[Elecraft] K3 Strange problem

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

Probably not the best thing to assume first that the trouble is in the
rig. Odds are really against you.  Antenna is outside, subject to all
kinds of strain that can part conductors, even inside insulation so
you can't see it, getting water in coax, pulled around by the wind,
etc, etc, ad nauseum.  Presume it's the antenna first, and make sure
you don't have an end across a branch, broken connection to one side
of doublet, a shield of the coax that has lost connection to the PL259
barrel, center conductor lost contact with the PL259 pin, etc.  RULE
OUT the antenna system first. That would be everything beyond the
PL259 that plugs into the K3.  Ten to one odds it's outside in the
antenna.  At least ten to one.

73, Guy.

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Joe Ford <k4nvj at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Mine is a new (but not my first) K3. It has the KPA3, KAT3, KRX3, KXV3A, and P3. I have 2 antennas connected to the KAT3. Ant1 is a beam. Ant2 is an 88' long dipole fed with ladder line to an Elecraft 4:1 balun then coax to then K3. The KAT3 normally tunes it close to 1:1 on 80/40/30/20m, the only bands I use it on.
>
> A few days ago,  I heard a DX station working a pileup on 30m. I pushed A>B, Split, then Sub. When I keyed the K3 to call the DX I got the HIGH SWR message. Now whenever I tap ATU TUNE, the SWR maxes out, the relays go crazy and it tunes to about 2:1 and power goes to the what I have it set for (100 watts for 100 watts).
>
> It only does this on 30m. It tunes near or on 1:1 on the other bands. My K2 with KAT100 tunes the same antenna to 1:1 on 30m. I've had this antenna up for several years and it has always worked well, its up about 35 ft. So this is unusual. It will tune ANT 1 to 1:1. Only ANT 2 is a problem.
>
> It has gone into this mode, HIGH SWR then only tune to 2:1 twice, 2 times. After the first time I tried all different things but nothing changed. Until, somehow I got iit back to a normal ANT TUNE. Then it tuned fine until I did SPLIT then SUB. Again I get the HIGH SWR and will not tune. Has anyone else seen this problem, or have any ideas?   Thanks,
>
> Joe
> K3# 5858
> K2#4155
> K1#764
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