[Elecraft] K3 voltage indicator

[Fred Townsend]

Graham:
I think what Joe and others have tried to tell you is your power lead
represents a variable and until you properly account for the variable
voltage drop in your power lead comparison is meaningless. 
You say power lead appears to be OK. Appears??? How did you come to that
conclusion? If you placed your hand on the cable and said it is not hot and
therefore concluded the cable appears OK you have again missed the point. At
low voltages (and high currents) the quality of the cable (and connectors)
is determined by the voltage drop. 
Additionally the voltage read on the front panel is read through a poly fuse
which has a voltage drop that is greater than the voltage seen by the 100
watt amplifier which is alternatively feed through a 22 amp circuit breaker.
The current that passes through the poly fuse is further regulated down to 5
volts so the voltage drop across the poly fuse is immaterial but it does
represent an insignificant error that the 100 watt amp does NOT see. Ergo
where you measure your voltages is all important to your pass/fail
calculations.

What to do? Measure the voltage at your power supply and then again at the
K3 circuit breaker. If the difference is more than 0.5 volts I would use a
heaver power lead.

73,
Fred, AE6QL 

-----Original Message-----
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of G4FNL
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2015 4:24 AM
To: 'Robin Moseley'; 'Elecraft Reflector'
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 voltage indicator

Guys

I may need to re-enforce my power lead and connections - but they appear OK.


What I was asking was what does the voltage display indicator show on your
K3 - when compared to mine?  I have since understood that the voltage drop
that I see (at the 3 power settings mentioned) is about normal......

73 Graham G4FNL