A public Mea Culpa regarding my upgrading from the old Synthesizers to the new version and incorrectly performing the exchange.
I was surprised at the reduced amount of components on the new board and thought I did a proper exchange of components; it all seemed obvious as to what to do so how could I miss the obvious... Rather than explain all the details of my mistake, I'll say the issue became apparent when I went to diversity: Using the main Rx had no issue after the exchange and engaging the sub also worked beautifully as expected. However, when going to diversity I noticed a huge drop in signal in the sub side. I was in too much of a hurry to get everything ready for today's contest and I neglected to add the new coax that is required running from the Aux J4 to the Main J2 as seen on page 14 in the installation instructions. The included coax jumper wasn't present on the old boards and I tricked myself into thinking all was done properly when I counted connections. Also, looking at the boards with the K3 turned on and one had a green LED flashing & the other was solidly on. Both should be constant, no flashing. A call to Elecraft and they were most interested in helping me resolve the problem and being a newly released component, I suspect they wondered if I may have uncovered an unexpected issue. However, Howard quickly came to the deduction I hadn't done my work properly. He was most courteous and helpful in assisting me in correcting the error and now I have the k3 working as it should be with the new synthesizers. He, as in all the Elecraft support, is a credit to the company. With these new Synthesize boards I have to say there is an obvious difference to me in how incredibly much better this radio is now, comparing to how amazingly good it was before. I think the best way I can describe it is I can hear people in the contest so very clearly in the presence of adjacent strong signals but so many of the DX aren't hearing me as well as I am hearing them. I'm looking at the LP-100A Wattmeter, seeing 1490 W out and I'm seeing tightly compressed signals side by side and hearing them clear as a bell. Often the people I'm calling often have to hear me repeat my call several times to get it right. I'm putting out plenty of power but this K3 is hearing so well, it's a whole new game. In short: These two boards are absolutely worth the investment and Elecraft's support again proved to be as good as support can be. If you're on the fence, get them, it's something you won't experience buyer's remorse afterward. As to the contest, I've had too many interruptions from within the QTH from an unfortunately very sick YL, to remove me from competition, so I'm now just in it to maybe pick up some new band fills and just have fun. Since I can do so now, I figured I'd take the time to mention the obvious improvement these boards made, explain what I did that was wrong in the procedure & maybe help another avoid the same mistake, and... to thank Elecraft for hitting another Home Run in both product and service. 73, Gary KA1J --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
