[Elecraft] KPA500 Asterix staying on

[Tony G6GLP]

Hi All,
I thought some of you might like to hear about my little exploit.
It concerns my KPA500 going deaf. I know a lot has been said here about
it and how to fix it. Well mine seemed to develop a deafness on rx in
OPER mode. When it happened I noticed that there was an asterix on the
display and couldn't understand why.

The story is that on one of my antenna ports from the ATU I have several
Antennas which get switched in by relays driven from a home made box
that decodes the band info from the K3. This weekend I put up another
antenna and did away with all the switching but left the control box
connected and switched on. However when I switched it off the RX stayed
ok until the amp went into TX and wouldn't go back to rx. The asterix
stayed on. It seems the power drain on the data lines etc was sufficient
to drag them low and prevent the "PTT" going back high. Removal of the
controller or re powering it solved the problem.

The problem was self inflicted but I did solve it quickly but thought
the story maybe of help to some one else who does the same silly thing.


73 de Tony G6GLP