I recently purchased a KX3. I have made several hundred CW QSOs with it in the past several months. One of the main reasons for getting it is that I enjoy operating QRP while traveling and camping. I like to operate JT-65 HF with minimal power just to see what I can work.
I have run into 2 problems with this radio. The first is I cannot get any power out when attempting to operate either JT-65 or RTTY (AFSK). The second is that I have been having problems with battery operation. The details on the first problem are as follows. When portable I operate using either a SignaLink USB sound card interface or a WestMountainRadio Nomic interface. I have been using these for several years with JT-65 and AFSK RTTY. I have used both of them with four different radios and have made thousands of QSOs without problems. The radios are a K-3, IC-7000, IC-706 and a Flex 1500. Attempting to operate digitally with the KX3 results in the PTT working with either interface, but no power output from the KX3. I am using commercial cables from the interfaces to the KX3. I have tried it with 2 different computers, both of which work fine with the other radios. I strongly doubt that the problem is with either the computers or either of the interfaces, they all work fine with my K3. I have read the manual 416 times to try to figure out what I may be doing wrong, but can find nothing in there that I am not doing correctly regarding menu settings, gain/compression controls, etc. I do not have a microphone that works with the KX3 so I cannot see if there is power out in SSB mode. I have tried it in both standard SSB mode and in Data mode (DataA). I have fiddled with the mic gain, the sound card output, and anything else I can think of. I am wondering if there is some secret menu setting I should be using or if there is actually a problem with the radio. I'm obviously hoping it is something simple and obvious that I am overlooking. The other problem has been operating with batteries. Using fully charged brand new NiMH batteries the radio simply turns itself off after I turn it on. I have the BAT MIN set at 8.4V. I measure the battery charge at about 11V. This should be enough to keep it running, but it doesn't even after I have enabled all the power saving measures suggested in the manual. Loading it up with 8 brand new Duracell AA batteries gives me 12.2V, and it seems to work fine just as it should. AUTO OFF is set to infinite. I'd appreciate any constructive ideas. Thanks. Jim WI9WI ______________________________________________________________ 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
