[Elecraft] KAT/100 not working

[charles]

Hi Tom,

Many thanks for your quick reply

On Friday 02 March 2007 16:13, you wrote:

> There are MANY KAT100s out there, and to my knowledge, there have
> been no such firmware problems reported.
> Rather than expecting damage, were I you, UNLESS you truly SUSPECT
> damage for some reason other than PURE MAGIC, I'd start looking for
> an UNsoldered joint, or possibly a poorly-soldered joint.
> That fact that the KAT100 once worked (and apparently properly) tends
> to imply that everything is in its place. However, it only takes one
> 'flakey' connection to cause problems. Sometimes a flakey connection
> will allow things to work for a period of time, but then, after a few
> days, the connection will build up a thin layer of oxidation which
> acts as an insulator and then only allows the connection to appear to
> work correctly following a bit of 'agitation' (movement, or other
> jolt to cause the oxidation to be broken for a short time).

There's nothing like the voice of experience :-)
There's sound logic in what you say.
You could well be right, I suppose we can all be guilty of a dry joint at some 
time.  I suffered a dry joint when I built K2 nr 439, so I tend to solder 
very carefully and often re-wet the joint to make sure. I use a Weller temp 
controlled iron. However, I will take your advice and have a good check 
around. I guess dry joints must be the most common reason for failure and as 
it had been working faultlessly for 35 days then your suggestion of possible 
oxidisation is a high possibility.

I'm not certain, but I could have noticed a heat/burnt smell around the PIC in 
the front right corner when I took off the lid.  It was a very very faint 
smell and could have just been my imagination - the thing had been working 
very hard clattering the relays while I was testing it on all bands (low 
power into the dummy load) just to make sure.

Is there a good reason why it should still be working just on 40m ?

Thanks again for your comments Tom.

73 from Charles - M0BIN - K2/100 Nr 5901