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[ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

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tomb18

[ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

Hi, I'm trying to make some QSO's in the contesdt and I am gettings 0 power output on CW. Works on 160m, 20m but nothing on 80. Any ideas?
Thanks
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k6dgw

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

On 11/28/2014 5:53 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> Hi, I'm trying to make some QSO's in the contesdt and I am gettings 0
> power output on CW. Works on 160m, 20m but nothing on 80. Any ideas?

Which antenna is selected?

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org

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tomb18

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by tomb18

Hi
Antenna is correct, VOX on, checked cw weight. However, perhaps it's my Antenna.
When I tune with 10w through my kpa500 all is well. Output is at around 300w. Voice is fine at 500w.
However when I try to send some cw through the terminal program, the KAT500 goes crazy, has a fault, the kpa500 shows all red in swr and then stops transmitting. At that point even if I turn off the amp and clear the kat500 there is no power out. It sounds different than when I transmit on 160. There no clicking no issues. Even at 500 w same antenna.

On Nov 28, 2014 9:23 PM, Fred Jensen <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> On 11/28/2014 5:53 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> > Hi, I'm trying to make some QSO's in the contesdt and I am gettings 0
> > power output on CW. Works on 160m, 20m but nothing on 80. Any ideas?
>
> Which antenna is selected?
>
> 73,
>
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
> - www.cqp.org
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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k6dgw

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

On 11/28/2014 6:26 PM, Tom Blahovici wrote:
> Hi Antenna is correct, VOX on, checked cw weight. However, perhaps
> it's my Antenna. When I tune with 10w through my kpa500 all is well.
> Output is at around 300w. Voice is fine at 500w. However when I try
> to send some cw through the terminal program, the KAT500 goes crazy,
> has a fault, the kpa500 shows all red in swr and then stops
> transmitting. At that point even if I turn off the amp and clear the
> kat500 there is no power out. It sounds different than when I
> transmit on 160. There no clicking no issues. Even at 500 w same
> antenna.

Put KAT500 into tune, HOLD Tune on the K3, and let it tune at your tune
power [>20W]. Then put KAT500 into MAN mode and see what happens. I
run MAN all the time, KAT500 doesn't try to tune.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org
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tomb18

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

It Tunes fine and I get 1:2 It's only when I transmit CW everything goes nuts.

On 11/28/14, Fred Jensen <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On 11/28/2014 6:26 PM, Tom Blahovici wrote:
> >Hi Antenna is correct, VOX on, checked cw weight. However, perhaps
> >it's my Antenna. When I tune with 10w through my kpa500 all is well.
> >Output is at around 300w. Voice is fine at 500w. However when I try
> >to send some cw through the terminal program, the KAT500 goes crazy,
> >has a fault, the kpa500 shows all red in swr and then stops
> >transmitting. At that point even if I turn off the amp and clear the
> >kat500 there is no power out. It sounds different than when I
> >transmit on 160. There no clicking no issues. Even at 500 w same
> >antenna.
>
> Put KAT500 into tune, HOLD Tune on the K3, and let it tune at your tune power [>20W]. Then put KAT500 into MAN mode and see what happens. I run MAN all the time, KAT500 doesn't try to tune.
>
> 73,
>
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
> - www.cqp.org
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
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>
>

Byron Servies

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

I don't have a K3, but I'll take a stab anyway ;)

Is test mode per- band? Or, have the per band power limits been set to 0?

73, Byron N6NUL

Sent from my iPad

> On Nov 28, 2014, at 18:42, [hidden email] wrote:
>
> It Tunes fine and I get 1:2 It's only when I transmit CW everything goes nuts.
>
>> On 11/28/14, Fred Jensen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>> On 11/28/2014 6:26 PM, Tom Blahovici wrote:
>>> Hi Antenna is correct, VOX on, checked cw weight. However, perhaps
>>> it's my Antenna. When I tune with 10w through my kpa500 all is well.
>>> Output is at around 300w. Voice is fine at 500w. However when I try
>>> to send some cw through the terminal program, the KAT500 goes crazy,
>>> has a fault, the kpa500 shows all red in swr and then stops
>>> transmitting. At that point even if I turn off the amp and clear the
>>> kat500 there is no power out. It sounds different than when I
>>> transmit on 160. There no clicking no issues. Even at 500 w same
>>> antenna.
>>
>> Put KAT500 into tune, HOLD Tune on the K3, and let it tune at your tune power [>20W]. Then put KAT500 into MAN mode and see what happens. I run MAN all the time, KAT500 doesn't try to tune.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Fred K6DGW
>> - Northern California Contest Club
>> - CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
>> - www.cqp.org
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email] <[hidden email]>
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
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tomb18

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

Hi Test is not on. I can press tune on the K3 with 30W and put ALL the power to the antenna. But the minute I try CW no go. Everything goes nuts (tuner amp) and then no more output.Tom

