Calibrating the Oscillator and Other Start-Up Questions for K3

Posted by KC2VNI on Feb 21, 2010; 8:56pm
URL: http://elecraft.85.s1.nabble.com/Calibrating-the-Oscillator-and-Other-Start-Up-Questions-for-K3-tp4608623.html

All: I am happy to report that S/N 3823 now has been powered up. I am following the following calibration steps on pages 65-66 of the assembly manual for the low power (5W) configuration. My personal computer is not working so I cannot connect the radio to a lap-top. I am doing all of the calibration and set up by the radio and whatever firmware has been shipped loaded in the radio.

Here are some questions:

1) I put the factory filter 2.7kHZ with offset of -0.82 in slot 3 and I do not have any other filters installed at this time. I put the filter there in case I want to add other filters later on. I set up the filter for bandwidth of 2.7 assuming that 2.7 is given in units KHZ. Is this correct? Also, I turned everything else for filters 1,2,4, and 5 off. Let me know if there's something I'm missing. Some additional questions:

a) I set the receive filter enables to filter 3 in my case for all modes USB, LSB, CW, etc.

b) What filter loss compensation should be used

c) I set the transmit filter selection to filter 3


2) Testing output with dummy load for transmitter gain: I used an MFJ load and tied it to antenna input 1. I believe that I performed the test per the instructions but the load did not feel very warm at 5W. Is this normal?

3) Reference Osillator Calibration: This seems to be the tricky 1. I have the standard 5PPM oscillator. I do not have a frequency counter. So this leaves me with Method 2 on page 50 of the operations manual. Now, in order to zero-beat this, I would assume that I need to attach my antenna to the radio. Here are questions:

a) Is my assumption correct about attaching the antenna to the radio?

b) What other parameters need to be adjusted (and what would good suggested values be) BEFORE I attach the antenna to the radio? I am not only referring to "set-up" parameters but other items that would interfere with my operating the radio.

c) Should I place the K3 antenna tuner on when performing an oscillator calibration? I would assume so to make the antenna match the transceiver

d) What should I use as a "strong broadcast station" at 10,15,or 20MHz? Does anybody have a suggested frequency I should use? Would one of the signal beacons used for propagation studies be a good referece? For what it's worth, I am in the Southern NJ area and all I have been using is my local repeater on 2M so I have NO idea as to what is or what is not a good frequency to use.

e) Would I be better off purchasing the XG2 mini project in lieu of trying to do oscillator calibration form a strong broadcast station for a reference oscillator? OR would I be better off shipping the radio back to Elecraft and having them do an oscillator calibration in the factory?

f) I had purchased the 100W power amp. It looks like I have to perform the transmitter gain calibraiton again and there is a calibration of a temperature sensor as well. Does the temperature sensor unit require calibration equipment on my part? Do I have to use the latest firmware from the website to make this work?

I realize I've asked alot of questions here. Any help would be appreciated.

73,

Steve de KC2VNI