[Elecraft] K3 Strange problem

[Don Wilhelm]

I agree fully with Guy.  Most problems of that nature are an antenna 
problem.
If you have an antenna analyzer, connect it to the PL-259 that you 
normally connect to the K3 - do not add or subtract any coax.  Then read 
the impedance (R and jX, not just SWR).  If it is extremely high or 
extremely low, that is your problem.  The fact that one tuner used to 
match it says nothing about another tuner's capability, nor how the 
antenna is behaving at this point in time.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/1/2011 7:00 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:
> 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.
>