This has been a day one issue with my K3 S/N 1240.
After going to RX after TX, the RX gain drops by 40 dB or so. It is worse
on 160m than on 10m. When the RX goes dead, a dit on the paddle (in cw
mode) or press of the XMIT button restores the full gain. In the past this
was not a common occurrence.
This has become less than intermittent. Last night on 160m I was unable to
work VP2VB on 160m FT8 as the drop in RX gain would cause the decode to
fail. The RX gain would be fine for 10s after TX, but would then drop out.
On FT8 there is no way to press the XMIT button without killing the decode.
This problem seems to be somewhat related as to how long the TX function
has been used. Obviously, calling VP2VB on FT8 keeps the radio warmer - it
is driving a KPA500 amplifier. When in the 'low gain' mode switching
between ANT1 and ANT2 does not fix the problem. The ATT and PRE functions
seem to work as expected. Quite often the K3 will turn on in the 'low gain'
state.
TX seems to be fine. I don't notice any SWR jumps coming out of the 'low
gain' RX state. My guess is that the RXB voltage is not stable or one of
the RX pin diodes is bad.
Anyone else had this problem or anything to check before sending the K3
back to Elecraft?
Thanks,
Steve, K6UM
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