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Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

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Dennis Egan

Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

Several days ago I posted the below to the Reflector. After a couple of
days of reproducing the below errors,
I can safely say that NONE of them are connected to the Synthesizer
Upgrade. Since they all happened
since the upgrade I made the incorrect assumption that that had
something to do with the new problems.

#1- DVK- Cockpit error. M1 and M2 did not have a message recorded in
them, so gave incorrect responses
when I tried to play those message. Recorded messages in both, all work
normally.
#2- No resolution to this yet.
#3- Could not reproduce the error. May be tied to #5.
#4- This is how the radio is supposed to function. Hit a key that can't
execute when you're transmitting, and
the K3 is supposed to stop transmitting and give the errors.
#5- This seems to be an N1MMLogger+ error, but hasn't been confirmed
yet. The DSE errors seemed to
be created in the K3 by bad input from N1MM+; in any case, the two got
out of sync, and the DSE errors
were created.
#6- Diversity was a red herring. I could reproduce the problems whether
diversity was on or off. During the
contest, problems didn't seem to start until diversity was turned on,
but further research shows that diversity
had nothing to with any problems.
#7- Same as #6.

The Synthesizer upgrade didn't have anything to do with the problems I had.

Dennis W1UE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did the Synthesizer on my K3 a couple of weeks ago. After putting in
the synthesizers, I also upgraded to Firmware 5.33, which was the latest
at the time (I see that 5.35 was released the day after I did the
upgrade). The SYNTH OK messages were seen on the menu, and the
configuration was redone as specified in the instructions. I also took
care not to lose any washers inside the radio, and to not disturb
anything within the radio. Since then, I have had a number of issues
with my K3.

#1- DVK doesn't work via N1MM command. VFO B says "DVK Not installed",
but I do have one installed. I can also play the messages by pressing
the Message key. I checked the config menu, and it says it is installed.
#2- I have heard a number of loud audio "pops" since the above changes.
#3- I have actually lost audio several times with no VFO B errors- audio
just stops in the middle of a QSO.
#4- During CQWW RTTY, if I was transmitting and pushed a key- say A/B,
or Rev- transmitting stops, I get an "Error PTT" followed by an "Error
Key" in the VFO B window for a few seconds each, then the radio clears
itself. I can then resume transmitting. No audio loss while this is
happening.
#5- During the contest, N1MM would show the Radio Mode as PSK. The
program would keep on transmitting RTTY, and what went into the log was
indicated as RTTY, the K3 was working properly in RTTY and indicated it
was in Mode D FSK correctly.
#6- When I tried to use Diversity reception, the K3 would switch into
Diversity mode correctly. After a while, I would get a sudden total
audio loss and one of several DSE errors: E015555, E005555, 00C2C2,
003030.
#7- Turning the diversity OFF seemed to decrease the severity of
In all cases, power cycling the radio would clear the error and the
audio would be restored.

I've tried reloading firmware, and it reloaded without a problem. Yes,
I power cycled the radio immediately after the firmware update was
done. I haven't tried downloading the firmware a second time from the
web site, and then reloading it into the radio but I suspect that may be
the next thing that I try.

At this point, I'm open to suggestions. Thanks for input!

Dennis W1UE

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wayne burdick

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

Administrator

Hi Dennis,

> #2- I have heard a number of loud audio "pops" since the above changes.

Please email me directly with a description of how these pops can be produced, i.e. what controls you're using at the time.

> #4- During CQWW RTTY, if I was transmitting and pushed a key- say A/B, or Rev- transmitting stops, I get an "Error PTT" followed by an "Error Key" in the VFO B window for a few seconds each, then the radio clears itself. I can then resume transmitting. No audio loss while this is happening.

This shouldn't happen. I've been trying to reproduce it. Again, let me know exactly how the rig is set up and whether there's a way to consistently reproduce it.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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Guy Olinger K2AV

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

In reply to this post by Dennis Egan

About #2, make sure you did not accidentally have the AGC off. If you like
to operate without AGC, you can set the AGC to not cut in until a signal is
quite loud, and then holds anything higher to the same level. It's kind of
like AGC OFF with a safety valve.

