KAT500 tuning procedure ?

I agree with using MAN and presetting the tuner. I never used the AUTO
setting. It would be nice if you could program which bands you want the
tuner to be used on and have it automatically bypass when not needed.

John KK9A




Richard Ferch ve3iay wrote:


FWIW, I have had a KAT500 for a few years now. I never use the KAT500's
Auto setting. Once the KAT500's memories are set up, the Manual setting
does everything I need.

First, with the KPA500 in Standby (or turned off), for every band/antenna
combination I use, I trained the KAT500 across the band. I did this by
tuning to a frequency near the bottom of the band, tapping the KAT500's
Tune button and then pressing the K3's Tune button (a long press, since
Tune is a "hold" function) and left the K3's Tune signal running until the
KAT500 found the best match, then turned the K3's Tune back off. Tune up 20
kHz and press the Tune buttons first on the KAT500 and then on the K3 until
the KAT500 finds a match. Keep doing this until the band is covered. Repeat
for all other band/antenna combinations. On 10 meters, you only have to do
this every 100 kHz instead of every 20 kHz, and on 6m, only every 200 kHz.
On 160m, the settings to be remembered are every 10 kHz.

Once this set-and-forget once-only training step was completed, I just
leave the KAT500 in Manual mode all the time. As I tune the K3 around, the
KAT500 reads the frequency from the K3 and automatically selects the
antenna for that band and the settings I trained it with for that frequency
and antenna. You can hear the relays in the KAT500 click as you move from
one band to another, or from one frequency memory segment to another one as
the remembered tuner settings change. As long as the impedance presented by
your antenna's feedline to the tuner does not change from what it was when
you trained the tuner, the remembered memory settings will work fine.

Sometimes, e.g. when it rains or snows, the SWR with the original setting
starts to get higher. Perhaps this is the kind of situation where the Auto
setting would touch the settings up automatically, but I heartily dislike
having the tuner suddenly spring into action mid-QSO. Instead, I wait for a
quiet moment, put the KPA500 in standby, put the KAT500 in Tune mode and
use the K3's Tune button again in order to find the best match for the
current conditions. As soon as the KAT500 finds a match, I put the KPA500
back into operate and carry on. Usually when this happens, the abnormal
tuner settings are only needed for a few hours, and as the humidity returns
to normal I redo the training procedure once more to bring the KAT500's
memory for that particular frequency/antenna combination back to normal.

73,
Rich VE3KI

______________________________________________________________
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]

[Ken Winterling]

John,
I believe the tuner does what you want; it just doesn't change any front panel indicator.  Below is an excerpt from the KAT500 manual:
If the SWR is below 1.2 when a tune operation begins, the KAT500 bypasses the matching network. The
KAT500 remains in either AUTO or MAN mode but the matching network is switched out of the RF path.

Ken WA2LBI LG G6 

------ Original message------From: [hidden email]: Sat, Jun 16, 2018 22:04To: 'Elecraft Reflector';Cc: Subject:[Elecraft]  KAT500 tuning procedure ?
I agree with using MAN and presetting the tuner. I never used the AUTO
setting. It would be nice if you could program which bands you want the
tuner to be used on and have it automatically bypass when not needed.

John KK9A




Richard Ferch ve3iay wrote:


FWIW, I have had a KAT500 for a few years now. I never use the KAT500's
Auto setting. Once the KAT500's memories are set up, the Manual setting
does everything I need.

First, with the KPA500 in Standby (or turned off), for every band/antenna
combination I use, I trained the KAT500 across the band. I did this by
tuning to a frequency near the bottom of the band, tapping the KAT500's
Tune button and then pressing the K3's Tune button (a long press, since
Tune is a "hold" function) and left the K3's Tune signal running until the
KAT500 found the best match, then turned the K3's Tune back off. Tune up 20
kHz and press the Tune buttons first on the KAT500 and then on the K3 until
the KAT500 finds a match. Keep doing this until the band is covered. Repeat
for all other band/antenna combinations. On 10 meters, you only have to do
this every 100 kHz instead of every 20 kHz, and on 6m, only every 200 kHz.
On 160m, the settings to be remembered are every 10 kHz.

Once this set-and-forget once-only training step was completed, I just
leave the KAT500 in Manual mode all the time. As I tune the K3 around, the
KAT500 reads the frequency from the K3 and automatically selects the
antenna for that band and the settings I trained it with for that frequency
and antenna. You can hear the relays in the KAT500 click as you move from
one band to another, or from one frequency memory segment to another one as
the remembered tuner settings change. As long as the impedance presented by
your antenna's feedline to the tuner does not change from what it was when
you trained the tuner, the remembered memory settings will work fine.

Sometimes, e.g. when it rains or snows, the SWR with the original setting
starts to get higher. Perhaps this is the kind of situation where the Auto
setting would touch the settings up automatically, but I heartily dislike
having the tuner suddenly spring into action mid-QSO. Instead, I wait for a
quiet moment, put the KPA500 in standby, put the KAT500 in Tune mode and
use the K3's Tune button again in order to find the best match for the
current conditions. As soon as the KAT500 finds a match, I put the KPA500
back into operate and carry on. Usually when this happens, the abnormal
tuner settings are only needed for a few hours, and as the humidity returns
to normal I redo the training procedure once more to bring the KAT500's
memory for that particular frequency/antenna combination back to normal.

73,
Rich VE3KI

______________________________________________________________
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]