[Elecraft] K3 Receiver Failure on Curacao

[Rick Tavan N6XI]

Although you got plenty of replies concerning possible firmware problems,
your symptoms sound a lot like what happened to one of my K3s recently that
in the end turned out to be a faulty KXV3, the so-called "Transverter
Interface" that also supports the RX ANT I/O and the I/F OUT.

If you have a sub-rx with a dedicated input (the "AUX RF" BNC connector
beneath the ANT2 SO239), try connecting an antenna to it and see if the
sub-rx works. That connector bypasses the KXV3 whereas ANT1, ANT2 and RX
ANT IN all go through it. In my case, that showed that the sub-rx and lots
of the firmware was working, suggesting (but not proving) that the main rx
was simply antenna-starved.

If that is what you see, consider swapping in a KXV3 or KXV3A board from
one of the other K3s on site. It is not a trivial amount of
disassembly/reassembly of two K3s, but the manuals are downloadable and
good. If the "dead" K3 works with the other KXV3, then you know what you
need.

GL & 73,

/Rick N6XI


On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 7:28 AM, <jmaass at k8nd.com> wrote:

> All:
>
>  Here on Curacao, one of the members' K3 stopped receiving abruptly this
> morning, after he had called a couple of times and while he was just
> listening. He said it sounded like someone disconnected the antenna.
>
>  Neither the Main nor Subreceiver are hearing signals. Using Antenna 1,
> Antenna 2, or RX antenna inputs makes no difference.
>
>  The P3 display reflects changing the changing frequency (in digits, at
> top) with the VFOs, but the noise pattern displayed does not change.
>
>  We've eliminated everything outside of the radio in the RF path as a
> cause. He went through the troubleshooting section of the manual. No Joy.
>
>  This radio was carried down for the contest, and has only been here for 2
> weeks in our air-conditioned shack. No danger of salt air contamination,
> which over time has "bad effects" on radios here!
>
>  Is there a "reset defaults" command to return the radio to a known
> pristine state, lest some parameter have been changed inadvertently? He
> reportedly needed such a command for his P3 before travelling to Curacao
> last week.
>
>  Thanks for any guidence. He'd rather not pack it up for travel back to
> the States yet!
>
>  (BTW, the PJ2T Multi-Multi operation this past weekend in CQWW CW was an
> all-K3 affair, with five stations. No failures, no problems, and the
> largest CQWW CW score ever for us! We appear to be second or third
> Worldwide Multi-Multi.)
>
>  73,  Jeff PJ2/K8ND
>
>  jmaass at k8nd.com
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html




-- 
Rick Tavan N6XI
Truckee, CA