73, Guy K2AV

On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 1:30 PM, Dennis <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Several days ago I posted the below to the Reflector. After a couple of
> days of reproducing the below errors,
> I can safely say that NONE of them are connected to the Synthesizer
> Upgrade. Since they all happened
> since the upgrade I made the incorrect assumption that that had something
> to do with the new problems.
>
> #1- DVK- Cockpit error. M1 and M2 did not have a message recorded in
> them, so gave incorrect responses
> when I tried to play those message. Recorded messages in both, all work
> normally.
> #2- No resolution to this yet.
> #3- Could not reproduce the error. May be tied to #5.
> #4- This is how the radio is supposed to function. Hit a key that can't
> execute when you're transmitting, and
> the K3 is supposed to stop transmitting and give the errors.
> #5- This seems to be an N1MMLogger+ error, but hasn't been confirmed yet.
> The DSE errors seemed to
> be created in the K3 by bad input from N1MM+; in any case, the two got out
> of sync, and the DSE errors
> were created.
> #6- Diversity was a red herring. I could reproduce the problems whether
> diversity was on or off. During the
> contest, problems didn't seem to start until diversity was turned on, but
> further research shows that diversity
> had nothing to with any problems.
> #7- Same as #6.
>
> The Synthesizer upgrade didn't have anything to do with the problems I had.
>
> Dennis W1UE
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I did the Synthesizer on my K3 a couple of weeks ago. After putting in
> the synthesizers, I also upgraded to Firmware 5.33, which was the latest at
> the time (I see that 5.35 was released the day after I did the upgrade).
> The SYNTH OK messages were seen on the menu, and the configuration was
> redone as specified in the instructions. I also took care not to lose any
> washers inside the radio, and to not disturb anything within the radio.
> Since then, I have had a number of issues with my K3.
>
> #1- DVK doesn't work via N1MM command. VFO B says "DVK Not installed",
> but I do have one installed. I can also play the messages by pressing the
> Message key. I checked the config menu, and it says it is installed.
> #2- I have heard a number of loud audio "pops" since the above changes.
> #3- I have actually lost audio several times with no VFO B errors- audio
> just stops in the middle of a QSO.
> #4- During CQWW RTTY, if I was transmitting and pushed a key- say A/B, or
> Rev- transmitting stops, I get an "Error PTT" followed by an "Error Key" in
> the VFO B window for a few seconds each, then the radio clears itself. I
> can then resume transmitting. No audio loss while this is happening.
> #5- During the contest, N1MM would show the Radio Mode as PSK. The
> program would keep on transmitting RTTY, and what went into the log was
> indicated as RTTY, the K3 was working properly in RTTY and indicated it was
> in Mode D FSK correctly.
> #6- When I tried to use Diversity reception, the K3 would switch into
> Diversity mode correctly. After a while, I would get a sudden total audio
> loss and one of several DSE errors: E015555, E005555, 00C2C2, 003030.
> #7- Turning the diversity OFF seemed to decrease the severity of
> In all cases, power cycling the radio would clear the error and the audio
> would be restored.
>
> I've tried reloading firmware, and it reloaded without a problem. Yes, I
> power cycled the radio immediately after the firmware update was done. I
> haven't tried downloading the firmware a second time from the web site, and
> then reloading it into the radio but I suspect that may be the next thing
> that I try.
>
> At this point, I'm open to suggestions. Thanks for input!
>
> Dennis W1UE
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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Dennis Egan

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

In reply to this post by wayne burdick

Wayne

I've tried to reproduce #2 with no luck. It happened several times
during the contest, but I couldn't draw
any conclusions with what I was doing and the pops. I've played with
the K3 for several hours after the
contest but have not had the pops reoccur.

#4 is easily reproduced. In SSB mode, activate the PTT. Push the REV
key, and one of two things happens:
if you keep the radio keyed, ERR PTT shows on VFO B until you unkey it,
then its followed by ERR KEY.
Happens with any key that doesn't function when you're transmitting.
When it happened during the RTTY contest,
the K3 would stop transmitting, ERR PTT would show for about 5 seconds,
then followed by ERR KEY for
about another 5 seconds. Then I could transmit again.

