[Elecraft] No stations being heard on K3

Mon Feb 6 12:41:28 EST 2023

Maybe something here will be helpful: 
https://marc.info/?l=elecraft&m=145323127930319&w=2

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ

On 2/6/2023 9:19 AM, Gary K9GS wrote:
> I checked several things this morning. 1. RX antenna is NOT selected.2.  RF gain is not turned down.3.  I swapped to antenna 2 port on the radio and switched to antenna 2. Same behavior as before.4.  I connected my antenna analyzer to the coax coming out of the back of the radio. All readings look normal.I inspected all of the connectors.  All look good.  The coax is RG8X from DX Engineering with crimped and soldered DX Engineering connectors.   No physical damage to the cable that I could see.  I inspected the whole length.5.  I answered a FT8 CQ. Received an immediate reply with +11 report. Several RBN spots of my signal.6.  I am hearing some signals on 14074 but they are weak and not showing much of a signal on the P3.7.  When I switch to the unused antenna 2 port I hear nothing...just like I should.8.  The receiver sounds exactly like and performs like the attenuator is turned on;  it is NOT, however. 9.  Listened on other bands which should be filled with signals this time of day....same as on 20m.I'm stumped and suspect something opened up.  I don't recall making any configuration changes to the radio.  Maybe something loose inside like a TMP connection??Any ideas what additional to check?73,Gary K9GS
> -------- Original message --------From: Jim Brown<jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>  Date: 2/6/23  3:41 AM  (GMT-05:00) To:elecraft at mailman.qth.net  Subject: Re: [Elecraft] No stations being heard on K3 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______________________________________________________________Elecraft mailing listHome:http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraftHelp:http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost:mailto:[email protected]  list hosted by:http://www.qsl.netPlease  help support this email list:http://www.qsl.net/donate.htmlMessage  delivered tok9gs at gjschwartz.com  
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