[Elecraft] K3 CW sidetone oddity

[Phil Hystad]

Don,

No RF feedback -- 20 meters is my most perfect antenna (40 meters is my worst).

However, I plugged the headphones in again and this time the tone was clear and normal.  I unplugged the headphones and again now the tone is clear and normal.  Is there a possibility that such behavior of impure sidetone could result if the "switch" in the the headphones jack did not open or close (I don't know which way is normal).

But, it seems to be normal now.  I have no idea what the problem was.

phil

On Jan 12, 2010, at 3:41 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> Phil,
> 
> There is no normal and reasonable explanation for that, the sidetone generation is not band dependent.
> Is there a possibility that you have an RF Feedback problem on 20 meters - that is the only thing I can think of.
> 
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
> 
> Phil Hystad wrote:
>> I am a new owner of a K3 and still learning...
>> 
>> Today, for some strange reason my sidetone in CW on the 20 meter band seems to be producing two notes and not a single pure note.  That is, it sounds more like the button tones of a push button phone then a pure sinewave tone.
>> 
>> This is only 20 meters.  All the other bands seem to be "normal".  But, being a new K3 owner I am not sure what normal might be or if this is some option that I have some how slipped into.
>> 
>> I don't know if I did anything to do this.  I had a perfectly fine CW QSO on 14054 KHz two hours ago but then I was away for a little bit.  When I came back, since my grandson was sleeping upstairs I decided to put the headphones on.  I sent a QRL on the frequency to test business and low-and-behold, the CW sidetone was weird.  I unplugged the headphones and the same condition existed on the speaker (built-in to the K3).
>> 
>> Can someone explain this?
>> 
>> phil, K7PEH
>>