[Elecraft] K3 - DATA mode does not TX

[Richard Ferch]

VE3NFK wrote:

> After I 'cranked' 'line' to maximum; I was able to get to 75% of full
> power...

By 'line', are you referring to the sound card line level adjustment or 
the K3's Line In level adjustment? Whichever one you meant, your 
statement suggests either that the other one may be set too low, or that 
something is attenuating your audio signal from the sound card to the radio.

You can see the K3's Line In level adjustment by setting MIC SEL to Line 
In and tapping the SPEED/MIC control twice. If it is very low (e.g. LINE 
0 or LINE 1), try turning it up while backing off on the sound card 
level control until you achieve the required 4-5 bars of ALC reading on 
the K3 without having to crank either control all the way to the right. 
If, on the other hand, the K3's Line In level is very high (say, above 
30), then it is likely that either your sound card level is set too low 
or you have some kind of attenuation in the signal path between the 
sound card and the radio. For example, you should not have an attenuator 
in the signal path that was designed to reduce the sound card's Line Out 
level to a level suitable for a microphone input; that is neither 
necessary nor desirable when you are using the radio's Line In input.

73,
Rich VE3KI