Firmware 5.33 and 5.35 did it the same- currently using 5.35. For what
I just did, the K3 was standing alone-
there was no computer connection. Config:PTT-Key is off/off.

When I received your email, I went out to confirm what I had already
written. Now I find my K3 says "NO DVR"
in response to pushing M1 to M4, while yesterday it worked perfectly.
Not sure what is happening here.

Dennis W1UE

On 10/1/2015 1:53 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:

> Hi Dennis,
>
>> #2- I have heard a number of loud audio "pops" since the above changes.
> Please email me directly with a description of how these pops can be produced, i.e. what controls you're using at the time.
>
>
>> #4- During CQWW RTTY, if I was transmitting and pushed a key- say A/B, or Rev- transmitting stops, I get an "Error PTT" followed by an "Error Key" in the VFO B window for a few seconds each, then the radio clears itself. I can then resume transmitting. No audio loss while this is happening.
> This shouldn't happen. I've been trying to reproduce it. Again, let me know exactly how the rig is set up and whether there's a way to consistently reproduce it.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>

wayne burdick

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

Administrator

OK, Dennis, I'll try to reproduce this.

Wayne
N6KR

On Oct 1, 2015, at 11:14 AM, Dennis <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Wayne
>
> I've tried to reproduce #2 with no luck. It happened several times during the contest, but I couldn't draw
> any conclusions with what I was doing and the pops. I've played with the K3 for several hours after the
> contest but have not had the pops reoccur.
>
> #4 is easily reproduced. In SSB mode, activate the PTT. Push the REV key, and one of two things happens:
> if you keep the radio keyed, ERR PTT shows on VFO B until you unkey it, then its followed by ERR KEY….
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NK7Z

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

In reply to this post by wayne burdick

I got a few of the ERR KEY messages as well, I am unable to reproduce
them as well...
--
Thanks and 73's,
For equipment, and software setups and reviews see:
www.nk7z.net

For MixW support see;
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mixw/info
For Dopplergram information see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dopplergram/info
For MM-SSTV see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MM-SSTV/info

On Thu, 2015-10-01 at 10:53 -0700, Wayne Burdick wrote:

> Hi Dennis,
>
> > #2- I have heard a number of loud audio "pops" since the above changes.
>
> Please email me directly with a description of how these pops can be produced, i.e. what controls you're using at the time.
>
>
> > #4- During CQWW RTTY, if I was transmitting and pushed a key- say A/B, or Rev- transmitting stops, I get an "Error PTT" followed by an "Error Key" in the VFO B window for a few seconds each, then the radio clears itself. I can then resume transmitting. No audio loss while this is happening.
>
> This shouldn't happen. I've been trying to reproduce it. Again, let me know exactly how the rig is set up and whether there's a way to consistently reproduce it.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

wayne burdick

Re: Update: K3 Issues Since Synthesizer Upgrade

Administrator

In reply to this post by Dennis Egan

> #4 is easily reproduced. In SSB mode, activate the PTT. Push the REV key, and one of two things happens:
> if you keep the radio keyed, ERR PTT shows on VFO B until you unkey it, then its followed by ERR KEY.
> Happens with any key that doesn't function when you're transmitting. When it happened during the RTTY contest,
> the K3 would stop transmitting, ERR PTT would show for about 5 seconds, then followed by ERR KEY for
> about another 5 seconds. Then I could transmit again.

Dennis,

This was indeed a bug. Thanks for catching it.

These error messages (ERR PTT/ERR KEY) were only intended to appear in the case where PTT-KEY via a PC is in use, and the operator is trying to escape such keying by tapping the XMIT switch (one way to exit transmit). While an error message is displayed, the user can even go into the menu and turn off PTT-KEY if necessary. If this makes the error message disappear, then you know your PC is what was keying the rig.

The fix will be in the next K3/K3S firmware release.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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