[Elecraft] Fw: SSB issue K3

[Mark Pride]

Thanks for the initial round of comments and suggestions.

The radio did go through the calibration as per the instructions - worked fine.

Symptoms: Full CW power yet on SSB with mic at 28 and comp at 25, initially full power out, then quickly drops off to say 10 to 15 watts.  Have tried the ATU and no change - thinking it was a problem with SWR and the radio is protecting itself (of course on the same band, the CW power is stable with or without the ATU).  Almost behaves like there is some AGC action and drives the power down.  But then it will jump back up sporadically. Also the quality of the audio is weird (not sure how to describe). Don't believe the connectors are intermittent with the mic connection.

I have a second K3 and set both MENU and CONFIG items the same - still the problem continues.

The mic connection has been made directly to both the front and the rear connections - no change
With or without ATU on - no change

Different mics tried and no change.
Swapped power supplies (one K3 to the other) no change

Suggestions now?

Regards,
Mark, K1RX
 




On Monday, February 24, 2014 11:03 PM, Mark Pride <mpridesti at yahoo.com> wrote:
  
Yes did the cal and worked fine. Tried both front and rear mic connections - same result 


Regards, 
Mark,  K1RX 

Please excuse any typos here. 


Matt Zilmer <mzilmer at roadrunner.com> wrote:


Have you tried the transmit power calibration procedure on your newer
K3?  I can tell you from experience that it is an essential item on a
K3 owner's list of things to do before going on the air with a new
KPA3.

73,
matt W6NIA

On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 18:53:21 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>Just installed the KPA3 module, went from 10 watts to 100 watts - good.
>
>On CW, full power out, no problem.
>
>On SSB, initial voice peak drives power out to the max (100 w) but within moments, the power drops way down to say, 10 or 15 watts, then randomly spikes back up but not as a function of voice peaks.  Is there a setting I should change to get that constant SSB power out?  Seems there is something fundamentally wrong with the SSB mode on this particular radio.
>
>I have another K3 that has been in use for several years (no problems) and made the settings the same on both but still SSB power levels vary all over the place with the new K3.
>
>Some advice from experts here please?  Thanks in advance!
>
>
>Regards,
>Mark, K1RX
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