Hi Tom, Many thanks for your quick reply
On Friday 02 March 2007 16:13, you wrote: > There are MANY KAT100s out there, and to my knowledge, there have > been no such firmware problems reported. > Rather than expecting damage, were I you, UNLESS you truly SUSPECT > damage for some reason other than PURE MAGIC, I'd start looking for > an UNsoldered joint, or possibly a poorly-soldered joint. > That fact that the KAT100 once worked (and apparently properly) tends > to imply that everything is in its place. However, it only takes one > 'flakey' connection to cause problems. Sometimes a flakey connection > will allow things to work for a period of time, but then, after a few > days, the connection will build up a thin layer of oxidation which > acts as an insulator and then only allows the connection to appear to > work correctly following a bit of 'agitation' (movement, or other > jolt to cause the oxidation to be broken for a short time). There's nothing like the voice of experience :-) There's sound logic in what you say. You could well be right, I suppose we can all be guilty of a dry joint at some time. I suffered a dry joint when I built K2 nr 439, so I tend to solder very carefully and often re-wet the joint to make sure. I use a Weller temp controlled iron. However, I will take your advice and have a good check around. I guess dry joints must be the most common reason for failure and as it had been working faultlessly for 35 days then your suggestion of possible oxidisation is a high possibility. I'm not certain, but I could have noticed a heat/burnt smell around the PIC in the front right corner when I took off the lid. It was a very very faint smell and could have just been my imagination - the thing had been working very hard clattering the relays while I was testing it on all bands (low power into the dummy load) just to make sure. Is there a good reason why it should still be working just on 40m ? Thanks again for your comments Tom. 73 from Charles - M0BIN - K2/100 Nr 5901 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
