[Elecraft] KX3 No HF/6m output

[Edward R Cole]

I encountered a situation that I have recovered from:

I am one of the Field Testers of the new 2m module.  Last week I went 
to operate on 6m (which uses the BNC antenna    connector) and 
encountered 99:1 SWR and no detectable RF output.  I put the radio on 
a power meter with 50-ohm load with same results.  I set the internal 
ATU to BYP - still high SWR.

So I became suspicious that somehow I disturbed the antenna 
connection to the ATU during installation of the 2m module that is 
installed on top of the ATU board.  I opened the radio and removed 
the 2m module and noted the antenna connector was in-place but 
slightly pulled back from full seating.  I reseated it and 
"carefully" re-installed the 2m module and restored the radio to operation.

Testing on 28-MHz I had 8w - great!  But 6m showed 1.8:1 and 6w.  I 
retuned the ATU into 50-ohms and recovered 8w on 6m and 1:1.  The ATU 
memory obviously had an old setting left in it.

So...when installing the new 2m module in the KX3 that has the ATU 
board be careful that you do not disturb the ATU antenna connector.
---------
A nice plus is testing 2m after this I am able to drive my RFC 2-23 
Linear Amp to 30w with 3w.  I had replaced the MRF1946 transistor and 
was concerned that I only had 25w with 4w drive from my HT and only 
20w with the KX3.  I'm guessing I had a bad coax cable when testing 
as it works fine now!  That is sufficient to drive my RFC 2-317 
Linear Amp to almost 150w when I want to operate 2m-SSB.  Normally 
30w is adequate for 2m FM use.

Now the KX3 is in "Full Operating" status monitoring 6m or 2m while 
my K3 is free to operate other bands from 500-KHz to 1296-MHz.

Next test will be trying the KX3 as a mobile radio on VHF!

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
     "Kits made by KL7UW"
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