[K3] Sudden failure of line-in?

[Joe Planisky]

Hey Folks,

Fired up my K3 and Fldigi today for an Olivia sked and immediately noticed that I was not getting any RF output.  This same setup was working fine 2 weeks ago.

Switched the meter to show ALC and saw no indication where I usually get 5 bars.  I could hear the Olivia tones in the speakers, so I know the audio was getting from my sound card into the K3.  Tried adjusting the mic (line) gain and I can hear it making a difference in the monitor audio, but still nothing on the ALC meter.

I'm running firmware version 4.22.

I verified I am in DATA / DATA A mode.

I verified I am not in SPLIT with VFO B set to a different mode.

I verified the rig is actually going into TX (i.e. the red TX light comes on)

I verified I have filters configured for use in DATA mode.

I verified that CONFIG:TX ALC was set to ON.

I verified that SSB mode works with a mic plugged into the rear mic jack and MAIN:MIC SEL = RP.L.

SSB mode does NOT work with MAIN:MIC SEL = Line In.

I saved my configuration, did an EE INIT, restored the configuration.  No difference.

I did another EE INIT without restoring my configuration.  No difference.

I went back to beta 4.17. No difference.

I went back to beta 4.10. No difference.

What am I missing?  Any other suggestions before I send an email to k3support?

73
--
Joe KB8AP

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

[DL5OCD]

Did you check the Mic-gain ? It is stored for each input separately...

73
Michael

[Joe Planisky]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the reply.  I should have posted a follow-up as I've solved the problem. (Actually, Greg AB7R solved it for me.  Thanks again, Greg!)

The problem was that the signal level coming out of my sound card was simply too low.  How did I miss such an obvious issue?  Two factors conspired to trip me up:

1.) I recently changed computers.  The old computer was dedicated to ham radio usage and I never changed the audio configuration on it.  It didn't even have speakers.  I never changed the computer's mixer settings so the audio level was always the same.  My new computer is more of a multi-purpose unit (with speakers), so I *do* change the audio level depending on what I'm doing at the moment.

2.) The sound coming out of the K3 speakers while transmitting (i.e. the monitor signal) sounded roughly the same as it always had in the past, so I assumed that meant the audio signal level coming in was the same as it always had been.  It turns out that with my particular setup, the difference in how loud the monitor signal sounds between too little drive and just enough drive isn't as great as I would have expected.  Lesson learned.

73
--
Joe KB8AP




On Dec 21, 2010, at 9:18 AM, DL5OCD wrote:

>
> Did you check the Mic-gain ? It is stored for each input separately...
>
> 73
> Michael
> --
> View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-Sudden-failure-of-line-in-tp5851894p5855735.html
> Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html