[Elecraft] K3 - Bug in firmware found?

[iain macdonnell - N6ML]

Just my impression... but I don't think the Band Map is really
intended as a "lock out" - just a way to have normally-unused bands
skipped when cycling through. If you only use one band, you wouldn't
be expected to use the band up/down buttons at all ;)

    ~iain / N6ML


On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 11:48 PM, Jeff Cochrane - VK4BOF
<vk4bof.elecraft at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> Recently, Gary VK4FD and I were participating in the John Moyle Field Day here in Nth QLD. (It was on at the same time as CQ WW SSB)
> As we were just 2 of 5 operators in the club station (VK4WAT) we decided to lock down our K3's so that the yaecomwood drivers would be able to use the K3's.
> Each K3 was locked down so that it was a single band radio, mine on 40M and Gary's on 20M.
>
> That's when we noticed the possible problem.
>
> You can lock out all but one band in firmware but the radio will still change bands!
>
> On my radio, I had all bands but 40M locked out, yet it could still be changed to (And it was fully operational on) 20M and 80M even though those bands were locked out.
> The behaviour on 20M is noted in brackets.
>
> Try the following:
> Config: Band Map
> Turn off all bands but 40M. (20M)
> Exit Config menu:
>
> >From 40M band. (20M)
> Press Band UP
> Rig changes to 80M. (40M)
> Press Band Up again.
> Rig changes back to 40M (20M)
>
> >From 40M band:
> Press Band Down
> Rig changes to 20M. (15M)
> Press Band Down again
> Rig changes back to 40M (20M)
>
> Note that at no time does the rig change to one of the so called WARC bands in these 2 tests.
> However, if the test is done with the rig only having 30M enabled, then shifts to 5MHz and 17M occur.
>
> As my rig has the 2M internal transverter I have also tried that band with the following results:
> 2M band enabled, all others locked out.
> BND UP selects 10M
> BND DWN selects 80M
>
> The behaviour is similar on all bands when only one band is enabled.
>
> In each rig we also tried with 2 bands unlocked and each rig performed as it should with all bands but the 2 selected for operation being locked out and unable to be used.
> So it appears that this issue occurs only when all but one band is locked out.
>
> This has been checked on both my K3 (Serial #4257) and Gary VK4FD's K3 (Serial #679) with the same results.
> Gary's firmware revision at the time was v 4.25, mine was v 4.30 and although I now have 4.31 in the rig it still does this behaviour.
>
> I'd like others to try the same procedure to see if the same results are found and then we can get Wayne to checkout the firmware.
>
> Over to you all.
>
>
> Jeff Cochrane - VK4BOF
> Innisfail, QLD, Australia
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