[Elecraft] K144XV Strange Readings

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Mike: First e-mail K3support at elecraft.com or call them (831-763-4211) for
further guidance. 

As Dave says the center spacer was removed very early on when some stability
issues arose. I have an early pre-production board, but it was stable with
and now without that spacer. This sounds like something new but may be
something that you can tackle yourself. 

73, Ron AC7AC


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Michael Eberle
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 7:57 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K144XV Strange Readings

Dave,

Yes that is exactly what it appears to be doing.  My frequency counter is
showing RF at 153.600 MHz regardless of what part of the band it is tuned
to.  I removed the K144XV Reference Lock Board and there was no change.  Is
there anything that can be done to correct this, or do I need to send it
back to Elecraft?  I just bought it 2 months ago so it shouldn't be an early
production run board.

Thanks,
Mike KI0HA

On 5/17/2013 6:50 PM, WW2R Elecraft wrote:
> Both my early edition K144XV were not unconditionally stable and were 
> swr intolerant
>
> I think you will find that the 3:1 swr is because it is oscillating 
> "out of band". Try listening on a scanner. I have experienced this on 
> my two k144xv and g4ddk had the same issue with his. One example 
> produced 162MHz, one 168MHz one around 158MHz. When you tune or speak it
stabilizes and generates
> on 2m   My k144xv were fine if I operated at the bottom end of 2m where
the
> swr was 1.1:1 but my antenna swr rose to 1.6:1 at around 144.8MHz  and 
> above this point it showed the instability you mentioned
>
>
> Mine were replaced with the later production run k144xv (the one 
> without the centre spacer, but that could just be coincidence!) and 
> the issue has not arisen since
>
> Dave
>
> G4FRE