Enabling an Elecraft KAT500 Antenna Tuner to Track the Primary Transceiver's Frequency via Commander's Secondary CAT Port
de Tom NS8K
The Elecraft KAT500 is an antenna tuner that can be configured to track a transceiver's frequency by monitoring CAT commands.
You can configure Commander's Secondary CAT port to send CAT commands to your KAT500 so it can track the frequency of any primary transceiver that Commander can control. If you switch among multiple primary transceivers, this approach will enable the KAT500 to track the current primary transceiver's frequency.
This article describes how to
connect your PC to a KAT500 so that Commander's Secondary CAT Port can send it frequency updates
use the KAT500 Utility to configure your KAT500
- configure Commander
If you want to send frequency updates to both a KAT500 and a Elecraft KPA500 amplifier, see Enabling an Elecraft KPA500 Amplifier and an Elecraft KAT500 Antenna Tuner to Track the Primary Transceiver's Frequency via Commander's Secondary CAT Port.
Connecting your PC to a KAT500
Insert the Elecraft-provided KXUSB cable's 3.5mm plug into the PC DATA connector on the back of the KAT500
Insert the KXUSB cable's USB A connector into a free USB port on your PC; note the virtual PC COM port created by this action so that you can specify it in
step 1 of the Configuring the KAT500 section below
step 2 of the Configuring Commander section below
Configuring the KAT500
Firmware updates and configuration changes to the KAT500 are accomplished using the Elecraft-provided KAT500 Utility, which uses the same virtual PC COM port created by the KXUSB cable. Since only one application at a time can open a PC COM port, you must disable Commander's Secondary CAT Port while using the KAT500 Utility, and terminate the KAT500 Utility while Commander's Secondary CAT Port is sending frequency updates to the KAT500.
On the KAT500 Utility window's Port tab,
set the Serial port connected to KAT500 selector to the virtual PC COM port created when the KXUSB cable was connected
set the Serial port speed to 38400
- complete any other desired KAT500 configuration changes
terminate the KAT500 Utility so that Commander's Secondary CAT Port will be able to use the virtual PC COM port created when the KXUSB cable was connected to communicate with your KAT500
Configuring Commander
In the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel on the Configuration window's Ports tab,
set the CAT protocol selector to Elecraft
set the Port# selector to the virtual PC COM port created when the KXUSB cable was connected
set the Baud selector to 38400
set the Word selector to 8
set the Parity selector to None
set the Stop selector to 1
set the DTR selector to Off
set the RTS selector to Off
click the Follow Primary button
check the Update every 200 ms box
check the Enable box
Using the KAT500 Utility
Before starting the KAT500 Utility, uncheck the Enable box in the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel on Commander's Configuration window's Ports tab to free the PC COM port for use by the KAT500 Utility. After use of KAT500 Utility is complete,
terminate the KAT500 Utility to free the PC COM port for use by Commander's Secondary CAT Serial Port
check the Enable box in the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel on Commander's Configuration window's Ports tab to resume sending frequency updates to the KAT500