I had to respond to this query, as the K3's internal ATU puts me in
the Star Wars category! For the past 33 years, one primary antenna I have used is an inverted vee with fifty foot legs, fed with 40 feet of open-wire line, and up to "K3 time", two switched external tuners with baluns. I could operate any two bands I chose without retuning, or apply a "touchup" across 80/160M. Since owning my K3, I've added a Balun Designs external balun to this system, switched, so I can drive the open-wire line directly from the ATU in the K3 through the balun, or use my traditional system. Of course, to use any rig other than the K3 in my shack, I'd still need my traditional tuner system. The K3 ATU will beautifully match my balun/vee system on all bands except 160M, where the antenna is too small. I use this arrangement on all bands, 80-10 Meters, except for the bands 20/15/10M, covered by my triband Yagi - but the ATU will match those bands, as well! Retune the ATU each time I change bands? Forget it! I did a "tuning run" on each band when I first set up the system, and then the K3 remembered all the settings, per band. What's more, I drive my traditional tuner system/Yagi from ANT1, and my external balun from ANT2, and I sometimes also use the ATU when driving the Yagi ... and the K3 remembers all those combinations. The upshot is that, during the recent DX contest, I worked all bands 80 through 10M, simply changing bands on the K3 as needed, and the right settings for the ATU, the correct use of ANT1/ANT2, and the necessary use of the ATU for the Yagi as desired, were all switched in automatically. What's more, a mouse click on the bandmap of my logging software would have me quickly moved from 10M to 80M, antenna changed, RF output changed, antenna tuned for the right frequency, and ready to call a station. When Elecraft devise a way to call DX in their own language, my life will be complete. Is this Star Wars, or what? Guys, when Elecraft says the ATU remembers intraband, crossband,and inter-band settings (are they all different?), as well as ANT1/ANT2 settings, they aren't kidding! I have capability here I never had before, in all my 53 years of hamming! Not buy the internal ATU? Bite your tongue! ______________________________________________________________ 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 |
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