Love/Hate your K3
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Three hours into cqww the output power on my K3 started fluctuating wildly and then went to zero. It happened last week too but recovered but this time it looked final; after significant preparations for the contest and in the middle of a freezing night I wasn't a happy person.
I'd sort of resigned myself to waiting a few hours and then driving 35 miles to hopefully borrow a K3 from a friend who wouldn't be doing the contest; first though I'd quickly check the reflector and to my delight up popped a message describing this very fault, caused by the TMP cable coming loose from the J7 connector on the KREF3 board (thanks N3CAQ..!). Off came the lid to reveal a well seated cable but a nudge on J7 with a pen brought the rf back to life! Mightily relieved I carried on and things were fine for a couple of hours until the same thing happened; this time I removed the 2nd receiver and took out the cable to test it and sure enough the meter across the centre pins showed intermittent continuity....gently flexing the cable caused the connection to come and go. Interested to speculate how long the cable has been faulty; this ancient model (#145) has definitely showed power fluctuations in the past on occasion but I've assumed a software source (can't explain it..? must be software..!) so maybe it's been like it from new, don't know. The good news was I remembered having a spare new TMP cable left over from the KRX3 fitting which I used and all was then back to normality. This now begs the question of getting replacement TMP cables which I will pose to Aptos since I assume they are custom made and I can't imagine a non-specialised crimping tool doing the job. Moral of this tale is check the reflector first, and watch your connections; the few problems I've had over the years (including random error messages) have all been traced to less than perfect contacts of one sort or another. CQWW was excellent though I am considering claiming for an hours worth of points from Aptos ;-) Thanks to all those calls familiar from here for the Qs on 40m - I was sosb low power. Stewart Rolfe, GW0ETF |
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Hi Stewart
TMP connectors can easily be made up with nothing more than a soldering iron (for the centre pin) and pliers (for the outer). It's a one-way trip - they're not designed to be undone. If you have an intermittent I think it's a fair bet that one of the pins looks like it is soldered but the solder may not have taken to the inner conductor. However, I don't know of a UK source for TMP, and if anyone does, I'd be very interested to know ! Regards John -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of GW0ETF Sent: 29 November 2010 16:00 To: [hidden email] Subject: [Elecraft] Love/Hate your K3 Three hours into cqww the output power on my K3 started fluctuating wildly and then went to zero. It happened last week too but recovered but this time it looked final; after significant preparations for the contest and in the middle of a freezing night I wasn't a happy person. I'd sort of resigned myself to waiting a few hours and then driving 35 miles to hopefully borrow a K3 from a friend who wouldn't be doing the contest; first though I'd quickly check the reflector and to my delight up popped a message describing this very fault, caused by the TMP cable coming loose from the J7 connector on the KREF3 board (thanks N3CAQ..!). Off came the lid to reveal a well seated cable but a nudge on J7 with a pen brought the rf back to life! Mightily relieved I carried on and things were fine for a couple of hours until the same thing happened; this time I removed the 2nd receiver and took out the cable to test it and sure enough the meter across the centre pins showed intermittent continuity....gently flexing the cable caused the connection to come and go. Interested to speculate how long the cable has been faulty; this ancient model (#145) has definitely showed power fluctuations in the past on occasion but I've assumed a software source (can't explain it..? must be software..!) so maybe it's been like it from new, don't know. The good news was I remembered having a spare new TMP cable left over from the KRX3 fitting which I used and all was then back to normality. This now begs the question of getting replacement TMP cables which I will pose to Aptos since I assume they are custom made and I can't imagine a non-specialised crimping tool doing the job. Moral of this tale is check the reflector first, and watch your connections; the few problems I've had over the years (including random error messages) have all been traced to less than perfect contacts of one sort or another. CQWW was excellent though I am considering claiming for an hours worth of points from Aptos ;-) Thanks to all those calls familiar from here for the Qs on 40m - I was sosb low power. Stewart Rolfe, GW0ETF -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Love-Hate-your-K3-tp5784838p5784838.htm l 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 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5658 (20101129) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5658 (20101129) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.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 |
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John Lemay wrote:
> >TMP connectors can easily be made up with nothing more than a soldering >iron (for the centre pin) and pliers (for the outer). It's a one-way >trip - they're not designed to be undone. > >If you have an intermittent I think it's a fair bet that one of the >pins looks like it is soldered but the solder may not have taken to the >inner conductor. > >However, I don't know of a UK source for TMP, and if anyone does, I'd >be very interested to know ! > Icom UK have been helpful with these in the past. -- 73 from Ian GM3SEK http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek ______________________________________________________________ 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 GW0ETF
Hi Stewart,
The modular design of K3 is really good. We can identify the problematic area and just send back / acquire the problematic part to / from Elecraft if necessary. As we are overseas K3 users, I do like the modular design. It would be absolutely painful for me if I had to be so unfortunately to send back my IC7800 to Osaka, Japan for servicing. cheers, Johnny VR2XMC ----- 郵件原件 ---- 寄件人﹕ GW0ETF <[hidden email]> 收件人﹕ [hidden email] 傳送日期﹕ 2010/11/30 (二) 12:00:06 AM 主題： [Elecraft] Love/Hate your K3 Three hours into cqww the output power on my K3 started fluctuating wildly and then went to zero. It happened last week too but recovered but this time it looked final; after significant preparations for the contest and in the middle of a freezing night I wasn't a happy person. I'd sort of resigned myself to waiting a few hours and then driving 35 miles to hopefully borrow a K3 from a friend who wouldn't be doing the contest; first though I'd quickly check the reflector and to my delight up popped a message describing this very fault, caused by the TMP cable coming loose from the J7 connector on the KREF3 board (thanks N3CAQ..!). Off came the lid to reveal a well seated cable but a nudge on J7 with a pen brought the rf back to life! Mightily relieved I carried on and things were fine for a couple of hours until the same thing happened; this time I removed the 2nd receiver and took out the cable to test it and sure enough the meter across the centre pins showed intermittent continuity....gently flexing the cable caused the connection to come and go. Interested to speculate how long the cable has been faulty; this ancient model (#145) has definitely showed power fluctuations in the past on occasion but I've assumed a software source (can't explain it..? must be software..!) so maybe it's been like it from new, don't know. The good news was I remembered having a spare new TMP cable left over from the KRX3 fitting which I used and all was then back to normality. This now begs the question of getting replacement TMP cables which I will pose to Aptos since I assume they are custom made and I can't imagine a non-specialised crimping tool doing the job. Moral of this tale is check the reflector first, and watch your connections; the few problems I've had over the years (including random error messages) have all been traced to less than perfect contacts of one sort or another. CQWW was excellent though I am considering claiming for an hours worth of points from Aptos ;-) Thanks to all those calls familiar from here for the Qs on 40m - I was sosb low power. Stewart Rolfe, GW0ETF -- ______________________________________________________________ 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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