[Elecraft] KXPA100 f/w 1.28 now production released

[Matt VK2RQ]

How are people finding this new firmware?

I've been having problems recently with my KXPA100, where it intermittently shows high SWR for a brief moment, and then either recovers or puts itself in bypass. At first I thought I had an issue with my antenna, but I discovered it was happening with a dummy load too. It mostly happens on SSB, but it happens to a lesser extent CW. It also happens with both my KX3 with integrated cable, and with my K2 using the keying line. I pulled the amp apart, looking for poor connections and dry joints, but no success there. By gently blowing across the mike, I was able to get it into the failure mode, and stay there. The SWR bridge in the amp was reading high. I had a crossneedle SWR meter between the radio and the amp, but as I blew progressively harder into the mike, the SWR on the meter was low. Then, once the power applied reached a certain level, the amp would come good again. This made me suspect whether the band auto-sensing may have been switching in a wrong LPF?

Then last night, I reflashed the amp with release firmware 1.28, but still had the problem. Then I downgraded the firmware on the amp from 1.28 to 1.09, which was the release my amp was shipped with. I haven't observed or been able to reproduce the problem since. This is now leading me to suspect a possible bug in the 1.28 firmware?

I'm wondering if anyone else may have observed any strange glitches with the 1.28 firmware?

73, Matt VK2RQ

On 3 May 2014, at 2:14 am, Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft <eric at elecraft.com> wrote:

> KXPA100 Production Firmware MCU 1.28 has been released to production status and is now shipping.
> 
> Important: This version of firmware has new features that require the very latest KXPA100 Utility.
> 
> We recommend all KXPA100 owners upgrade to the latest KXPA100 utility and to KXPA100 MCU 1.28.
> 
> 
> Some of the Key Changes in this release:
> 
> - Better tolerates forward and reflected power overshoot for brief periods to support external antenna tuners. Use approximately 10-20 watts of KXPA100 output when tuning.
> 
> - When the attenuator is acquired because of SWR or high reflected power, release attenuator immediately on next key up if SWR has been reduced to 3:1 or less.
> 
> - Update band voltage tables for ICOM 703 and Yaesu FT-817
> 
> - Reduce power required for ATU tune.
> 
> - Add per-band Antenna configuration (requires the new KXPA Utility for user interface)
> 
> - Improved RS232 handling for 3rd party applications. (Ham Radio Deluxe v6.2, PigKnob, etc.)
> 
> 
> 73,
> Eric
> elecraft.com
> 
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