Ken, A typical question when something like this arises is: "What does it do if you drive a dummy load?".
While another transceiver handling your antenna situation may also be good to know, it does not satisfy the question of "What does the K3 do when driving a 50 ohm resistive load." The question of the difference in SWR readings between your Palstar tuner and the K3 cannot be answered without additional measurements driving a "dummy load" that produces a known SWR. One thing you could do if you have an antenna analyzer is to tune the antenna tuner so the K3 indicates a 1:1 SWR - then remove the coax from the K3 and read the impedance on the analyzer. Is it 50 + j0 or somewhat close? If so, the K3 reading is correct, but if the SWR reading is 2:1. then your Palstar reading is correct. If you have a substantial length of feedline between the K3 and the Palstar tuner, that might explain the difference in readings. 73, Don W3FPR On 2/18/2012 4:40 PM, Ken wrote: > I am having trouble with my K3 tuner, the SWR jumps high when I turn it above > 80 watts on 80m. > > At first I thought it was something outside but after replacing open wire > feedline, balun, coax, I have come to the conclusion that the problem must be > internal to the K3. > > The antenna is a 130' center fed dipole, fed with 45' of open wire to a 4:1 > balun and then to the K3. It tunes easily and works okay on all the bands > but on 80m, when I up the power above about 80 watts, the SWR jumps up and > the K3 shuts down with "HI SWR. > > The problem does not happen with my old TS-440, nor does it happen when I > bypass the internal K3 tuner and use an external Palstar AT2K tuner. > > I don't believe I had this problem when I bought the K3 last December but > then I might not have run the power up all the way either. > > Thoughts? Am I missing something? Has anyone else had this same problem? > > Another thing I noticed (is it related?) is that when I tune the Palstar to > 1:1 SWR, the K3 shows a 2+:1 SWR. If I use the K3 meter to tune the Palstar > tuner, then the Palstar meter indicates a 2:1 SWR. > > Thanks, > > Ken WA8JXM > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
