[Elecraft] K3 and linear amp

[hank.k8dd]

On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 6:10 AM, Brendan Minish <ei6iz.brendan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 18:33 -0700, hank k8dd wrote:
>
>  > The problem with Elecraft rigs switching Ameritron amps
>  > has existed with the K2/100 and, so it appears, now with
>  > the K3/100.
>
>  I think the problem is not elecraft rigs but amplifiers that have
>  unreasonably slow switching times.
>  10msec or longer is unreasonably slow and I think it's 'unreasonable' to
>  blame the manufacturer of the radio because the amp manufacturer saved a
>  few bucks and used a cheap, slow relay instead of a proper RF relay.
>
>  None of my Icoms give me the ability to alter the key delay for slow
>  amplifiers either.
>
>  The correct approach is to mod the amp to improve matters. the other
>  option is to use the PTT input with a footswitch to take care of RX/TX
>  changeover
>
>
>  73
>  Brendan EI6IZ

Well, that's a tough call to say it's not a problem with the Elecraft rigs.
I took a fair amount of flak from the "true believers" because a long time
ago I said the Elecraft shut down and other radios did not shut down, so
it must not be a problem with the Ameritron amps.

Before I put the Relay Accelerator on my AL-1200 the KPA-100 on the
K2 would shut down.  The relay would still key, but no output.
No other indication that there was no output until I glanced at the wattmeter.
Great way to lose a run frequency!!

None of my Icom radios exhibited this problem - They may chop off a tad of the
first element, but this has never caused a problem without the relay
accelerator.
And I'm not about to take it out to see what happens with the K3/100.

Maybe the K2's RF comes up to quick compared to the other radios.
Maybe the K2 shuts down too quick with that short time that it takes the relay
to pick.      I don't know ..... and at this point - I don't care -
I've worked around
the problem ..... whether it's an Elecraft problem or not!

73    Hank    K8DD


-- 
'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their
level then beat you with experience.' -anon
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