One dry, windy winter's day (with no lightning that I was aware of, so I assume static build up) I had such a visitor come running down my antenna to meet my K2. I had used the rig with no issues and then later in the day turned it on and hit "tune" - that's when the smoke came out. In the end it turned out that I had to replace the watt meter diodes in both the K2 and the KPA100 as well as a few other assorted bits & pieces in those and in my KAT100. Gary at Elecraft was super helpful as I worked my way through the repair. Very small repair cost in $ but took a few hours.
While you don't get to enjoy the wonderful smell that came with it, you can see the immediate aftermath in photos here: http://udel.edu/~mm/ham/smoke/ I sure wish I had disconnected my antenna! 73, Mike ab3ap On 09/07/2011 11:02 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote: > I believe you have been hearing about the wattmeter diodes in the KPA100. > That has nothing to do with the receiver at all. The receiver will > withstand quite an excessive surge. > > The situation is that the K2/100 power control circuits depend on > measuring the transmitted power right at the antenna. As a result, the > diodes in the wattmeter measurement circuit are quite close to the > antenna feedpoint and static surges such as caused by nearby lightning > can cause damage to those diodes. > > The best solution is to remove the antenna connection when the K2 is not > in use - the best method is to use an antenna switch to connect a dummy > load to the transceiver. [...] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
