[Elecraft] K3 - Bug in firmware found?

[Gary Gregory]

*Please note the circumstances......*
*
*
*1. Each of the K3's were to be used on a single band.*
*2. 'other' operators were able to use either K3 on the band chosen.*
*3. Resonant antennas were connected to the K3's*
*4. The 'other' operating position had 2 radios.*
*5. The 'other' radios were for operating on 10/15M, and 80M*
*
*
*Jeff and I wanted to have our K3's set for a single band to prevent an
operator NOT familiar with the K3 from changing bands to one of those that
could cause either an issue for us OR for the other stations.*
*
*
*Please remember, this was a Field Day contest. The 'other' operators had
various skill levels and were not at all familiar with
modern transceivers such as the K3.*
*
*
*Well I don't wish to be unkind to 'others' but if you have been on a field
day effort before you should understand our (Jeff and I) point of view in
wanting to protect our equipment from inadvertant operation at a
most inappropriate time?...:-)*
*
*
*Thanks to Wayne for looking at the FW, it is in NO WAY a deal breaker for
us...we are 2 happy campers :-)*
*
*
*But I have to say, Jeff looks pretty scary at 5am :-)*
*
*
*73's*
*Gary*
*
*
On 5 April 2011 10:31, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:

> It was never intended to make the K3 a 1-band radio, but I'll add this
> to the list.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
>
> On Apr 4, 2011, at 5:00 PM, iain macdonnell - N6ML wrote:
>
> > 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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> >>
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*VK4FD - Motorhome Mobile
Elecraft Equipment
K3 #679, KPA-500 #018
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