Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
in short, I had the RF IN and ANT1 connections reversed! Ah yes, I seem to remember whining on this very reflector when my brand-new K2 didn't hear very well during initial alignment. Turns out it helps if you flip the coax switch over to the main antenna from the dummy load. -- Ward / KG6HAF ___ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
On Oct 19, 2005, at 10:59 AM, Tom Hammond wrote: When I heard the first thunder clap, I legged it out to the shack In the garage) and started disconnecting coaxes like a mad man... I had just(!) managed to get the last coax connector DISconnected and moved away from the rig(s) when an all too close bolt of lightning struck. Fortunately I wasn't touching anything (by about 1/2 second!) when it hit and I heard/saw a nice arc between the shell of one coax connector and the nearby ground. This is the problem, Tom. You don't need to disconnect those coaxes as much as GROUND them. I have all my antennas passing through a grounding switch, and I keep it switched to the grounded position when the station is not in use. The only time I've had lightning damage was when I had my antennas disconnected. That was during FD 1993 on Sunday, when all my gear was in the car and I was taking a nap on the sofa. I still have a piece of test equipment that needs repair from that strike. Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASELMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!" -- Wilbur Wright, 1901 ___ 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
RE: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
I must say that I have been battling this issue for years, especially since my TV is now a _home entertainment system_ with more cables and wires than my 1950's ham shack. I invested in a Brother label maker. It makes nice 1/4 inch plastic labels that now adorn every wire in the house with either what it is or where it goes, ie. Vertical, Beam, VCR Input, DVD Output, etc. Piece of cake to reassemble the wiring. Tom, W3QS ___ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
Gee Tom, I did the same thing earlier this year, but I wasn't going to tell on myself. Now, I feel I gotta give you emotional support for the trauma you've been through. I figured it out before ripping everything apart. Lee - K0WA Common sense is in short supply - get some and use it. If you can't find any common sense, ask for help from somebody that has some common sense. - Lee Buller ___ 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
[Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
Gee Tom, now I dont feel quite so bad.. 73s Jim, W4ATK ___ 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
RE: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
Hi Tom, and all, Glad to see that I'm not the only one to do things like that. Mine occurred this past Saturday. I bought a KX1 and it arrived Friday, so naturally, I dropped everything and started building. 30 meter board first, then the ATU to have them ready when the time came. After that, I built the KX1 itself. First tests passed fine, and I finished the build Saturday afternoon and it passed the final test (power output was a little low, but not enough to worry me.) I then installed the ATU and did the SWR and Power Calibrations. This also checked out fine. Next, I removed the ATU and installed the 30 meter board. When I attempted the alignment, the whole radio was deaf as a post. None of the trimmers appeared to do anything, and I had an NGEN board hooked up to give it lots of noise to chew on. After tearing out what little hair I have left, I got out the desoldering equipment and prepared to remove the 30 meter board, expecting that I might have busted on or more of those micro miniature RF chokes. Just before clipping the first wire, the light dawned - I hadn't put the jumper across pins 1 and 3 of the antenna header that routes RF to and from the ATU. Since the ATU was out of the radio, without that jumper, there was no RF path from the BNC connector to the rest of the rig. No bloody wonder it didn't hear anything. I grabbed an old resistor lead and quickly replaced the jumper. Turned on the NGEN again and BINGO, all trimmers actually did something. I re-aligned 20 and 40 as called out in the manual, and then did the 30 meter alignment. Put the ATU back in and ran the final tests. The whole thing worked like it was supposed to. Note to anyone that hasn't built a KX1 yet and plans on it, REMEMBER THAT JUMPER when removing the ATU from the radio if you plan on leaving it out for any reason. I wasn't going to tell anyone about it, but since Tom "fessed up" to his error, I figured I ought to as well if it might save someone else a problem in the future. The need for the jumper is actually mentioned in the book, and I HAD read it. Just forgot it in my excitement to get my KX1 on the air. Oh yeah, first contact with the KX1 was a DX station (PA600GOES - yeah I know it's a weird call that's pa six hundred goes) in the Netherlands. Got a 539 on 20 meters - KX1 and a CushCraft A3S tri bander up 25 feet. Jim Sheldon, W0EB Wichita, KS K2 #4338 KX1 #1268 > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Hammond > Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:00 AM > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net > Subject: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up... > > > Hi Folks: > > Man, I just HATE it when I have to come clean... but here > goes... mainly > for the benefit of anyone else out there who runs into the > same problem... ___ 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
Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
Tom: A very nice read. Confession is good for the soul. I must confess I was building a KPA100/KAT100 in an EC2 enclosure for a fellow not long ago and when trying to calibrate the output meter I never could get it the right indications on the wattmeter and the max I could get out on my KPA100 looking at an external meter was 20 watts. I replaced a couple of chips and still no joy. I finally realized that I was using the Tune button on the K2 and had a KAT100 connected also. The firmware was doing its job in reducing the power to 20 watts for tune up. I connected a straight key and keyed the unit and adjusted my power to 100 watts and then set the K2 display correctly...LOL One other thing was that no matter where I set the RF Power control it always put out 20 watts just like it was supposed to do. Sometimes and recently more often than I care to admit, the machines are smarter than I amLOL 73 Jim K4ZM ___ 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
[Elecraft] KAT100 woes... Time to 'fess up...
