HI CUR on 15 meters

[Cathy James]

While experimenting with 15 meters today, I noticed that when
transmitting a CQ at 10 watts, HI CUR would appear intermittently on the
display.  I have never seen this on the lower bands (20 meters and down)
where I do 99% of my operating.  Turning the power down to 8 watts on 15
meters makes the problem go away.

Any ideas?  Do I just have the threshold set too low?

BTW, thanks to those who pointed out, in response to my earlier question
about silence on 20 meters, that the problem was likely just propagation
rather than the unit.  They were definitely correct, and I've worked a
lot of 20 meter contacts since then.

Cathy
N5WVR

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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Cathy,

There could be a variety of reasons for a Hi Cur - one is simply that your
threshold is too low, or it could be associated with the particular load
that the antenna presents to the K2 or it could be a problem with the low
pass filter in the K2, or it could be your power supply voltage.

I suggest that you check with a dummy load first to eliminate the antenna
consideration - compare the current drawn at 10 watts on 15 meters with the
current drawn on 20 and 17 as well as the current on 12 and 10 meters.

If your CAL CUR threshold is set less than 2.5 amps then that alone can be
adequate explaination - you can safely increase the CAL CUR level up to 3.5
or even a bit more if need be.  If your power supply voltage is low, you
will need to set the CAL CUR a bit higher than normal - 13.8 volts is
considered normal.  Check during a full power transmit to be sure you do not
have excessive voltage drop in the cable to the K2.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> While experimenting with 15 meters today, I noticed that when
> transmitting a CQ at 10 watts, HI CUR would appear intermittently on the
> display.  I have never seen this on the lower bands (20 meters and down)
> where I do 99% of my operating.  Turning the power down to 8 watts on 15
> meters makes the problem go away.
>
> Any ideas?  Do I just have the threshold set too low?
>
> BTW, thanks to those who pointed out, in response to my earlier question
> about silence on 20 meters, that the problem was likely just propagation
> rather than the unit.  They were definitely correct, and I've worked a
> lot of 20 meter contacts since then.
>
> Cathy
> N5WVR
>

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