[Elecraft] K3 - Strange Tune Behaviour
Dave G4AON
elecraft at astromag.co.uk
Sun Feb 15 03:17:18 EST 2009
David, is this the K3 or the amplifier switching to a protection mode?
The reason I mention this is that current K3 firmware (2.82) and some of
the other recent firmware suffers from loose ALC control allowing
transients to exceed the set power by a huge margin. This occurs on SSB
as opposed to CW and is especially noticeable at the 20 ~ 30 Watt drive
levels required for an Acom 1000, or the similar DX-1 that you use. You
can see these transient peaks for yourself on an oscilloscope or peak
reading power meter, the scope is better as it is faster. They show up
well if you key the mic on SSB and gently and infrequently tap the
microphone grille, exactly the same audio as fist mic handling noise may
generate. I've measured these peaks at more than 100W when the power
requested by the K3 power control was set to 30W.
73 Dave, G4AON
K3/100 #80, f/w 2.38
----------------------
Hi All,
I've been having issues since last night with an inability to use the
Tune Function on the K3.
I use Tune to get a carrier to tune my amp (an Emtron DX-1). Usually
this works fine, but now the Tune simply turns itself straight off after
it is pressed when I have the amp turned on. The Tune funtion still
seems to work OK on lower power without the amp.
I'm assuming this may be related to my antennas being saturated at the
moment (we've had steady rain for a full week), although according to
the SWR reading on the radio and my external tuner all is still OK. Does
the K3 have some sort of sensing that will turn off Tune if it suspects
a problem?
I am able to tune the amp manually with a straight key, but this is a
pain as I have to plug and unplug cables everytime.
Thanks
David, VK2NU
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