matched I just hit the straight key here and the KAT500 finds a
> match that works.  However I seldom run less than 100 watts.
>
> 73,
> Tom
> Amateur Radio Operator N5GE
> ARRL Lifetime Member
> QCWA Lifetime Member
>
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:01:19 -0500, KD7YZ Bob <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
>
>> On Monday Claire used a Straight-Key to send:
>> -------------Original Comment-------
>>> You don't have to keep that power level, Bob. You only need it if the KAT500
>>> needs to retune, and then only for the retune cycle. For that you might QSY
>>> a few KHz
>> On CW or SSB I could try that. With some of these WSJT-Like modes, it's
>> pretty important to be on the same freq u were on, within Hertz; And,
>> call me old, but with about 6 to 10 seconds before the other cycle
>> starts, there isn't a lot of time to QSY and retune.
>>
>>> to a clear spot although between five and twenty watts you are
>>> only talking about a one S-unit difference in signal.
>> thanks. Although I was more worried about damaging the K3 than the
>> signal strength.
>>
>>
>>> The next thing is to find out why your antenna is so sensitive to moisture.
>> hmmm, true.  Same when there is ice on it or snow. The other night in a
>> 45mph wind, the 160m DP was going up and down about 30 feet it looked to
>> me. I use blocks and pulley to let it "float"  It was graceful to watch
>> but worrisome too.
>

--
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/

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