[Elecraft] K2/100 Shuts Power Down

[Don Wilhelm]

Kevin,

I would speculate that you have a break in your cable near the APP connector
rather than a failure of the APP connector itself.

This is a result of cable flexing with soldered connectors.  The wire will
break at whatever point the solder has wicked back onto the cable.  If you
flex the cable, you can feel where the stiff part ends and the cable becomes
flexible - in my experience this will occur about an inch from the APP
connector.

Of course this is one good vote for crimped APP connections rather than
soldered, but I still prefer to solder mine.  Beware of this potential
problem and if it occurs, cut off about 1 inch of the cable and re-solder to
the APP connector.  A small knife blade or sharp flat-blade screwdriver can
be used to remove the insert from the APP connector - just pry up the
contact a bit and it should side out of the housing.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> Sounds like a problem I have had.  The power just folds for some
> reason.
> Well, I fixed it, but the problem is not what you may expect.  My
> K2/100,
> SN #2511, has been working fine for years but it, too, experienced this
> problem starting a few months ago.  I thought it was the power
> supply so I
> tried my battery power.  This worked for a while.  So I tried another
> power supply.  This too worked for a short while but the problem
> recurred.  A friend said look at the Anderson PP connectors and see if
> there is a loose connection or corrosion.  So, I made and broke the
> connection between both ends of the cables multiple times to wipe the
> silver connectors clean.  This worked for a while but the problem came
> back.  What did fix the problem for more than just a short period
> of time
> was to hang my power cable from hooks to take the strain off the
> connectors.  The weight of the cable was pulling on the connections
> creating an intermittent fault.  When the K2/100 warmed up enough the
> power connection would fail, the rig would emit some odd noises, power
> cycle, and I'd not be able to transmit at full power.  After hanging the
> cable this has not occurred again in twenty or more hours on the
> air.  Now
> I can run from either my batteries or from a power supply at 100 watts
> with no difficulty for an hour or more of CW.
>     Good luck,
>        Kevin.   KD5ONS
>