Elecraft KAT500 Owners Manual - Manual (Page 21)

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brief pulse of RF is needed. Failing to make the KAT500 change bands before selecting a
different antenna can produce surprising behavior. For example, if you are using
ANT 1
on
80 meters and then switch your transceiver to 40 meters where you want to use
ANT 2
. You
see
ANT 1
is still selected on the KAT500 so you change it manually. And then, when you
transmit you see the KAT500 jump back to
ANT 1
. That happens because the KAT500 did
not change bands until you transmitted, and then it reverted to the last
ANT
position used on
40 meters (or to
ANT 1
if no other antenna position has been used on that band).
If you use different antennas on different bands without the E850463 Aux cable interface,
we recommend that you first set up the KAT500 for the antenna you want to use on each
band as follows. Optionally you can assign antenna ports using the Utility Program (see
page 20).
• Select the desired band on your transceiver or transmitter.
• Tap
MODE
, if necessary, to select
MAN
.
• Send a brief pulse of RF at a power level of at least 7watts such as a “dah” with paddles
at a CW speed under 25 WPM. That switches the KAT500 to the current band.
• Tap ANT to select the desired antenna for that band.
• Continue on to the next band until you have covered all the bands. Note that you do not
need to do this on bands using
ANT 1
since the KAT500 defaults to
ANT 1
if you have
not selected another antenna position.
Operating Tips
Rapid QSY After Antenna Change:
For rapid changes between favorite frequencies without a delay to do a tune operation after
installing the KAT500 or after making an antenna change, move to each frequency and do a tune
operation as part of your setup procedure. When you return to one of those frequencies later, the
KAT500 will recall the settings from memory almost instantly; you will hear only a brief relay
click as it recalls and switches to the proper settings.
In the extreme case you could do a tune operation in each frequency segment shown above in each
band so that the KAT500 will memorize the settings in advance. Otherwise as you operate the
KAT500 in
AUTO
mode, it will tune automatically as you visit different bands and frequencies for
the first time. It will not need to do a tune operation again when you return to that frequency unless
you change your antenna.
Automatic Bypass on Selected Bands:
The mode (
AUTO
,
MA
N, or
BYP
) selected for each band is not stored in memory, however you can
cause the KAT500 to effectively switch to bypass on certain bands. The mode does not change, but
the KAT500 completely bypasses the matching network. This may be desirable if you have
antennas for certain bands that are tunable (such as a SteppIR) or that otherwise show a low SWR
across the band.