K3 Utility Noise
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Good Day All,
I am having a hard time trouble shooting a noise issue when opening the K3 utility or HRD. When ever either of these programs is opened I have a portion of 20m that becomes unusable due to a high noise floor, other parts of 20m increase by 1 - 2 S points. I have placed clip on ferrite beads on the P3 to PC cable. Here is a link to a short video of what it looks / sounds like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amk0EpL_skM Any advice is appreciated as I use HRD regularly. Regards, Brendon Tadgell VK4HIA |
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Brendon, I'm trouble-shooting a P3 noise problem (via Elecraft) that
exhibits itself when I key the K3 even when all RF power is set to zero and the antennas are dummy loads. The circumstances that initiate my fault are quite different from yours but I report it because the symptoms are similar: an increase in noise that drives the P3 REF LVL up by one or two S-Units that is most pronounced on the 20 Meter band. Just curious: 1. Have you checked the integrity of the coax cable between the K3 and the P3? Elecraft tells me that some of the earlier cables were *flaky* [although replacing mine did not cure the snag]; 2. Have you done any disassembly of the P3 chassis to make sure that all metal parts are making good electrical contact? My unit is Field Test #007 which had issues with inadequate paint masking where the 2-D fasteners are affixed[although, as per above, cleaning up most of my chassis didn't fix the problem either]. 3. What version of the P3 firmware re you using and what is the serial number of your P3? I cannot say that there is a cause-and-affect connection here, but my fault showed up not long after I downloaded v01.26. I'll report my fix here when I identify it, but in the meantime the commonality of the 20M band in your noise problem and my noise problem seemed worth mentioning. To make my issue more interesting, I can state unequivocally that my noise problem does not exhibit itself if I key the radio with an endless string of dits or with an endless string of dahs -- only when I send complete characters. My REF LVL increases by one to two S-units in the time it takes me to send my call, and recovers to where it should be in about the same amount of time after I cease keying the K3. That's with AVERAGE turned OFF (two button pushes of the AVERAGE control). This noise is sufficient to render the P3 somewhat useless for S&P contesting on 20M at the moment, although I have no doubt that are brethren and sistren in CA will eventually track this down. 73, Gary VE1RGB -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of VK4HIA Sent: March-30-13 1:37 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Utility Noise Good Day All, I am having a hard time trouble shooting a noise issue when opening the K3 utility or HRD. When ever either of these programs is opened I have a portion of 20m that becomes unusable due to a high noise floor, other parts of 20m increase by 1 - 2 S points. I have placed clip on ferrite beads on the P3 to PC cable. Here is a link to a short video of what it looks / sounds like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amk0EpL_skM <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amk0EpL_skM> Any advice is appreciated as I use HRD regularly. Regards, Brendon Tadgell VK4HIA -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-Utility-Noise-tp7571985.html Sent from the Elecraft 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 |
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In reply to this post by VK4HIA
Brendon
The first thing I would check is the computer's power supply. Normally if it is noisy you would see it whenever the computer is on, however I had one what was selective with the configuration the computer was operating in. I don't know what the standards in Australia are, but in the US we have an FCC part B specification. This dictates the noise characteristics allowed for home use. If a computer power supply doesn't state "FCC part B compliant" on it somewhere I won't touch it. I've been there a couple of times and don't want to go there again. Ed |
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In reply to this post by VK4HIA
I had a bad problem with noise when I hooked my K3 to my computer using a USB adapter and any program that polled the K3 frequency. I had to add a USB hub for another problem and discovered that it cured the noise problem. Now I always feed the USB adapter thru a USB hub and never have the noise problem on any of my three computers. Give that a try and I hope it works as well for you as it does for me.
73 Ken W0CZ Sent from my iPad On Mar 29, 2013, at 11:36 PM, VK4HIA <[hidden email]> wrote: > Good Day All, > > I am having a hard time trouble shooting a noise issue when opening the K3 > utility or HRD. > > When ever either of these programs is opened I have a portion of 20m that > becomes unusable due to a high noise floor, other parts of 20m increase by 1 > - 2 S points. > > I have placed clip on ferrite beads on the P3 to PC cable. > > Here is a link to a short video of what it looks / sounds like. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amk0EpL_skM > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amk0EpL_skM> > > Any advice is appreciated as I use HRD regularly. > > Regards, > > Brendon Tadgell > > VK4HIA > > > > -- > View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-Utility-Noise-tp7571985.html > Sent from the Elecraft 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 |
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