[Elecraft] Bad KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER

[Bruce Osterberg]

Good Morning:

I called Elecraft Tech. support on Friday because my K3 2nd Receiver was 
not Working.  Howard gave me some great Advice on how to test it Using 
WWV and sent me a small procedure to verify if I could get it working.  
Unfortunately it did not work.  I forgot to tell Howard that I had the 
New KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER boards installed.  I suspect one of these boards 
has now went bad or was bad from the beginning. On page 16 of the KSYN3A 
SYNTHESIZER Manual figure 13 shows how the Main and Auxiliary  KSYN3A 
SYNTHESIZER boards are interconnected.  I had this correct, and all 
wiring was per figure 13.  Now main receiver is OK and working Fine. 
when I touched the DISP button on the K3 I could scroll through the K3 
parameters and it showed that KYS1 is OK and KYS2 is OK.  Current Draw 
per meter in K3 was 1.05A.

Well Since I had two Boards, I figured I would swap them, so I changed 
position of the two KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER boards, reconnected the cables.  
Main Receiver is now dead with only white noise.  Sub receiver dead also 
as before.  I pushed the DISP Button and noticed that the current draw 
was now 1.4 amps, and the KYS1 and KYS2 were gone!  No indication they 
were installed.

Put boards back to original position, main receiver working OK, Sub 
receiver still nothing.  when DISP button Pushed KYS1 and KYS2 showed up 
again as OK, and current draw back to 1.05 Amps.

I believe the Auxiliary  KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER board is bad.  I could test 
further and set the K3 back up as a single Transceiver with no Sub.  But 
that would mean taking out the Sub, Installing a Jumper on the input 
connector for the Sub and removing one of the Synthesizer boards and 
setting the K3 up as a single  KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER as per figure 12 on 
Page 15 of the KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER Manual.  I hesitate to do this a 
removing the Sub and reinstalling it is always a pain. I'll call 
Elecraft on Monday Morning and see if they also think the auxiliary 
KSYN3A SYNTHESIZER Board is Bad.

Sorry For long Post.  Bruce N9BX 73