On 11/28/14, Byron N6NUL <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I don't have a K3, but I'll take a stab anyway ;)
>
> Is test mode per- band? Or, have the per band power limits been set to 0?
>
> 73, Byron N6NUL
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Nov 28, 2014, at 18:42, [hidden email] wrote:
> >
> > It Tunes fine and I get 1:2 It's only when I transmit CW everything goes nuts.
> >
> >> On 11/28/14, Fred Jensen <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >>> On 11/28/2014 6:26 PM, Tom Blahovici wrote:
> >>> Hi Antenna is correct, VOX on, checked cw weight. However, perhaps
> >>> it's my Antenna. When I tune with 10w through my kpa500 all is well.
> >>> Output is at around 300w. Voice is fine at 500w. However when I try
> >>> to send some cw through the terminal program, the KAT500 goes crazy,
> >>> has a fault, the kpa500 shows all red in swr and then stops
> >>> transmitting. At that point even if I turn off the amp and clear the
> >>> kat500 there is no power out. It sounds different than when I
> >>> transmit on 160. There no clicking no issues. Even at 500 w same
> >>> antenna.
> >>
> >> Put KAT500 into tune, HOLD Tune on the K3, and let it tune at your tune power [>20W]. Then put KAT500 into MAN mode and see what happens. I run MAN all the time, KAT500 doesn't try to tune.
> >>
> >> 73,
> >>
> >> Fred K6DGW
> >> - Northern California Contest Club
> >> - CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
> >> - www.cqp.org
> >> ______________________________________________________________
> >> Elecraft mailing list
> >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> >> Post: mailto:[hidden email] <[hidden email]> <[hidden email]>
> >>
> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
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> >> Message delivered to [hidden email]
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>
>

tomb18

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by Byron Servies

> Ok more detail. If I set Tune power to 30w and then press Tune, then with the KAT500 in manual it will tune down to 1.2:1. HOWEVER, if I leave it there with the tune power on,the KAT 500 starts showing 1.2, three seconds later, an bunch of relays click, the power SWR scale lights up, the fault line comes on. Then all of a sudden, it is steady again. Shows 1.2:1.. Three seconds later it all repeats. Now if I do it with CW, same thing is happening although it's more difficult to see what's going on due to the intermittent signal.. So it's something with the KAT500 and the antenna. But, voice is perfectly fine!
>

>
>
>
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k6dgw

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by tomb18

OK Tom, I'm out of ideas. Sorry

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org

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tomb18

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by tomb18

Guy Olinger K2AV

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by tomb18

The average power of voice is far below that of CW. If there is a corroded
connection that is heating up and failing, then cooling and reconnecting,
it could be happening with CW and not SSB. Try reducing the output of the
KPA500 to 100 watts on CW and see if the trouble goes away.

We one time had a failure something like this at NY4A. The trouble was
traced to a male/female UHF elbow coax adapter, one of the cheeep, cheeep
kind that makes the center connection around the bend in the elbow with a
spring in the center. This is easier to manufacture than the good kind,
which is why they are cheeep.

Over time these springs heat up, lose their tension, corrode at the
connection points, and display weird symptoms like you describe. Worth
checking out. The only reliably non-spring elbows are Amphenol's, where the
male center pin screws into the conductor from the female side. Once you
know what to look for, you can tell in an instant.

Throw all the spring based elbow coax adapters into the trash. They cannot
be rehabilitated. If you get any from a supplier, send them back and demand
a refund. I walked around a hamfest and easily found 25 of the Amphenol
types to take home.

You can also get the same kind of symptoms from a PL259 where the braid was
not soldered, or has undergone exceptional amounts of flexing, or has lived
for a long time at a current max at a high current place. These issues are
exacerbated by cheeep coax with lesser amounts of conductor in the shield.

Good luck & 73, Guy K2AV

On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 10:13 PM, <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> > Ok more detail. If I set Tune power to 30w and then press Tune, then
> with the KAT500 in manual it will tune down to 1.2:1. HOWEVER, if I leave
> it there with the tune power on,the KAT 500 starts showing 1.2, three
> seconds later, an bunch of relays click, the power SWR scale lights up, the
> fault line comes on. Then all of a sudden, it is steady again. Shows
> 1.2:1.. Three seconds later it all repeats. Now if I do it with CW, same
> thing is happening although it's more difficult to see what's going on due
> to the intermittent signal.. So it's something with the KAT500 and the
> antenna. But, voice is perfectly fine!
> >
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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>

Oliver Dröse

Re: [ELECRAFT] K3: Help! No output on 80m CW

In reply to this post by tomb18

Hi Tom,

sounds like a problem with either your antenna (or coax or connectors)
or maybe RF in the shack? A friend of mine had a similar problem (only
on 160 m) and it turned out the KAT500 picked up RF through one of the
cables connected that drove the KAT500 internal frequency counter nuts.
A few ferrits solved the problem.

73, Olli - DH8BQA

Contest, DX & radio projects: http://www.dh8bqa.de

Am 29.11.2014 04:13, schrieb [hidden email]:
>
>> Ok more detail. If I set Tune power to 30w and then press Tune, then with the KAT500 in manual it will tune down to 1.2:1. HOWEVER, if I leave it there with the tune power on,the KAT 500 starts showing 1.2, three seconds later, an bunch of relays click, the power SWR scale lights up, the fault line comes on. Then all of a sudden, it is steady again. Shows 1.2:1.. Three seconds later it all repeats. Now if I do it with CW, same thing is happening although it's more difficult to see what's going on due to the intermittent signal.. So it's something with the KAT500 and the antenna. But, voice is perfectly fine!
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