KPA1500 ATU - ability to handle more than two antennas

[Dan AE9K]

While I'm awaiting the delivery of my KPA1500 I'm wondering if/how the amp's
ATU can accommodate more than two antennas.  For example, if I have an
antenna switch connected to one of the amp's antenna jacks is there a
facility on the amp that would allow me to choose one of two /logical/
antennas beyond the ANT1 / ANT2 physical selection?  Having two sets of
memories per band per physical port would accommodate 4 antennas.  

Does the KPA1500 support this or something similar to allow for more than
two antennas?  If not,  this seems pretty simple to implement as a firmware
change - assuming there's enough memory available.  If memory is a
constraint I suppose you could provide the option to halve the number of
tuning solutions stored per segment to keep the memory footprint the same.

Thanks,

Dan
AE9K



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[wayne burdick]

Dan,

The KPA1500’s firmware is written to accommodate many more antennas. It would be a fairly simple matter to externalize a number of them in the form of a remote-controlled antenna switch.

This is a good example of how the amp can be tailored to user needs. The firmware could be updated to support an external switch, patch it into the normal antenna selection process (i.e. ATU retuning, ANT switch control), display its number or noun name on the LCD, etc. We even have two user-programmable switches (PF1 and PF2) that could be used as hot-keys to select specific antennas, rigs, or other configurations.

As unique station needs arise, we’ll try to address them in a timely fashion. To that end, feel free to recommend specific third-party antenna switches that we could test. We’ll work with the manufacturers to ensure smooth operation.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

> On Jan 25, 2018, at 11:48 AM, Dan AE9K <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> While I'm awaiting the delivery of my KPA1500 I'm wondering if/how the amp's
> ATU can accommodate more than two antennas.  For example, if I have an
> antenna switch connected to one of the amp's antenna jacks is there a
> facility on the amp that would allow me to choose one of two /logical/
> antennas beyond the ANT1 / ANT2 physical selection?  Having two sets of
> memories per band per physical port would accommodate 4 antennas.  
>
> Does the KPA1500 support this or something similar to allow for more than
> two antennas?  If not,  this seems pretty simple to implement as a firmware
> change - assuming there's enough memory available.  If memory is a
> constraint I suppose you could provide the option to halve the number of
> tuning solutions stored per segment to keep the memory footprint the same.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan
> AE9K
>
>
>
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> Sent from: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/
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> Elecraft mailing list
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

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[Dan AE9K]

Wayne,

Thanks for the response.  I waited to respond until the KPA1500 manual was published to see if there were any PF1/PF2 functions out of the box.  What I'd like to see first is much less fancy than interacting with external relay-based antenna switching like you mentioned.  How about initially providing a second set of ATU segment memories to allow a /manual/ external switch?  The amp can't know or control which antenna is selected but it would be very handy to have a PF function key the operator could use to toggle between ATU segment set one and two, for example, when the manual antenna switch position is changed.

I envision it like this:

ANT1
   \
   Manual Switch
      \--:  Antenna 1  (Select ATU logical segment set 1 with PF1 tap)
      \--:  Antenna 2  (Select ATU logical segment set 2 with PF1 hold)

ANT2
   \
   Manual Switch
      \--:  Antenna 3  (Select ATU logical segment set 1 with PF1 tap)
      \--:  Antenna 4  (Select ATU logical segment set 2 with PF1 hold)

Just a manual logical segment set change in support of manual external antenna switching.

Is that do-able?  I imagine I'm not alone in the use of manual antenna switches and needing to accommodate more than two antennas without the ATU experiencing a high-SWR-triggered re-tune hunt each time an external switch selects a different antenna.

Thanks,

Dan
AE9K




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