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Reviews For: Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner Kit

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner Kit
Reviews: 26MSRP: 239
Description:
The KAT100 handles up to 150W and is the ideal companion to the K2 and K2/100 transceivers. It can match a 10:1 SWR with tuner settings stored for each band and each of its dual antenna outputs. 10 LEDs display real time SWR.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.elecraft.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00265
N2ZDB Rating: 2002-11-23
Works Great!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Completed my new KAT100 last Saturday (11/16/02), after about 5 - 10 hours of assembly. Tuner is functioning great with my K2/100, and tunes just about any band with 1.5:1 or less SWR (most are at 1.0:1). I am currently just using a dipole with a length of about 60 feet.

Would highly recommend this to anyone with a K2!

Michael
N2ZDB
W8OB Rating: 2002-11-16
excellant product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just completed building my kat100. I could not be happier with the performance of this piece of gear. I can now tune antennas to cover 160-10 meters with 1.0-1 vswr. assembly took about 11 hours and fire up was without any problems. the really great thing about this gear is if you have a problem or a question a lightning fast answer is only a phone call or email away without having to find your way through a endless maze of "if you need help press 4" type of crap some of the other mfgrs have. keep up the great work elecraft and by the way, Whats next?????
W0KJV Rating: 2002-10-31
Cutting-Edge Technology Design in a HF 150-Watt Antenna Tuner! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am W0KJV who is one of the Elecraft Field Testers that was selected to build and evaluate the new model KAT-100 Automatic Antenna Tuner. The KAT-100 is a unit conservatively designed to handle up to 150-watts of power when it is used with the matching model K-2 HF Transceiver kit and the model KPA-100 HF 100-watt Amplifier kit.

The kit took about 15 hours to inventory the parts, assemble the parts into the two circuit boards, winding of various toroid coils, and cleaning the solder rosin from all the solder joints. You can purchase the toroidal coils already wound, but they are really easy to wind yourself. Cleaning the solder rosin from the printed circuit boards not only makes the entire finished project look very professional, but the real benefit is that the process enables the builder to spot and correct any solder joints that may have not been done correctly.

There were no parts shortages and the assembly directions were quite thorough. You will find that the kit is an oustanding value and if you carefully follow the assembly directions, your kit building adventure will be the satisfaction of a fine tuner. I must say again that it is well designed and it works great!
WN3DUG Rating: 2002-10-30
Great K2 Antenna Autotuner! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The KAT100 Elecraft 150 Watt Automatic Antenna Tuner,for the K2/100, is another in the quality line of kits from Elecraft. I found the kit easy to build,in about 11 hours total,with a great manual and easy to follow directions. The metal enclosure,included with the kit, went together perfectly and matched the K2/100's style and color. Operation,with my Hustler 6BTV Vertical on 10-80 Meters, was very fast and provided a 1.0-1 SWR on all bands. The memory feature is especially nice, along with the 2 switched Antenna connections, allowing for 2 Antennas. Carl, WN3DUG, K2/100 S/N: 1320
KC4KGU Rating: 2002-10-30
The Tradition Continues! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had the HONOR of being selected as one of the field testers for the Elecraft KAT100 150-watt autotuner. Assembly took aproximately 10 hours from unpacking the unit to having it completely aligned and on the air in my shack.

In typical Elecraft fashion, the tuner is _way_ overdesigned and should handle many times the conservative 150w rating.

If you own a K2 or K2/100, you can't go wrong with this tuner.

You can see the build process of my Field Test KAT100 at http://www.kc4kgu.com/kat100/

73 de John - KC4KGU
K2/100 #2490
Elecraft WAS #8
KW4A Rating: 2002-10-30
Elecraft Hits A Home Run Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What else would you expect from Elecraft? I just finished building the latest kit from Elecraft, the KAT-100. As far as the kit goes, the board is beautiful, the instructions are GREAT, the on line reflector help is outstanding, and the assembly goes without a hitch.As far as the product itself, this unit is capable of handling 150 watts of power and matches the K2 design scheme. Built especially to go with the K2, the speed that this HEAVY DUTY TUNER reacts is phenominal. Push the button and it's there matching anything you want to hook up to. It will drop an 8:1 mismatch to 1.1 to 1.2:1 in a heartbeat. Can't wait till they modify it to be a standalone unit to use with other brands of transceivers. MONEY WELL SPENT!!