[Elecraft] OT: troubleshooting "gotcha's"

[Fred Jensen]

That observation extends to a variety of "things that should work but 
don't," not just electronics.  Over the years, I've noted several 
troubleshooting rules in my engineering notebooks.  Some examples:

1.  Unless there was a fire, and sometimes even then, it usually is 
*not* the worst possible problem although that seems to be a common 
assumption at first.  "Nuts!  I must have blown the PA's," when the fuse 
to the PA power supply just quit [they actually do that].

2.  If it worked fine for a long time, and no one changed any of the 
code, it is very unlikely to be a programming bug so don't start 
tweaking and recompiling.

3.  If it worked fine for a long time and "no one changed anything," the 
odds are very very high it's pilot error.  If your K3 receiver seems 
dead on one band, check the ANT 1/2 switch setting on that band first. 
The radio remembers it by band, you may not.

4.  If someone gave me a buck for every time I spent days or weeks and 
exhausted every source trying to debug a function, only to ultimately 
discover that the code actually doesn't call that function anymore, I'd 
have retired much earlier.

5.  Is it plugged in?

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
- www.cqp.org

On 5/7/2013 3:32 AM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> AS I read "Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 project - removing the control board",
> Stan related his troubleshooting adventure and found that his
> assumptions led him astray.  That is one of the cardinal issues with
> troubleshooting - do not assume.  As soon as you assume soemthing is OK
> that will be what you eventually will find wrong.