After about 10 minutes of running 10M CW during the contest yesterday my KPA3 shut down with the "ERR 12" message and it reverted to bypass mode just like the manual says it's supposed to. The KPA3 circuit breaker had not tripped. I opened the box and could see nothing amiss. I removed both leads/connectors on the breaker and tested it .. Not open . put the leads back on after working and repositioning a bit . put it all back together and fired up again.. And all worked fine . The relay was working and the fans were working well at all four speeds..I didn't do much in the contest, but got back on the air and did run for a total of about two hours . all on 10 meters. driving my amp with about 35-40 watts out as usual and CQing for CQWW.
Late last evening I fired the rig up again, went to 160 meters and immediately had the same problem on the first keydown . the KPA3 shut down and went into bypass and ERR 12 came up. Again, the breaker was not open. It does not seem to be temperature related as both shutdowns occurred with little to zero prior transmitting . and the fans seem to be kicking on when they're supposed to. This morning I opened the box again but this time removed the KPA3 board to check it out. nothing obvious on inspection. Thinking that it may be a possible connector problem I carefully worked the board back into place and made certain that it was fully seated. Put all back together and, again, everything seemed to work as it should. I then spent about 20 minutes transmitting CW on all bands at 100 watts . there has been no 'ERR 12' up to this point .. The PA temp leveled out about 38-39 degrees C while transmitting. Supply voltage is a solid 13.8V .... and holds at about 12.0V on continuous keydown at 100W. So all seems to be back to working as it should. But something must be amiss and I'm just waiting for it all to happen again. Has anyone had a similar experience? any ideas? I'd appreciate feedback . Thanks in advance, Don, N5LZ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
