KPA500/KAT500

[Alan. G4GNX]

Hi all.

I am currently running an Icom IC7100 with a MFJ 998 Intellituner. I also have a K3 which is just waiting for it’s new home to be completed and I intend to use that as my main HF rig and I will be adding a KPA500 to the line-up.

One thing that the MFJ unit has is a separate terminal to connect a random wire, although you can’t connect Ant1 (co-ax) and a random wire at the same time. One disadvantage of the MFJ is that it will NOT tune “garden furniture” which rumor has it that the KAT500 will. :-)

Does the KAT500 have the capability to tune a random wire, even just connected to the center of a SO239 or are there other ways of achieving this?

73,

Alan. G4GNX


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[Jim Brown-10]

On Thu,9/17/2015 9:31 AM, G4GNX - Alan wrote:
> Does the KAT500 have the capability to tune a random wire, even just connected to the center of a SO239

Of course -- that's how almost any tuner would do it.

> or are there other ways of achieving this?

No

73, Jim K9YC
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[Alan. G4GNX]

Thanks Jim.

It may have sounded ignorant, but I was concerned that there might be RFI
and RF in the shack issues, although I couldn't see how MFJ allowed for this
and they obviously don't. :-)

I will probably sell the MFJ 998 as it has shortcomings for me. It refuses
to tune out a bad SWR on some bands and although it
should tune with as little as 5 watts, it occasionally insists on QRO from
the IC7100 which is fixed at 10 watts for tuning.

Obviously the K3 is far superior and allows the user to specify a "sensible"
tuning power and it also seems to almost tune fresh air.

73,

Alan. G4GNX

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2015 6:00 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500/KAT500

On Thu,9/17/2015 9:31 AM, G4GNX - Alan wrote:
> Does the KAT500 have the capability to tune a random wire, even just
> connected to the center of a SO239

Of course -- that's how almost any tuner would do it.

> or are there other ways of achieving this?

No

73, Jim K9YC

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[Jim Brown-10]

On Thu,9/17/2015 10:15 AM, G4GNX - Alan wrote:
> It may have sounded ignorant, but I was concerned that there might be
> RFI and RF in the shack issues, although I couldn't see how MFJ
> allowed for this and they obviously don't. :-)
>

ANY long wire that ends in the shack puts RF in the shack. That's how
antennas work. If it didn't put RF in your shack it would be a lousy
antenna. The key is to RF-proof the gear in your shack.

When I operated from a wood frame 2-flat in Chicago, I had a dipole fed
with vintage 75 ohm KW twin lead made by Belden (long discontinued). On
80 and 160, I tied both sides of the feedline together and loaded it as
a long wire, using a about 150 linear feet of wrought iron fence as a
counterpoise. By virtue of the length of the wire and the counterpoise,
there was a lot of RF current in my shack, so it coupled inductively to
nearby wiring, including the serial cable running from my laptop to my K2.

This coupling occurred because the serial cable was parallel wires, and
it caused the computer keying circuit from computer to K2 to lock up
with as little as 12W. When I replaced that cable with CAT5 (which is
four very good twisted pairs) using one pair per signaling circuit, the
coupling went away, and I could run my Titan amp at full power with no
problems.

73, Jim K9YC

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