"With just two antenna ports on the KPA1500, there are only two quickly accessible tuning solutions per frequency if using both ports. If using only one port and an external antenna switch, a common choice in many stations, finding the correct tuning solutions can't be done fast enough to prevent a fault."
The KAT500 remembers the most recent 6 tuning solutions for each frequency "bin". The saved solution includes the antenna port in use when that solution was stored. I would guess that the tuner in KPA1500 does the same thing. This means that the tuner already has enough non volatile memory allocated to cope with more than one antenna on each port. The problem would be letting the tuner know which antenna is in use on the current port before RF is applied.
If the tuner had the option to tag each tuning solution with antenna port and also external antenna selection, then up to 6 switched antennas could be accommodated on 1 port with little, or no, increase in NVM overhead. If the external antenna switch provided a position signal then that signal could be provided to the tuner by a new serial command or AUX bus command, or by extension of the existing antenna selection commands.
There would be lots of details to sort out and I suspect it would be easier to store the multiple tuning solutions for different externally selected antennas in a separate controller. The idea is the same though - if the system knows what what port is in use, and it knows what antenna has been selected on that port, then it can instantly recall and apply the last remembered tuning solution for that switching combination for the current TX frequency.
Andy, k3wyc
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