[Elecraft] [POSSIBLE SPAM] Common K3 failure modes???

[Dr. William J. Schmidt]

My K3 failures always come in the form of either K3IOx failures (extremely
common) or the 10W module.  Everything else seems to hang together.

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of Geert Jan de Groot
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 3:30 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [POSSIBLE SPAM] [Elecraft] Common K3 failure modes???

On 22/06/2022 02:50, elecraft-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> With more K3 radios broken on the bench than working at my contest 
> station
> (J68HZ)  and NO spare modules to work with,

I am actually wondering about that. One of the magazines I read, the German
Funkamateur magazine, has a story each month about a group doing some
DXpedition and nearly every month they report about equipment getting broken
during such an event. As these things often use Elecraft, there are reports
of K3's failing.

But I wonder the failure mode because the stories don't report anything
about that. I know of a few failure modes:
- Diodes at input blown up because of extremely strong signals
near-frequency. Bandfilters may help, as does careful frequency planning and
some antenna distance. (ages ago I used a FT747 which uses a light bulb as
protection - after a heavy radio weekend I had the lightbulb open and one of
the input coils fused!)
- PA kickback causing the low-power amplifier transistors to fail - there
has been discussion on the list to add transzorb diodes
- Encoders for filter settings etc may fail - easy to replace
- volume knob was bumped on, causing potmeter broken - just replaced it
- Plastic knobs cracked - partially solved by Elecraft warranty, partly
solved by buying new ones myself ($$$$ with shipping and customs)
- Audio amplifier dying because of a short circuit at the output. There is a
mod kit for that.

I wonder about other failure modes. How does a K3 die at a contest station,
or a DXpedition, and what can be done to prevent?
What are the failures on the broken radios you are reporting about?

73,

Geert Jan PE1HZG


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