John,
Setting your power control to 110 watts will produce about 28 watts of carrier power and about 78 watts peak which is normal. I have received very good audio reports on AM both running barefoot or using my linear and limiting my carrier power to no more then 120 watts.
I am assuming you have the K3's antenna tuner. If you do then initially you must tap the ATU Tune button to get your swr down. The K3 will remember the antenna tuner settings for that band and the area of the band. The only time you have to repeat it is when you change the antenna for that band. The antenna tuner in the K3 doesn't automatically tune up, you must do it from the ATU button. Because I change antennas from time to time I always tap the ATU button just to be sure everything is ok.
Running less then 10 watts switches out the 100 watt amp so if you let the rig transmit with 5 watts with high SWR you will tax the 10 watt PA
73
Dave KD1NA
----- Original Message -----
From: John Parker
To:
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Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 6:02 PM
Subject: your K3 AM Tip
Thanks for your tip about using split for AM. I made a few contacts one evening on 80M, but I was not sure how to set the power out. The manual has virtually no info on AM operation. How do you set the power out? I have information on how to set power out for an amp, but not the K3. I have an old friend that works AM on 40M so I need to learn how to do this right.
By the way I almost smoked something in the 10 watt amp in the K3. I am used to turning the power to around 5 watts on my ond Ten Tec gear and tuning the antenna tuner. I forgot that the K3 has TWO amps, and I got the low power one smelling on high SWR before I noticed it and quit. Everything seems OK but one day I am going to open it up and see what is discolored and change it out. I did not build mine, I bought it used and it is factory built. I should have built one then I would know this type of stuff.
If you have time please let me know about the AM setup.
73, John WB4UHC
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