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Odd transverter bugaboo agian

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Bob KD7YZ

Odd transverter bugaboo agian

Howdy K3' people:

I have not solved an annoying bugaboo with the workings of the
transverters.

So I unchained the three and am trying to get the 6m transverter to stay
consistent.

the 432 and the 144 will work individually. The 6m one is not-sp-much

For example, I have the 6m internal ability to get on six and I have the
red-hot, weak-signal ready, xv50. But when I try to transmit, it may or
may not actually put out RF/make the LED;s light and make a sound of
some internal relay inside it.

Or ... I will put out 30 watts.

I was calling cq a little while again. I then dialed around looking for 6m
beacons. There seems to be certain combinations of buttons I can activate
which will make the transverter not put out RF. Sometimes I can shut
the power supplies off and come back later and it will transmit.

I have inspected cables; swapped cables; twisted turned and shook,
looking for loose connections . I am not able, even at the moment, to
make the darned thing transmit. Yes, the XV50 light is on.

Just out of curiosity, how t=does the 6m transverter know that if I use
DxLab Commander to select 50.095 CW, that I am talking about a
transverter and not the internal?

Cuz, if I go Band-up to 6m, I am on the internal 50meg band. If I i use
'Commander' then I get activation on the XV50 but not always the output.

--
73
KD7YZ Bob

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Bob KD7YZ

Re: Odd transverter bugaboo agian

On Wednesday Bob used a Straight-Key to send:
-------------Original Comment-------
> Howdy K3' people:

> I have not solved an annoying bugaboo with the workings of the
> transverters.

But I may be onto something. after sending this, I picked it up off the
desk while I was sending a string of dots and it came to life.

Now, I have opened up al the connectors which run form the K3
daisy-chained to each transverter. More than once. So anything loose
is going to be a tough one since it's not obvious.

will get back with another result.

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: Odd transverter bugaboo agian

In reply to this post by Bob KD7YZ

Bob,

Do you have 50 MHz mapped out in the K3 band mapping? If not, you can
become confused between the K3 normal 50 MHz band and the TRN1 band for
your XV50. On the surface, it sounds like you are attempting to operate
on the base K3 50 MHz band. If that is the case, your XV50 will not
transmit. You must be on the TRN1 band to activate your XV50, so
disable the 50 MHz band on your K3 and band switching will be much
smoother (and should produce the expected results).

I am not familiar with how Commander handles the transverter bands, so I
cannot respond to that aspect.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 1/30/2013 10:23 PM, KD7YZ Bob wrote:

> Howdy K3' people:
>
> I have not solved an annoying bugaboo with the workings of the
> transverters.
>
> So I unchained the three and am trying to get the 6m transverter to stay
> consistent.
>
> the 432 and the 144 will work individually. The 6m one is not-sp-much
>
> For example, I have the 6m internal ability to get on six and I have the
> red-hot, weak-signal ready, xv50. But when I try to transmit, it may or
> may not actually put out RF/make the LED;s light and make a sound of
> some internal relay inside it.
>
> Or ... I will put out 30 watts.
>
> I was calling cq a little while again. I then dialed around looking for 6m
> beacons. There seems to be certain combinations of buttons I can activate
> which will make the transverter not put out RF. Sometimes I can shut
> the power supplies off and come back later and it will transmit.
>
> I have inspected cables; swapped cables; twisted turned and shook,
> looking for loose connections . I am not able, even at the moment, to
> make the darned thing transmit. Yes, the XV50 light is on.
>
> Just out of curiosity, how t=does the 6m transverter know that if I use
> DxLab Commander to select 50.095 CW, that I am talking about a
> transverter and not the internal?
>
> Cuz, if I go Band-up to 6m, I am on the internal 50meg band. If I i use
> 'Commander' then I get activation on the XV50 but not always the output.
>

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Bob KD7YZ

Re: Odd transverter bugaboo agian --solved

Hi Don,

> Do you have 50 MHz mapped out in the K3 band mapping?

Excellent call, Don !
I'd not fully understood the BND-Map with respect to additional
transverter implications, especially that the K3 has 50mhz as does the
XV50. So my error was that I'd unmapped XV650 and allowed K3(50) .

With regards to the bugaboo about 6m xvter nt functional all the time,
Daisy-Chain Plug #2 measured from the end of the chain, had a very very
small pigtail extending from where the two cable-bare-ground wires went
into that pin on the end. The pigtail allowed contact to the adjacent
non-used pin. Now, I can't say that it mattered since the pin is unused
in the plug itself. I do knpw that once I clipped the roughly 1/32nd
extension that no matter how I twisted-about that cable, the XV50
continued to transmit. 'd missed it I guess the other times I'd opened
the connector.

Well, I hope this fixed it anyway If I come back in a say or two whining
about intermittent output on xvtr then its a different matter.

While I have the attention, the outputs power of the XV50 is 30, on its
LED's and sorta that on the wattmeter(s).

This is good. Except that the indicated drive from the K3, via
CONFIG:XV1-PWR, is "L . 12"

If I allow the setting of 1.0 mw then I can get more out and we know
this is absolutely not what we want lest I blow the PA.

I'd had it set as the other xvtr's at L 1.0 mw .

--
73
KD7YZ Bob

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: Odd transverter bugaboo agian --solved

Bob,

If the power output of the XV50 is left at 30 watts, you are likely to
overheat the output module.
Remove the top cover and adjust the Input Attenuator pot near the
center. Drive it at 1.00 mW and adjust the pot a bit so the power drops
to 20 watts.
Set the K3 XVn PWR menu to L 1.00 and you should be good to go.

Sorry about that 'whisker' on the cable, but good to hear that you have
it corrected.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 1/31/2013 8:02 AM, KD7YZ Bob wrote:

> Hi Don,
>
>> Do you have 50 MHz mapped out in the K3 band mapping?
> Excellent call, Don !
> I'd not fully understood the BND-Map with respect to additional
> transverter implications, especially that the K3 has 50mhz as does the
> XV50. So my error was that I'd unmapped XV650 and allowed K3(50) .
>
> With regards to the bugaboo about 6m xvter nt functional all the time,
> Daisy-Chain Plug #2 measured from the end of the chain, had a very very
> small pigtail extending from where the two cable-bare-ground wires went
> into that pin on the end. The pigtail allowed contact to the adjacent
> non-used pin. Now, I can't say that it mattered since the pin is unused
> in the plug itself. I do knpw that once I clipped the roughly 1/32nd
> extension that no matter how I twisted-about that cable, the XV50
> continued to transmit. 'd missed it I guess the other times I'd opened
> the connector.
>
> Well, I hope this fixed it anyway If I come back in a say or two whining
> about intermittent output on xvtr then its a different matter.
>
> While I have the attention, the outputs power of the XV50 is 30, on its
> LED's and sorta that on the wattmeter(s).
>
> This is good. Except that the indicated drive from the K3, via
> CONFIG:XV1-PWR, is "L . 12"
>
> If I allow the setting of 1.0 mw then I can get more out and we know
> this is absolutely not what we want lest I blow the PA.
>
> I'd had it set as the other xvtr's at L 1.0 mw .
>
>
>
>