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K3 Power calibration failure

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alsopb

K3 Power calibration failure

I'm posting this for KK4AOA. He will be joining the group later.
He is doing a clean build.

The K3 is a K3-10 so far with an internal antenna tuner and five
filters. No subrx.

Running the utility program transmit power calibration works fine on
160,80 and 60M but fails on 40M.

Over the phone, we reviewed his crystal filter setup, redid the
synthesizer calibration. Except for the above things seem to work.

Suggestions at where to look next are welcome.

He is unable to do the 5W wattmeter calibration because of no wattmeter.
Hopefully the factory settings are close enough.

There is also some ambiguity in that process. It tells you to put the
AUT into the bypass mode (hold ATU). However, his K3 says the ATU isn't
installed. (Two pages earlier in the manual under menu option "enables"
it says to set KAT3 to BYP, which he did). These seem to be at odds
with one another. Or does this indicate some potential problem with the
KAT-3?

73 de Brian/K3KO

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: K3 Power calibration failure

Brian,

I am relpying out of "stupidity". The K3 Utility tries to set the ATU
to bypass. If it detects the KAT3, but it does not go into bypass, that
would terminate the procedure.

I suggest that he look at the KAT3 situation first. Once that is
resolved, then other factors will either fall into place or will present
themselves as a different problem.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 5/26/2011 8:05 PM, Brian Alsop wrote:

> I'm posting this for KK4AOA. He will be joining the group later.
> He is doing a clean build.
>
> The K3 is a K3-10 so far with an internal antenna tuner and five
> filters. No subrx.
>
> Running the utility program transmit power calibration works fine on
> 160,80 and 60M but fails on 40M.
>
> Over the phone, we reviewed his crystal filter setup, redid the
> synthesizer calibration. Except for the above things seem to work.
>
> Suggestions at where to look next are welcome.
>
> He is unable to do the 5W wattmeter calibration because of no wattmeter.
> Hopefully the factory settings are close enough.
>
> There is also some ambiguity in that process. It tells you to put the
> AUT into the bypass mode (hold ATU). However, his K3 says the ATU isn't
> installed. (Two pages earlier in the manual under menu option "enables"
> it says to set KAT3 to BYP, which he did). These seem to be at odds
> with one another. Or does this indicate some potential problem with the
> KAT-3?
>
>

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n7ws

Re: K3 Power calibration failure

In reply to this post by alsopb

My two-year old K3/100 developed an intermittent power problem. At first I had the PA in and out a couple of times thinking it was the reported connector pin problem. No luck. I noted that pushing on the KANT3 board that is used with no ATU would "fix" the problem for a time. "Fix" meaning it would pass TXG on all bands.

To make a long story shorter, I finally called Elecraft support. I was asked to read back the TXGN values and when I did, I was asked how come I had set them to those values. I hadn't knowingly done that but it turns out that when you do the wattmeter calibration, these are the values that get changed. I was instructed to change them back to the default values---with the comment that one should never do the wattmeter calibration. I suggested that if this is the case, maybe the procedure should be removed from the manual.

Setting these values back to default (at least the numbers I was instructed to use) and loosening and retightening the screw at the standoff at upper rear corner of the radio fixed the problem.

Wes N7WS

--- On Thu, 5/26/11, Brian Alsop <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I'm posting this for KK4AOA. He
> will be joining the group later.
> He is doing a clean build.
>
> The K3 is a K3-10 so far with an internal antenna tuner and
> five
> filters. No subrx.
>
> Running the utility program transmit power calibration
> works fine on
> 160,80 and 60M but fails on 40M.
>
> Over the phone, we reviewed his crystal filter setup, redid
> the
> synthesizer calibration. Except for the above things seem
> to work.
>
> Suggestions at where to look next are welcome.
>
> He is unable to do the 5W wattmeter calibration because of
> no wattmeter.
> Hopefully the factory settings are close enough.
>
> There is also some ambiguity in that process. It
> tells you to put the
> AUT into the bypass mode (hold ATU). However, his K3
> says the ATU isn't
> installed. (Two pages earlier in the manual under
> menu option "enables"
> it says to set KAT3 to BYP, which he did). These seem
> to be at odds
> with one another. Or does this indicate some
> potential problem with the
> KAT-3?
>
> 73 de Brian/K3KO
>
>

alsopb

K3 Power calibration failure FIXED!

In reply to this post by alsopb

The owner called Elecraft support.

They told him to tighten up the three screws on the bottom plate having
lock washers.

Voila, it works.

How did they know that? Incredible.

73 de Brian/K3KO

On 5/27/2011 00:05, Brian Alsop wrote:
> I'm posting this for KK4AOA. He will be joining the group later.
> He is doing a clean build.
>
> The K3 is a K3-10 so far with an internal antenna tuner and five
> filters. No subrx.
>
> Running the utility program transmit power calibration works fine on
> 160,80 and 60M but fails on 40M.
>

.
.
.
.

-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1375 / Virus Database: 1509/3661 - Release Date: 05/26/11

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