Operating the Ten Tec 422B Amp QSK with a K3/K3S

[Bill Braun]

Has anyone had experience using a Ten Tec 422B Centurion Amp that normally uses a Transceiver/Amp “Keying Loop” with a K3/K3S in QSK mode?

Bill, K8ZCT
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[Jim Brown-10]

On Fri,5/27/2016 1:08 PM, Bill Braun wrote:
> Has anyone had experience using a Ten Tec 422B Centurion Amp that normally uses a Transceiver/Amp “Keying Loop” with a K3/K3S in QSK mode?

Hi Bill,

My experience with Ten Tec amps is that they work just fine without
using the keying loop if you simply feed the AMP Key out of the K3 to
the PTT input of the amp. I've done this quite successfully with my
three Titan 425s (Ten Tec's original legal limit amp) and my Hercules
II. Set the K3 for full QSK.

This doesn't keep up with fast CW at full QSK (more than about 30 wpm),
but it's fine below that.  For higher speeds, set the K3 for
semi-break-in. That's how I use it, both because I often run faster than
30 wpm during contests, and because I got tired of changing vacuum
relays in the Titan in the middle of a contest. :)

The default delay PTT setting in the K3 is fine for the amps I own. I
don't know about the 422B, but Ten Tec amps are protected from hot
switching, so if your amp doesn't key, simply make that delay setting a
few msec longer. See the menu section of the manual for info on how to
set it.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Bill Braun]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the quick reply.  This is what I was hoping to hear. The 422B has
been a reliable amp and I didn’t want to do anything
that would mess it or the K3S up. I had some concerns about the Ten Tec
method of keying with non Ten Tec transceivers that I found in my 422B
manual.
I didn’t like the idea of plugging a key into the Ten Tec amp and feeding
back to the non Ten Tec transceiver(K3S)"key jack" with a cable from the
"key out" of the amplifier. I would like to use all the built-in keying
features of
the K3S and not use an external keyer.  I will set the 422B to PTT/VOX and
run the one cable per your recommendation.

73,

Bill, K8ZCT





-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 4:42 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Operating the Ten Tec 422B Amp QSK with a K3/K3S

On Fri,5/27/2016 1:08 PM, Bill Braun wrote:
> Has anyone had experience using a Ten Tec 422B Centurion Amp that normally
> uses a Transceiver/Amp “Keying Loop” with a K3/K3S in QSK mode?

Hi Bill,

My experience with Ten Tec amps is that they work just fine without
using the keying loop if you simply feed the AMP Key out of the K3 to
the PTT input of the amp. I've done this quite successfully with my
three Titan 425s (Ten Tec's original legal limit amp) and my Hercules
II. Set the K3 for full QSK.

This doesn't keep up with fast CW at full QSK (more than about 30 wpm),
but it's fine below that.  For higher speeds, set the K3 for
semi-break-in. That's how I use it, both because I often run faster than
30 wpm during contests, and because I got tired of changing vacuum
relays in the Titan in the middle of a contest. :)

The default delay PTT setting in the K3 is fine for the amps I own. I
don't know about the 422B, but Ten Tec amps are protected from hot
switching, so if your amp doesn't key, simply make that delay setting a
few msec longer. See the menu section of the manual for info on how to
set it.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Jim Brown-10]

On Fri,5/27/2016 3:57 PM, Bill Braun wrote:
> I will set the 422B to PTT/VOX and run the one cable per your
> recommendation.

I do suggest that you have a good CW op listen to it and make sure that
it's fast enough that it's not shortening dits and dahs at speeds where
you like to work.

73, Jim
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[Jim Brown-10]

On Fri,5/27/2016 5:21 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> any help will be appreciated.

I suggest that you ask on the Ten Tec reflector, and also on the Amps
reflector.

73, Jim K9YC
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