K2 no power out

[Andrew Catanzaro]

My K2/KPA100 was operating fine three weeks ago.  I have been using other
rigs in the interim.  The radio has not been moved and no cables have been
disconnected.  I believe my rig antenna switch has not been turned to
provide the K2 with outside RF.  No big lightning storms here in the last
three weeks.   Tonight I have no power output.  The rig is not in
the test mode.  If I turn off the PA via the menu there is still no power
out.  There is no indication of power out on the LED
power indicator.  There is no power measured with an external wattmeter.  As
I turn the power level up and down while keying the rig there is the error
message "HiCur." I hear a weak transmit signal when listening on an external
receiver. The current meter on my Astron supply indicates about two amps are
being drawn at any power setting. Swapping power supplies changes nothing.
This is an interesting problem because my K2 has been operating fine for
years, and now at turn on it is misbehaving.
The receiver works fine.  Thanks.

Andy W9NJY
K2 ser nr 2651


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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Andy,

You have HI CUR messages along with no power output - that usually
indicates that the base K2 is attempting to transmit at it full power
output.  That leads me to believe that the RF path through the KPA100
(even the low power  - straight through - path) is broken.

I suggest that you remove the KPA100 and try the base K2 alone.  If the
base K2 works OK, then first look for obvious problems like a break in
the input coax or poor connection of the input coax to the K2 AUX RF
header before assuming that something really 'bad' has happened.

Unfortunately, you will have to do some troubleshooting - the list of
possible 'things that can be wrong' is a lengthy one, so you will have
to break the puzzle into smaller pieces before we can comment further.

Check things into a dummy load and don't forget to check your external
cables - yes they can fail too, and they can fail when 'just sitting
there doing nothing'.

73,
Don W3FPR

Andrew Catanzaro wrote:

> My K2/KPA100 was operating fine three weeks ago.  I have been using other
> rigs in the interim.  The radio has not been moved and no cables have
> been
> disconnected.  I believe my rig antenna switch has not been turned to
> provide the K2 with outside RF.  No big lightning storms here in the last
> three weeks.   Tonight I have no power output.  The rig is not in
> the test mode.  If I turn off the PA via the menu there is still no power
> out.  There is no indication of power out on the LED
> power indicator.  There is no power measured with an external
> wattmeter.  As
> I turn the power level up and down while keying the rig there is the
> error
> message "HiCur." I hear a weak transmit signal when listening on an
> external
> receiver. The current meter on my Astron supply indicates about two
> amps are
> being drawn at any power setting. Swapping power supplies changes
> nothing.
> This is an interesting problem because my K2 has been operating fine for
> years, and now at turn on it is misbehaving.
> The receiver works fine.  Thanks.
>
> Andy W9NJY
> K2 ser nr 2651
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>

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