Front Panel Meters
The front panel meters are screen copies of the original KC505.EXE
program. This was done to keep those displays as familiar as
possible to the Kachina CAT user. There is some real difference
in how they interact with the user however. The KC505.EXE
controls were static and you needed to go to the menu system to change
the type of meter associated with each location.
Kachina CAT takes a different approach. Each of these meters is
actually a hidden toggle switch. If you press the S-meter display
(numeric values) you will toggle to a dBm display. Press
the dBm display and it toggles to a voltage scale. The meter bar
is the same for all three. The only thing that really changes is
the measurement mode. The small circlular indicator in the upper
right hand corner show whether the squelch is open (lit) or closed
(extinguished). If the squelch is disabled then the indicator
remains lit.
The power out meter changes scales as you change the Pwr slider switch
described under Transmit Controls. If you toggle this display it
changes to the ALC display and displays alc level from 0 to + 20 dB.
This is really a nice control to use when setting up a digital
mode signal such as psk31 that needs the transmit path to remain very
linear. Adjust the computer sound card drive level to just diddle
the ALC and then back it down a bit. Very ... very ... very
linear operation. My hat's off to the Kachina designers.
The SWR meter can be toggled between SWR and REFlected power. The
reflected power is given as a percentage of the forward power reading.