[Elecraft] KX3 sluggish keyer

[Sven Ladegast]

Hello Bill,

> The problem, according to my own experience, is that the ground in
> intermittent. Each paddle arm is the ground that makes contact with each
> standoff.

Well I recognized this problem too and ended up putting an soldering 
eyelet under each spring retainer screw. I soldered small bus wire to 
the eyelets and soldered the other ends directly to the GND pad of the 
4-pin connector.

This seems to work very good whereas clearing the ATU memories prevents 
the keyer from interrupting your transmission when the ATU is recalling 
old memory settings and you have used another antenna before.

Anyway...I did a lot of QSOs with this modification and still have 
problems here and there. It seems like the key doesn't like me! :) Some 
days I need to correct every few words and other days the key is working 
fine.

I have no such problems when using my old Ten Tec model 604 key with 
built-in keyer. So it should not be my keying itself...

Anyhow...I am living with that issue at the moment. Maybe I will upgrade 
to a Begali Adventure but at the moment the modified stock key is not 
bothering me too much to pay another $350 for a new key.

Anyhow, the KXPD3 is still great bang for the buck and fits nicely to 
the rig.

vy 73!

Sven, DJ2AT