[Elecraft] K3 Stops Transmitting

[Jim Stahl]

I had a similar event last October in the New York QSO Party with my K3, s/n67xx.  After the first QSO (from a beautiful overlook in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan) it simply stopped putting out RF. It went into transmit, just no RF. I tried power cycling, jiggling external connectors, etc. After about 10 minutes, and about one minute before giving up for the contest, while moving things around I unintentionally snapped the front bail, and things snapped back to life.

It has worked fine ever since.


73  -  Jim   K8MR


> On Mar 9, 2017, at 8:54 AM, Dennis <egan.dennis88 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In the middle of ARRL DX CW, my K3 stopped transmitting.  It did not shut off, it
> would go into transmit and there were small flickers in ALC when the meter was in
> that position, but no power out.  Pushing the TUNE button resulted in the display
> saying "0 watts".  I played with it for several minutes, was unsuccessful in restoring
> any transmit capability, so subbed in the replacement rig and kept going.
> 
> I brought my K3 home, plugged it in, connected a key and a dummy load, and it
> transmitted perfectly.  No problems.  I've used it about 3 hours since, and there
> have been no problems.
> 
> First question, what could have happened to result in the no transmit state?
> I will be using my K3 again this weekend in a contest.  If the problem
> happens again, what possible problems should I be looking for? Loose/
> intermittent cable attached to the synthesizer?
> 
> Dennis W1UE
>