[Elecraft] K3s - 80W on 160 - Resolved

[Don Wilhelm]

All the APP connector blades (inserts) that I have seen which will take 
#10 or larger wire (30 amp) must be crimped.  They have "fingers" that 
must be bent over the wire.  Use a proper crimper for PowerPoles, 
substitutes will make a mess of the job and mess up the contacts.

If you wish to use a bit of solder after crimping, that should be 
possible, but first crimp with a proper crimping tool.

The 20 amp contact blades can be soldered, but the largest wire they 
will accept is #12.

An alternative for less voltage drop is to shorten the cable rather than 
increasing the wire gauge.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 12/20/2016 6:29 PM, Nr4c wrote:
> PPs solder real well. Just keep the solder off the outer portion of the round part where the wire fits.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> ...nr4c. bill
>
>
>> On Dec 20, 2016, at 5:34 PM, Gary Smith <Gary at ka1j.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jim & the others who replied,
>>
>> This is a follow-up for someone in the
>> future who looks for the same solution.
>>
>> Yeah, the small amount of difference in
>> the wattage is insignificant but
>> considering all the radios I've owned, the
>> low end of the bands were always the
>> highest output. 10M was usually the lowest
>> output & with the K3/K3s, 6M was always as
>> good as the other bands watt wise and 160
>> was full output. This not being the case,
>> I was concerned.
>>
>> I had done the calibration and raised the
>> output to 87W but that was it. As was
>> suggested, I raised the voltage from the
>> PS to give me 13.8V on transmit which
>> required 14.6V resting. I'm using the
>> cable Elecraft supplies and I'm suspecting
>> it could be just a tad lower gauge/thicker
>> copper to reduce the resistance but on
>> 160M, I am now getting a 115W reading on
>> the P3 and 113W on the LP-100A.
>>
>> So the increased voltage was the
>> difference in my case. A thicker wire
>> would certainly require less voltage than
>> 14.6 and that's what I am going to look
>> into. With the power Pole connector, I'll
>> have to look a little deeper into what
>> will work best. I have no crimping tool
>> for Power Pole so that makes it more of a
>> challenge.
>>
>> Anyway, thanks Jim & all who suggested the
>> higher voltage, it was the answer in this
>> instance.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Gary
>> KA1J
>>
>>
>>>> On Fri,12/16/2016 9:27 PM, Gary Smith wrote:
>>>> With the ATU in or out it gives 81W out on 160, SWR is 1.28
>>>>
>>>> All other bands except 6M give around 98W, 6M gives 87W
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas what might be causing the lower output on 160?
>>>
>>> 81W is 0.9 dB less than 100W; 87W is 0.6 dB less than 100W.  On 6M,
>>> it's probably a simple matter of efficiency -- power amps are slightly
>>> less efficient on 6M than on the lower bands.
>>>
>>> And there may be a power calibration issue. There's a procedure in the
>>> manual for doing that.
>>>
>>> Or even error in the power measurement itself. Few power meters are
>>> specified for better than 5%. Bird wattmeters are specified as 5% of
>>> full scale, and a condition of that is that the slug is in
>>> calibration. If, for example, you're using a 250W slug, accuracy is
>>> +/- 12.5W. I use an N8LP LP100A, which specifies 5% at any power level
>>> from 1W, and quotes 3% typical. 5% is 0.22 dB.  3% is 0.13 dB.
>>>
>>> Low DC voltage can also be an issue, either due to the power supply
>>> itself or IR loss in the power cable (or even the connector(s). Use
>>> the built-in metering function to check DC voltage with just the RX
>>> running and keydown. Short, fat copper is your friend. :)
>>>
>>> 73, Jim K9YC
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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