[Elecraft] Deaf K3S....nice trick elecraft!

[Dave]

Elecraft must have decided that having already built six K3 they needed to
make building my 1st K3S a challenge. They succeeded

 

It all went together easily enough despite some issues with K3
photos/figures appearing in the K3S manual (eg Figure 91)

 

It powered up fine and the VCO passed self test, so time to hook up an
antenna. Nothing could be heard despite putting the RX on the TX7EU pileup.
As a check an HP signal generator was hooked up to the antenna port. It
couldn't hear -50dBm. Neither could this level be heard through the rx in
port or the Xverter port. The radio was dismantled, all connectors checked,
EEinit done, no improvement.

 

Time for more coffee, during which an inspiration. When I put the subrx into
the k3 I remembered I had to remove a link in the KRX3 back connector.
(J64A) So I searched the K3S manual. It appeared not to need the link as it
was not shown in "Figure 31. RF Board Partially Assembled." or on the photo
of the main rf board on Page a-14  or on "Figure 94. Installing the KBPF3A
Option Board." BUT I noticed a link still shown on the legend on the PCB and
its removal is still shown in fig44 of E740126A installing the KRX3A subrx.
"Nothing ventured nothing gained", so I stuck a resistor lead in  the W4
link and the K3S burst into life. Sensitivity returned and the K3S was back
to full health

An hour was wasted fault finding , making this the longest Elecraft build so
far

 

Dave

WW2R

 

(No, there was not a stray link floating around the main board packet)