[Elecraft] K3 died again

[Martin Sole]

Hi,

My K3 is quite an early unit, S/N 298. Recently upgraded with new synths 
KRX3A and KXV3, I also have a P3 connected to the radio. A while back it 
failed with a shorted smd capacitor on the K3REF board causing loss of 
TX bias voltage. Today it has lost both receive and transmit and I am 
thinking it might be from the same module. Here's the situation.

Rig powers on and appears to work normally except soft noise from the 
speaker, no band noise to speak of and no signals. P3 shows plenty of 
signals, S9 plus on FT8 freqs but nothing heard other than soft noise. 
Tuning works as signals move in the band scope. No sub receiver signals 
either and no TX output. Have not checked transverter output but expect 
to find nothing there.

P3 take off at IF output so everything is clearly working up to there. 
DSP seems to be working as width and shift cause the expected changes in 
audio. S meter reads dead zero, no movement.

About the only common point I can see is the K3REF board so it would 
appear a second failure on this module. Since this is where I had to do 
earlier work I wouldn't put it past being a user inflicted fault, but 
that repair was a month or more ago.

Anyone care to have a guess or share thoughts?

Martin, HS0ZED