Re: KAT2 with EFHW antenna

Posted by Bill W4ZV on Aug 23, 2011; 11:18pm
URL: http://elecraft.85.s1.nabble.com/K3-S-meter-oddities-tp6676870p6718255.html

Phillip Shepard wrote

I put it in ALT mode, and it spent a
long time searching before it got down to between 3:1 and 4:1, depending on
the 20m frequency.  I added about 2" of wire to the antenna, and the tuer
got down to about 2:1 to 2.5:1.  I added another foot of wire (now 36'), and
it got down to about 1.5:1.  Five or six feet added yielded a perfect match
(1:1).  So I now have a 39' wire for 20m use.

Is this normal?  Should the KAT2 be able to more easily match the 33'
halfwave antenna?  Thank you.

Probably normal.  End-fed half-wave antennas are 4-5000 ohms impedance, so you're asking the tuner to match an 80-100:1 SWR which is beyond the range of most tuners.

73,  Bill