[Elecraft] Intermittent 20m

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

My K1 has an intermittent problem on 20 meters. Sometimes it workes
great, and I work QSOs with it. Other times it goes out completely. It
won't recieve anything, even band noise, the antenna tuner wont tune the
antenna, and when I press the key, the wattmeter doesn't show any bars.
Anybody have any hints, and how I can fix it without using a bunch fancy
equipment?

I had this problem before, and I replaced the 20 meters crystal and it
worked again. However, I have a hard time believing that two crystals
would go bad. 

I be grateful for any help that anyone might have, since 20 meters is my
favorite band.

Jonathan Broscious-KB3HVR
_______________________________________________


I'd be willing to be that the 20 meter crystal that you removed is good
too. Did you check it in an oscillator after removing it?  Sometimes the
act of replacing a component that is good will jiggle the intermittent,
making it look like replacing the component fixed the 

Unfortunately, there is NO amount of "fancy equipment" that I've ever
heard of that can trace down an intermittent like that. If it's working,
it isn't broken, so nothing is going to show up in testing. 

There are only two approaches to the issue:

1 - Troubleshoot it to find the fault when it is NOT working.

2 - Look for ways to make it quit working "on demand" and fix whatever
that is.

To troubleshoot it when it is NOT working, from your symptoms I'd
suggest first checking all of the circuits involved with 20 meters,
assuming that everything associated with the other band(s) is working.
One thing to look for is whether the latching relays are actually moving
to the proper positions. Since they do latch, that is something you can
confirm using resistance checks with the power off of the rig. 

To look for ways to make it quit working, I'd suggest taking an
insulated probe (plastic barrel of an old ball point will do - remove
the metal ball point or use the "back" end) and push against components
and connectors associated with the 20 meter circuits. What you describe
is most likely a missed/broken/bad solder joint somewhere, or possibly a
cracked resistor or capacitor. Also a very close visual inspection of
every solder joint often turns up a bad one. I recommend using a very
strong magnifier, even if your eyes are good. The strong magnifier
forces you to look at each joint and not "skip" over one.

Ron AC7AC
K2 #1289
.