[Elecraft] New KX2 No Transmit

[George King]

Hi Guy,

Small wire in center pin connector - no change.  No burr on the 
connector.  Connection feels normal - not too hard or too easy. Center 
pin receptacle not spread.  50 ohm connector.

I did make a test lead with a BNC female connector on one end and the 2 
pin Molex on the other and hooked the antenna up through this test lead 
- same problem.

Thanks for trying to help.  It's got to be an antenna connection problem 
somewhere.  Receive is good - good audio.

73,  George   W5AGK


On 7/3/2016 2:28 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:
> It just sounds, walks and talks like a BNC problem.
>
> Try a small guage wire about 10 foot long directly inserted into the
> center pin connector, and retry. See if the SWR comes down to some
> degree, if you hear anything on RX. If so, then for whatever reason,
> the cable BNC pin is not making contact with the jack's center pin
> receptacle.
>
> See if there is a burr on the outside of the BNC jack barrel that
> prevents being able to shove the BNC all the way home.
>
> Is the twist motion at the end of hooking up reasonably easy? It
> shouldn't be hard if it's shoved all the way home.
>
> See if the center pin receptacle in the BNC jack seems "spread apart".
> There have been poor quality BNC plugs with oversized pins which
> spread apart the center pin receptacles in BNC jacks and cause
> problems later.
>
> Hardware is not always good. I once had to deal with a Type F
> connector that lacked threads to grab the threads on the jack's
> barrel.
>
> The BNC jack can be bad, or a cold solder joint to the circuit board,
> etc, etc. It just sounds like BNC problems.
>
> You wouldn't be using 75 ohm BNC plugs would you? I remember something
> about 75 ohm BNC hardware causing problems.
>
> 73, Guy K2AV
>
> On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 3:06 PM, George King <georgeking at twc.com> wrote:
>> Thanks Matt,
>>
>> I did check both connectors and they are both seated.
>>
>> 73,   George   W5AGK
>>
>>
>> On 7/3/2016 11:56 AM, Matt Zilmer wrote:
>>> Hi George,
>>>
>>> You should check the two RF cables to make sure they're seated. There is
>>> one cable from the ATU to the RF board (two-pin connector at the RF board),
>>> and another from the BNC socket to the ATU. Both of these need to be seated
>>> in order for the KX2 to work.  The 25.4:1 SWR indication usually means the
>>> BNC to ATU cable isn't seated, but I would check both.
>>>
>>> 73!
>>> Matt W6NIA
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/03/2016 09:51 AM, George King wrote:
>>>> I just received my KX2 and really like it.  I have the ATU and battery
>>>> installed.   Receive works fine, but I cannot transmit. When I press PTT I
>>>> get several beeps and in some cases the radio shuts off.  Sometimes I get a
>>>> Hi CUR message.  Here is some data:
>>>>
>>>> 7.213 MHz,    Voltage 11.7,   Power set at 8 watts.   When I press ATU to
>>>> tune the tuner works hard and displays 25.4 - 1 while trying to tune and
>>>> never changes.  Is this telling me the SWR is 25.4:1? The antenna SWR
>>>> checked at the BNC connector on the antenna at the radio with an MFJ 259B is
>>>> 1.3:1
>>>>
>>>> 7.285 MHz,  Voltage 11.7,  Power 8 watts,  SWR checked with MFJ 259B is
>>>> 2.0:1.  Same result when I press ATU.
>>>>
>>>> When I bypass the ATU I still get the same result except that I do not
>>>> see the 25.4 - 1 display.
>>>>
>>>> Also, same result on all other bands.  I installed the side panels before
>>>> I tried to transmit.  I thought maybe I had a bad antenna connection.  A
>>>> check with an ohm meter shows a good connection between the BNC connector
>>>> and the antenna connection on the ATU board.
>>>>
>>>> I checked the connector from the ATU to the RF board and it seems to be
>>>> mated properly.  I tried transmitting into a 50 ohm dummy load with the same
>>>> result.  I made a jumper cable with a BNC connect on it and connected it to
>>>> the ATU bypassing the installed BNC connector - same result.
>>>>
>>>> SN is 463, just installed firmware 2.66.  Did not try to transmit before
>>>> upgrading to 2.66 or installing the side panels.  Seems to me I have a bad
>>>> antenna connection somewhere. Does this make sense?
>>>>
>>>> Any help will be appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> George King           W5AGK
>>>>
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