[Elecraft] Funky antenna issue

[John G. Fleischmann]

I am the owner of K1 #1891.  The rig has been working flawlessly for the
past month.  Today, I built the KAT1 tuner and installed it - it works fine.
(Nothing like co-mingling solder fumes with roasting turkey..)

 

I did discover a perplexing issue that I can't seem to resolve. If the
antenna is not connected to the rig, the rig does not power up at all. I
hooked the K1 to a dummy load to accomplish the "fine tuning", and the same
thing happened.  Curious, I hooked it up to a coaxial switch, with one lead
going to the dummy load and the other to the antenna.  When I turned the
switch to the dummy load, the rig shut down. I turned it off, switched the
lead to the antenna, and no problem whatsoever.  

 

I then turned the rig off, disconnected the antenna, and turned it back on.
Nothing.  Dead.  

 

I then reattached the antenna, and the rig fired right up.  

 

The power cable is fine-it's not getting jostled when I jockey the antennas.


 

Now I must confess that I had a glass of wine, but not THAT much :-)

 

Any thoughts?   

 

And. Happy Thanksgiving, albeit a bit late.

 

John

WI2C