Hi Folks: Man, I just HATE it when I have to come clean... but here goes... mainly for the benefit of anyone else out there who runs into the same problem... About three weeks ago, the day before left on a trip, we had a pretty 'healthy' thunder storm track right over the top of N0SS Central. When I heard the first thunder clap, I legged it out to the shack In the garage) and started disconnecting coaxes like a mad man... I had just(!) managed to get the last coax connector DISconnected and moved away from the rig(s) when an all too close bolt of lightning struck. Fortunately I wasn't touching anything (by about 1/2 second!) when it hit and I heard/saw a nice arc between the shell of one coax connector and the nearby ground. I finished up my work and got the heck out of the shack, vowing to return a bit later. Well, things conspired to keep me out of the shack until the next week when I'd returned from my trip. I reconnected the coaxes, AND the K2 and all appendages. Turned on the rig, hit TUNE and listened as the KAT100 went through its paces, tuning up on 20M. Everything SOUNDED just as it should have sounded. The ATU took the right amount of time, to tune, and the ratta-tat-tat of the relays made the right rhythm. The K2/100 put out 100W into the beam, and all the other (external) meters indicated perfect operation. The one thing which WASN'T right was that the K2's LCD display indicated an SWR of 9.9:1 while the ATU tuned, and NOT ONE of the LEDs on the front of the KAT100 illuminated while it tuned up. Something was obviously wrong! I set the K2 to 5W, the KAT100 to CAL mode and pressed TUNE in an effort to see what things looked like there. THIS time the K2 LCD display indicated 2W output and an indicated SWR of EITHER 1:1 or 9.9:1, kinda randomly changing between the two SWRs with each successive press of TUNE. And, this time, the LEDs on the front of the KAT100 were ALL LIT!!! I then inserted a second ATU in-line, so I could create a varying SWR of known quantity, so I could monitor what the KAT100 showed. With an 'inserted' of 1:1, the KAT100 generally indicated NO LEDS (or 1:1, I guess). With virtually ANY other inserted SWR from the 2nd ATU, ALL of the KAT100 LEDs illuminated. I checked the 1N5711's in the KAT100 bridge. They were good and working as expected. In fact, everything SEEMED to be working properly... other than the weird LCD and LED indications. I asked the experts... they'd never seen anything such as this, but several were certain the nearby lightning strike had 'farkled' something somewhere. I obtained a new PIC for the KAT100 and also a number of TPICs (LED drivers, etc.) as a precaution that some of them had been 'taken out' as well. Replaced the PIC in the KAT100 and nothing changed. Did a hard RESET of both the K2 and the KAT100, but to no avail. Then... as I was about the disconnect the K2/100 from everything in preparation to taking it out back and using is as target practice... there it was... the culprit... It seems that, during my haste to get everything reconnected (remember, somewhere about 30 lines above in this treatise)... I'm managed to connect the RF OUT from the KPA100 to the ANT1 jack on the KAT100 and the coax from the external antenna switch to the RF IN jack on the KAT100... in short, I had the RF IN and ANT1 connections reversed! Swapped these two connections on the back of the KAT100 and EVERYTHING WORKED PROPERLY!!! So now my conscience is clear... I've confessed to my transgressions... and done all sorts of penance to the RF gods. And I'm sitting here baring my soul to you so you might not make the same mistake!!! ALWAYS DOUBLE-, no... TRIPLE-CHECK YOUR EXTERNAL CONNECTIONS! And, if your KAT100 seems to tune properly but INDICATED weirdly, don't jump to conclusions... the problem may be man-made rather than the fault of Mother Nature. 73, Tom Hammond N0SS p.s. I find it very interesting that the KAT100, regardless of the fact that the I/O lines had been crossed, CONTINUED to PROPERLY TUNE TO A (verified) 1:1 SWR, even though everything else was seeing 9.9:1 by virtue of the reversed connections. That's some ATU there! ___ 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
