Recently, I was asked to look over a K3 that had been purchased from someone who had never managed to get the best out of his K3's setup.
When the filters in the main and sub rx were being checked for type and location, I discovered a loose "foreign body" inside the K3. It reminded me of the metallised pushbutton from the top of a ballpoint pen and when checked, it was conductive. Fortunately, no damage was done to the K3, but it made me think of its vulnerability, albeit remote, from foreign objects accidentally entering the K3 via the upper panel's ventilation slots. At the RSGB's national Hamfest at Newark, recently, I was fortunate enough t find a small quantity of fine plastic mesh that I've now fixed beneath the slots of my own K3's top cover, making it completely safe against the odd SMT flyer or errant nuts and washers that occasionally "escape." The plastic forming the mesh is only the thickness of a fine thread and is on a 1mm pitch, so no ventilation issues will be caused. I mention this as other owners may wish to conduct their own risk assessment, remembering that lost small parts obey Murphy's Law in that they will roll, fall or leap into a location where it has the highest probability of causing the most expensive damage. Incidentally, I obtained some foil backed bituminous soundproofing material called Dynamat, used for noise reduction in motor vehicles, and attached that wherever practicable to the top cover's underside. This yielded a noticeable improvement to the sound quality from the K3's internal speaker. For the K3's twin outboard speakers, I used a pair of car speaker pods lined with Dynamat, and am very pleased with the results. 73 Dave G3TJP ______________________________________________________________ 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
