Re: [Elecraft_K3] Re: Power gain calibration

[Dick Dievendorff]

This turned out to be a K3 Utility bug, which showed up in Tx Gain
calibration if your K3 has the K3 CONFIG menu: "AUTO INF" set to something
other than NOR.  Users of a SteppIR controller might normally have this set.

 

Earlier versions of the K3 Utility turned off Auto-Info and restored it
after Tx Gain calibration was complete. A few months ago I made changes to
remove Auto Info setters in an effort to be compatible with LP-Bridge's
requirements.  Larry, N8LP, indicated that changing Auto Info interfered
with rig sharing and that was a reason (perhaps not the only reason) that
the K3 Utility wasn't able to run under LP-Bridge.

 

When Auto Info is on, a fair number of unsolicited responses are generated
when the band is changed.  The calibration code issues a band change setter,
then reads the existing frequency on the new band (so that the "last used"
frequency on each band can be restored), then changes to the calibration
frequency.  The frequency setter is issued during the flurry of unsolicited
responses and apparently was lost (on some radios but not others), and the
retry code reissued a confirming frequency query rather than reissuing the
frequency setter.  I've changed the K3 Utility Tx Gain calibration routine
to re-issue the frequency setter in these circumstances.

 

I've asked our web site owner  to move the newly fixed version to the
Elecraft K3 software web page.  That sometimes takes a little while
depending on workload.

 

If you are suffering from this issue and don't mind being a bit of a
pioneer, the new K3 Utility version is available from this FTP site:

 

ftp://ftp.elecraft.com/tmp/K3/K3UTIL/K3_Utility_Setup_1_4_1_8.exe

 

Thanks to John, N1JM, for testing the new version and for supplying before
and after fix traces.

Thanks to Jack, W6FB, for an earlier note that suggested that my retry code
should reissue the setter rather than the getter.  You were right, Jack!

Thanks to Adrian, VK4TUX, for noting that I had an extra period in the
hyperlink to the FTP location in an earlier message.

 

Neither of my K3s did this in my repeated tests of Tx Gain calibration with
Auto Info on.  Band change time is variable.

 

73 de Dick, K6KR

 

> From: [hidden email] <mailto:Elecraft_K3%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:[hidden email] <mailto:Elecraft_K3%40yahoogroups.com> ]
On

> Behalf Of John Merrill
> Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2011 10:52 AM
> To: Elecraft_K3
> Subject: [Elecraft_K3] Power gain calibration
>
>
> Must be doing something wrong. Using the utility I get this error for both
> 5w and 50w cal:
>
> Elecraft K3 Utility Version 1.3.10.15
> OS Version 6.1 Build 7600 Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2
> Starting 50 watt calibration
> Calibrating at 1.900 MHz
> Elapsed time: 17 seconds
> K3 did not respond to VFO A query (FA)
> 50 watt calibration failed
>
> FA responds fine on the command tester tab.
>
> 73,
> John N1JM
>

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