[Elecraft] No stations being heard on K3

[Jim Brown]

On 2/5/2023 10:19 PM, Gary K9GS wrote:
> I have a K3, not K3S.  A couple days ago I noticed a lack of signals heard.  I'm hearing static/ band noise just no signals.  I've listened on several bands.. same regardless of band.I went up in the digital portion of the band where there are always signals...I was able to decode a few but the band should have been filled with signals.

Hi Gary,

Thinking of things that have happened to me where there's nothing wrong 
with the radio -- is it possible that you accidentally hit the button 
for the RX antenna? RF gain turned down? Something in the antenna system?

Old hands on email reflectors say that the antenna system is the first 
thing to check, and that includes every cable, every connection. Are 
there any no-name connectors or adapters anywhere in your system? When I 
got back on the air in 2003 I bought a lot of no-name adapters that 
turned out to be junk, and that caused me no end of failures that were 
hard to trace. REAL connectors and adapters say Amphenol on them (and 
aren't cheap), or have a MIL spec part number stamped into them (they're 
what I look for at hamfest flea markets, where they ARE cheap, because 
they aren't new and shiny).

How about the antenna(s) themselves? Do you have (or can you borrow) an 
antenna analyzer? Try disconnecting the coax connector from the radio 
connecting it to the analyzer, and making measurements. If you're 
borrowing the analzyer, you probably also want the guy who loaned to you 
to make the measurements -- the user interface most analyzers nowadays 
can be varying degrees of user-unfriendly if you haven't studied the 
user manual.

What happens if you transmit? What's the indicated SWR?  Do you have a 
watt-meter in line? I'd try with something like 5 W or 20W -- with 20W, 
it's very low power from the 100W stage.

73, Jim K9YC