[Elecraft] No power out on K1

[Mike Morrow]

Cathy wrote:

>I've nearly completed my K1, and the receiver has been calibrated and 
>works extremely well....  
>
>Sadly, the transmitter has not been so kind.  Any attempt to put the 
>unit in transmit mode (by pushing WPM+ and WPM- together) resets the 
>power out to 0.1 watts, which is confirmed by the external wattmeter.

Cathy,

By "resets the power out to 0.1 watts" do you mean that when you perform the steps on page 19 of the KFL1-4 manual to "Put the K1 into TUNE mode.  Adjust C5, C6, CE ..."  that you see P0.1 in the LCD?

If so, then probably everything is OK and normal, at this point in tuning the KFL1-4.  

In TUNE mode, the LCD displays actual power output, and *not* the 2.0 value that you *set* as the power output limit on page 46 of the K1 manual.

Until you make further critical adjustments to the filter board capacitors, you may indeed have very little actual power output, so P0.1 indicated after going into TUNE mode would be very likely.

Verify that the power output limit is set to 2.0 per page 46 (K1 manual), then perform the step on page 19 (KFL1-4 manual) to put the K1 into TUNE mode.  Then adjust those caps that were specified a little.  You will likely find very sharp increases in actual power output indication (both on the LCD and your external wattmeter) as you find the best peak settings for the caps.

Even if you had these caps seemingly well-peaked for receive mode, that only gets you just barely into the ballpark.  Their actual required settings are very very much more critical for transmit mode.  Be off just a little, and you'll still receive well, but transmit almost nothing.

73,
Mike / KK5F
K1 #175