Welcome to the club. My K3 has done that twice. It is currently in Aptos for repair of this problem...again.
Philip Gary Hinson wrote: > Hi all. > > Yesterday afternoon my K3 #2887 was merrily transmitting 33% at 5W on > 17m for WSPRnet as normal when by chance I noticed the external > wattmeter was showing no power out on transmit - none at all, not a > squeak. The internal wattmeter is also showing no power out, aside > from the first bar permanently lit in TX. The receivers still seem to > be working fine. > > The rig was working OK up to then and has been since mid-April. I > wasn't fiddling with any of the settings at the point it packed up, > but before anyone asks here are the ten checks I've done so far: > > 1. I tried sending CW and SSB - neither works. Nor does TUNE, at any > power setting. Nor does any other band. > > 2. I tried using VOX on both semi and full break-in, and PTT - no joy > there either. The TX LED lights as expected but no watts escape. > > 3. I've plugged a 100W dummy load directly into the ANT2 socket, > selected ANT2 and tried transmitting, just in case there's some cable > or antenna problem. Nope, that's not it. > > 4. The K3 is not in TEST mode (the TX light is on continous not > flashing). I cycled TEST mode on and back off to be real sure. > > 5. I checked CONFIG: TX INH is off, and again cycled it through the > other settings to be sure to be sure. Nope, not that. > > 6. I tried running the TX gain configuration through K3 Utility: the > front panel shows ERR TXG and the K3 Utility reports: Unexpected > response "DS@@@@@>>@°À;" to "DS;" State 153 Calibration power > settled at " 0.0 W .;" There be gremlins. > > 7. According to the internal metering, the K3's voltage is reading a > steady 13.5V and the current sits at about 1.28A on RX, increasing to > about 1.62A when I hit the PTT. No change from that level when I key > the paddle or speak into the mike, whether whispering, shouting or > swearing. I even tried coaxing it to life, complementing it on the > colour of its LCD ... > > 8. The power setting makes no difference: I've tried from 0 to 100W. > I hear the PA relay engage around 12W as normal, and the internal > power meter changes between high and low settings as expected. It's > just taunting me. > > 9. The 20A circuit breaker on the PA is in - not that I'd have > thought it would prevent the QRP level working at least. > > 10. I've reloaded *all* the firmware: I was using the latest beta > 3.25. Reloaded that, no change. Reloaded an older version 2.78, > still no change. > > What should I try next? I guess I need to pop the lid, look for smoke > emitters and poke around at the TX driver and PA stages plus the > antenna change over relay and ATU area with a multimeter but haven’t > figured out exactly where to poke yet, nor what I should expect to see > on the meter when I do ... > > I have other radios here and a scope. I guess I could try to trace > the TX signal with the K3 set to QRP, fishing around with a wire tail > on another radio's antenna socket or the scope input ... Maybe ... > What do you think? > > 73 > Gary :-( > ZL2iFB > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 ______________________________________________________________ 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
