[Elecraft] KXPA100 f/w 1.28 now production released

Sat May 17 04:17:17 EDT 2014

Wow Matt, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I've been off the air since 
last Saturday trying to diagnose my problem. I had problems last 
Saturday and people were saying my signal was breaking up.  I originally 
thought there was something wrong with my transceiver or settings. I 
carefully traced everything and monitored output from the transceiver 
and decided that although some settings could be improved (which I did) 
that wasn't the reason. I then thought that perhaps the issue was the 
1/2" of ice I had on the antenna that night, so after checking 
everything else I decided to go back on the air tonight. And sure enough 
my signal was breaking up again, even though it hadn't earlier during 
testing. This time I even though I was wearing headphones and with the 
background static I thought I heard a click from the amplifier. I was 
(still am!) on a net at the time (HHH Net), so I qsy'd down 4 Khz and 
did some testing, and I noticed the SWR kept going from 1.0 to much 
higher values, with the amp kicking out.

I then remembered reading your email. Went back and read it again and 
wondered if I was experiencing the same thing you were. Sure enough, 
moved back to 1.09 and the problem is gone.  Of course, there have been 
some fixes after 1.09 for other problems I've experienced, so hopefully 
Elecraft will get this one fixed soon.

Thanks again!

John

On 5/16/2014 10:06 PM, Matt VK2RQ wrote:
> Elecraft is right on top of it; I'm also confident we'll have a solution fairly soon.
>
> 73,
> Matt VK2RQ
>
>> On 17 May 2014, at 1:52 pm, Ron Cowherd <roncowherd at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, I have also had similar problems with the KXPA100 (SN#0876)and have already composed and sent a letter to support.  The letter is much too detailed to reproduce here but I also suspected a firmware glitch.  My unit was working flawlessly until the upgrade.  I'm sure the problem will soon be solved.
>>
>> 73, Ron K4GYD
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>>> On May 16, 2014, at 6:56 PM, Matt VK2RQ <matt.vk2rq at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> 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
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>>> Elecraft mailing list
>>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>>>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>>> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>>>
>>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>>> Message delivered to matt.vk2rq at gmail.com
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> Elecraft mailing list
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>>
>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>> Message delivered to roncowherd at aol.com
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to jm-ec at themarvins.org