[Elecraft] Ouch

[Mike Lewis]

So about 20 minutes prior to starting another successful Field Day with my
trusty K3 I powered it up for the first time after connecting everything had
just started some tests when my buddy starting yelling that I was letting
some of the magic smoke out of the radio. Sure enough, there was smoke
coming out of the back of the radio. I dived over and pulled the power. To
make a long story short, I was running an S9 31' vertical antenna base tuned
with an SG-231 autotuner, with the auto tuner powered over the coax using DC
blocks. The exact same config as I ran with last year with wonderful
results. Unfortunately this year in my excitement I carelessly installed the
DC block at the radio end BACKWARDS, sending the 13.8v from my 30 switched
supply right into the antenna jack. After the incident I powered back up
with my finger on the off switch to try to assess the level of damage. The
radio puts out some power, but the SWR is infinite even into a dummy load. I
am not sure of the status of the receiver input chain as I didn't want to
put it back onto a real antenna.

 

So I am just wondering before I open it up what kind of damage I might find
and what kind of options I might have for repair. Has anyone heard of this
sort of a bonehead mistake? Any ideas on what I might have fried? Given this
is a mechanical assembly only kit is there any chance any of the parts are
going to be user serviceable? I love the radio and I'm hoping it is at least
salvageable.

 

Thanks for any insights,

Mike/KE0MF