Elecraft

Problem on the first weekend...

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Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz)

Problem on the first weekend...

Well.. I have the buddypole set up on the porch in back.. and was doing some attempts to hear.... and explore the bands.

Well, I limited operations to 20 meters... and the tuner said it was running a 1.0:1 or 1.1:1.... so I got that very close...

I went into the menu system, and noticed that the ATU setting was set to "not installed" - which wasn't the case. Set that to auto... and then things went downhill.

I tried to do a atu operation, and the system told me that there was a problem with transmitter calibration. I built the dummy load I bought with the radio, checked that, and it was a nice 50 ohm load. Plugged that in and attempted to do the power calibration... and got an error... Doing the same thing via the computer today.. same error.

The system failed to reach the expected power level on 1.9 mh.

Before even considering transmitting with the rig, I had dialed the power down to 0, but that didn't seem to impact the tuner at all.

Now, I get a d=0000
err txc and when I tap the tune button I get

err tx5

I did a reset (power on plus the PBT pressed.) -- Reset the atu setting to bypassed. went and tried the tune again, and got the same errors.

Has anyone seen that in the past? I hate to think something died before I could even transmit. <sigh>
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k6dgw

Re: Problem on the first weekend...

And, this is about which Elecraft product? It probably makes a difference.

And OT, I used a Buddipole for years and was very happy with it. It
should work great for you.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
- www.cqp.org

On 6/16/2013 2:08 PM, Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) wrote:
> Well.. I have the buddypole set up on the porch in back.. and was
> doing some attempts to hear.... and explore the bands.

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Gary Gregory-2

Re: Problem on the first weekend...

Kx3 i believe judging by the error messages.
:-)

Gary
Vk1ZZ
K3, KX3, KPA500-FT, KAT500-FT,P3.
On 17/06/2013 1:33 PM, "Fred Jensen" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> And, this is about which Elecraft product? It probably makes a difference.
>
> And OT, I used a Buddipole for years and was very happy with it. It
> should work great for you.
>
> 73,
>
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
> - www.cqp.org
>
> On 6/16/2013 2:08 PM, Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) wrote:
>
>> Well.. I have the buddypole set up on the porch in back.. and was
>> doing some attempts to hear.... and explore the bands.
>>
>
> ______________________________**______________________________**__
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email].**net <[hidden email]>
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
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Rick Tavan N6XI

Re: Problem on the first weekend...

In reply to this post by Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz)

If you tune the antenna to low SWR, as you did, then you don't need the internal ATU. Set it to Bypass and be happy. Use the ATU only with poorly matched antennas.

73,

Rick

--
Rick Tavan

On Jun 16, 2013, at 2:08 PM, "Bill Blomgren \(kk4qdz\)" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Well.. I have the buddypole set up on the porch in back.. and was doing some attempts to hear.... and explore the bands.
>
> Well, I limited operations to 20 meters... and the tuner said it was running a 1.0:1 or 1.1:1.... so I got that very close...
>
> I went into the menu system, and noticed that the ATU setting was set to "not installed" - which wasn't the case. Set that to auto... and then things went downhill.
>
> I tried to do a atu operation, and the system told me that there was a problem with transmitter calibration. I built the dummy load I bought with the radio, checked that, and it was a nice 50 ohm load. Plugged that in and attempted to do the power calibration... and got an error... Doing the same thing via the computer today.. same error.
>
> The system failed to reach the expected power level on 1.9 mh.
>
> Before even considering transmitting with the rig, I had dialed the power down to 0, but that didn't seem to impact the tuner at all.
>
> Now, I get a d=0000
> err txc and when I tap the tune button I get
>
> err tx5
>
> I did a reset (power on plus the PBT pressed.) -- Reset the atu setting to bypassed. went and tried the tune again, and got the same errors.
>
> Has anyone seen that in the past? I hate to think something died before I could even transmit. <sigh>
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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

Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz)

Re: Problem on the first weekend...

In reply to this post by Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz)

I'm not sure which part of what I did managed to make the machine confused enough to lose the bias setting...

Had I known ahead of time that the error indicated that I would have just run that calibration .. but did whatever caused that problem step on other calibration data?

KK4QDZ - Now with Extra Class Priv's, and a tiny KX3 to enjoy them!

________________________________
From: KENT TRIMBLE <[hidden email]>
To: Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) <[hidden email]>
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2013 10:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Problem on the first weekend...

Also the KX3 has to be powered by a power supply and not the internal batteries for the TX Gain to calibrate.

Glad you're making headway.

I had no problems with kit number 21.

Kent

On 6/16/2013 8:36 PM, Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) wrote:

The book said set it to 4 watts (exactly) - so I did that.

>
>The problem was that the transmit bias values were apparently lost somewhere along the line. Why? No idea.
>
>I did the transmit bias adjustment procedure, then the transmit gain worked perfectly. Now the problem of finding a local with a spectrum analyzer to reset the filtering on SSB. <sigh>
>
>
>KK4QDZ - Now with Extra Class Priv's, and a tiny KX3 to enjoy them!
>
>From: K9ZTV mailto:[hidden email]
>To: Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) mailto:[hidden email]
>Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2013 7:09 PM
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Problem on the first weekend...
>
>
>Bill,
>
>If its a KX3 you're dealing with, make sure the power is set to 10 watts output before doing the TX gain calibration.
>
>73,
>
>Kent. K9ZTV
>K3/KX3 sn 21
>
>
>On Jun 16, 2013, at 4:08 PM, "Bill Blomgren \(kk4qdz\)" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Well.. I have the buddypole set up on the porch in back.. and was doing some attempts to hear.... and explore the bands.
>>
>> Well, I limited operations to 20 meters... and the tuner said it was running a 1.0:1 or 1.1:1.... so I got that very close...
>>
>> I went into the menu system, and noticed that the ATU setting was set to "not installed" - which wasn't the case. Set that to auto... and then things went downhill.
>>
>> I tried to do a atu operation, and the system told me that there was a problem with transmitter calibration. I built the dummy load I bought with the radio, checked that, and it was a nice 50 ohm load. Plugged that in and attempted to do the power calibration... and got an error... Doing the same thing via the computer today.. same error.
>>
>> The system failed to reach the expected power level on 1.9 mh.
>>
>> Before even considering transmitting with the rig, I had dialed the power down to 0, but that didn't seem to impact the tuner at all.
>>
>> Now, I get a d=0000
>> err txc and when I tap the tune button I get
>>
>> err tx5
>>
>> I did a reset (power on plus the PBT pressed.) -- Reset the atu setting to bypassed. went and tried the tune again, and got the same errors.
>>
>> Has anyone seen that in the past? I hate to think something died before I could even transmit. <sigh>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> 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
>>
>
>