Phil,
Have you loaded the latest KPA500 firmware? If not do so. The new amp
firmware delays fault detection until the KAT500 has a chance to tune.
You will still see a soft fault condition, but that will clear as the
KAT500 tunes.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 12/17/2012 11:30 PM, Phil Hystad wrote:
So, after adding the KAT500, I am enjoying the ever expanding K-Line:
K3+P3+KPA500+KAT500 but I seem to be at fault more often lately.
I mean, before I got the KAT500 I relied on my Palstar AT1KM manual tuner and
could easily tune to close to 1:1 and always under 1.5:1 for every band and
frequency of my operations 80 through 10. Antennas are 80-meter doublet fed
with 450-ohm ladder line to 4:1 Balun to Coax for 80-40-30 and then a Traffie
Hexbeam for 20-17-15-12-10 (no, usually do not need a tuner with the traffie
but it does improve SWR).
Using the manual tuner, it was very rare, maybe twice a month or so, that I
would fault the KPA500 due to high SWR.
Now, using the KAT500, faulting the KPA500 is a daily occurrence. I now almost
expect that red fault light to come on the KPA500 and the amp switch into
Standby mode.
What am I doing wrong? Here is a typical scenario. I am operating on 3970 KHz
with a 1.2:1 SWR using the KAT500 and the KPA500 in operation pushing about 475
watts or so. Then, I switch to 3569 KHz for some CW traffic net action and now
with key-down (just a brief dit) I get two very closely related events. One, the
KPA500 faults due to high SWR and, two, the KAT500 detects the new frequency and
changes LC from memory. These two events are neck-and-neck within one or
one-and-a-half seconds time.
So, I know how to avoid this. I can put the amp in standby first. Or, I can
force the KAT500 to retune which inhibits the amplifier. But, is it necessary
to put the amp in standby? Is this what others do? Also, what good is the
memory on the KAT500 if I can't make use of it.
I am using all the standard recommended cabling for the KAT500 with a K3 and
KPA500.
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