[Elecraft] K3 Power calibration failure

[Wes Stewart]

My two-year old K3/100 developed an intermittent power problem.  At first I had the PA in and out a couple of times thinking it was the reported connector pin problem.  No luck.  I noted that pushing on the KANT3 board that is used with no ATU would "fix" the problem for a time. "Fix" meaning it would pass TXG on all bands.

To make a long story shorter, I finally called Elecraft support.  I was asked to read back the TXGN values and when I did, I was asked how come I had set them to those values.  I hadn't knowingly done that but it turns out that when you do the wattmeter calibration, these are the values that get changed.  I was instructed to change them back to the default values---with the comment that one should never do the wattmeter calibration.  I suggested that if this is the case, maybe the procedure should be removed from the manual.

Setting these values back to default (at least the numbers I was instructed to use) and loosening and retightening the screw at the standoff at upper rear corner of the radio fixed the problem.

Wes  N7WS

--- On Thu, 5/26/11, Brian Alsop <alsopb at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> I'm posting this for KK4AOA.  He
> will be joining the group later.
> He is doing a clean build.
> 
> The K3 is a K3-10 so far with an internal antenna tuner and
> five 
> filters.  No subrx.
> 
> Running the utility program transmit power calibration
> works fine on 
> 160,80 and 60M but fails on 40M.
> 
> Over the phone, we reviewed his crystal filter setup, redid
> the 
> synthesizer calibration. Except for the above things seem
> to work.
> 
> Suggestions at where to look next are welcome.
> 
> He is unable to do the 5W wattmeter calibration because of
> no wattmeter. 
>   Hopefully the factory settings are close enough.
> 
> There is also some ambiguity in that process.  It
> tells you to put the 
> AUT into the bypass mode (hold ATU).  However, his K3
> says the ATU isn't 
> installed.  (Two pages earlier in the manual under
> menu option "enables" 
> it says to set KAT3 to BYP, which he did).  These seem
> to be at odds 
> with one another.  Or does this indicate some
> potential problem with the 
> KAT-3?
> 
> 73 de Brian/K3KO
> 
>