[Elecraft] Does the K3(S) need occasional realignment?

[hawley, charles j jr]

Interesting topic. I actually had a tx gain cal failure with a new K3S on 6M but a subsequent tx gain try, it passed. I didn’t make any mistakes putting it together. Kind of an anxious moment with a a new rig right out of the box, but it did pass. I’m kind of shy to ever run tx gain cal again. 😳

Chuck Jack 
KE9UW

Sent from my iPhone, cjack 

> On Jun 3, 2018, at 4:59 PM, Don Wilhelm <donwilh at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Knut,
> 
> Do you have a power loss on some bands that is not cured with a TX Gain Calibration?
> Have you measured the receiver MDS and found it to be lacking from the last time you measured it?
> 
> If the answer to both those questions is "NO", then the answer is that it does not need any alignment.
> 
> Older tube rigs may be a different matter, but modern components are not as prone to value changes with age as they were "back then".
> 
> This applies to any transceiver, and is not particular to the K3 or any other one transceiver.
> 
> I have serviced K1s and K2s K2s that I had fully aligned and calibrated several years before, and find them still in perfect alignment (although I do go through the alignment procedures on those I service again just as a check).
> 
> Unless you have adequate instrumentation, I would not attempt it.
> It would be simpler to send your K3(S) back to Elecraft than to attempt it yourself - by the time you obtain adequate instrumentation, you will spend more money on the project than a trip to Elecraft.
> 
> Then you mention the other problem - lack of full instructions.  Those are not available for the K3(S).  Elecraft has automated testing lines set up to do that job.
> 
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
> 
> 
> 
>> On 6/3/2018 4:53 PM, ab2tc wrote:
>> Hi,
>> Very recently there was the same question asked about the K1. I don't recall
>> any mention of this topic on the K3 on the reflector. It has internal
>> trimmers on the per ham band HF filter. Is it advisable to occasionally
>> touch these up? I have no reason to believe that my oldest K3 (ser#82) is
>> out of alignment, but I'd like to be ahead of the game. I am old enough to
>> have used tube rigs in my early ham career and they definitely needed
>> occasional tune up. The narrow band ham band RF filters in the K3 have
>> relatively high Q so the slightest component drift will quickly affect the
>> shape of the filter curve.
>> If the answer is affirmative, could we get a procedure for doing it
>> properly? Tuning for max signal at the center frequency may not produce the
>> proper shape of the bandpass filter (flat top for the required bandwidth). I
>> know from my previous career as an RF engineer that tuning LC bandpass
>> filters can be tricky.
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