There is an over voltage protection diode inside. Maybe it was tripped?
Easy to replace.. I think it is right rear when looking from the top and
front of the radio. Just a short HV spike can trigger that diode. You
can find it on the K3 schematic.
Dave K1WHS
On 5/6/2023 2:30 PM, Bill
I have #1504 and it does not add any spike ever. I have no idea what
would cause a spike. Does this happen on CW?
Dave K1WHS
On 1/19/2023 5:55 AM, Mikael Larsmark wrote:
Hi,
I have 5 pcs Elecraft K3 in my shack and one of them, which is a very early
model (serial #1938) suffers from quite a
Could this also be a hot pin problem that is starving the PA for power?
The pins on the PA were changed to gold on earlier K3 sets. A contest
would sure stress the pins if they had some resistance.
Dave K1WHS
On 11/29/2022 1:19 PM, Michael Carter wrote:
Hi George,
Your test confirmed that
When the signals disappear, can you transmit and see RF output? You
might be losing one of the regulated DC voltages from the three terminal
regulators mounted on the side wall. If you lose TX as well, check to
make sure those regulators are working. It will affect all bands.
Dave K1WHS
On
MY brother had his K3 fail. He turned it on and everything came up
normally, but he could hear no signals or normal band noise on any band
but there was slight noise on 80 meters. Turns out the 8 volt regulator
had died. That is the one bolted to one of the side panels. If it quits,
the
A few years ago, someone had supplied PC boards to the Elecraft
reflector, that would replace the KANT3 and provide for two antennas. I
got one and it works great.
I wish I had more of them! As far as I know they are no longer
available. It was a one time thing.
Dave K1WHS
On 5/4/2022
Hello Bernie
I have a KPA500 and run it on solar power with a 120 volt AC inverter.
I have never seen the issues that you are recounting. The first thing to
do is check the voltage going in to the KPA500 with a good voltmeter.
The next thing is something in the KPA500 ac input circuit that
Update the software to the latest. That was a known bug in earlier
versions. I had the same problem with my K3.
Dave K1WHS
On 10/11/2021 1:31 PM, James Bennett via Elecraft wrote:
Hi Folks,
Wondering if someone on the list might be able to solve this one. I’m using a
K3 and while CW is my
Hello Paul,
I think you mean 700 Hz (not kHz) for the frequency. You can set the
pitch of the CW note on your radio to fit your own ears. Older rigs just
picked a freq and you had to live with it. My old Kenwood TS-820S used
an 800 Hz CW offset as did my later Ten Tec OMNI V (a great cw
I have been adding several newish computers for ham radio to bring
myself farther into the 21st century. Lately Win 10 does not
automatically install the FTDI adaptor. My latest computer as of about
May 1st (brand new from Dell) did not load the driver when I plugged the
FTDI adaptor in. I
Comments below.
On 6/2/2021 9:32 AM, W8JH wrote:
I am looking to add the DEMI (Q5) transverter to my K3s and have no
experience with transverters other than the internal one in my KX3. In the
future, I may wish to progress to 2m EME as well.
Here are some choices I need to make and I
I have the big Yamaha inverter generator, an EF6300i. it makes fantastic
electricity and runs any electronic devices with no problems. I do turn
off economy mode if I am only running radio gear. The inverters are much
better than open frame 3600 rpm " box store" units. They have a much
better
I have several K3 radios, and none of them have the antenna tuner. For a
long time, I never needed one. I really could use a switchable antenna
option however. I saw a comment on this reflector a few years ago,
about a fellow who made up a replacement board to provide that function.
He
Thanks for a great description Wayne.
Funny you should mention this. I was working in my ham shack/shop this
past Monday, with my brother doing some spray painting and afterwards,
he sat down and looked for 40 meter contacts on CW. It was Monday night
novice rig night apparently. After
I would worry about condensation. I live in New England. New England is
the only part of the country except for the coastline in WA, where there
is a positive water budget typically. In other words, more rain falls
than is evaporated or used up. My ham shack is 1/2 mile from my house
and was
I bought a K3 SN 8858 just before the K3S was announced at Dayton. It
had the new synthesizer. I was curious to see what the difference was
between the two and ran a few simple tests in my alleged lab using an
older K3 as a reference rig. I found the new rig had a lower noise
floor by a
That happened to me here on ten meters a few years ago. I had just built
up a good ten meter station and W1UE came up to operate it. He had a K3
at his house, so I never interfered with any of his operating
techniques, but he was complaining about the poor propagation all day on
Saturday. He
,
that would be the reason you have it in your 'junk'.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 11/26/2020 6:03 PM, David Olean wrote:
I hope someone can steer me in the right direction. I was trolling
through my junk and found a new un populated PC board. I must have
bought it from someone on the Elecraft reflector
I hope someone can steer me in the right direction. I was trolling
through my junk and found a new un populated PC board. I must have
bought it from someone on the Elecraft reflector, but I have no memory
of any of it! All I have is the PC board and a printed sheet with a
parts list. By
) made to
improve performance of inverted L antennas on 160 meters located near
a tower.
73, Mike, W3IP
On Saturday, October 31, 2020, 10:04:48 AM EDT, David Olean
wrote:
Hello Alan
That was my antenna design. It has a teflon coax 1/2 wave balun that
kills RF on the shield side of the coax
Hello Alan
That was my antenna design. It has a teflon coax 1/2 wave balun that
kills RF on the shield side of the coax, but there is not much you can
do about near field energy getting picked up by the outside of the coax
due to radiation. It is best to tape the coax down snugly along the
Hello Elecrafters,
I had a similar problem with a K3 this past March. My brother had his K3
die and I offered to look at it for him. He claimed that he could only
hear things on part of 80 meters. All the other bands were dead on RX
and TX. When I checked it, I found similar symptoms. At
Hello Peter
I suspect RFI as well. I do not have a KPA1500, so my advice is not
worth much, but the fact that the fault only occurs when a signal is
being radiated sends me a red flag. I had a similar problem here with
my SPE amplifier power output. I was measuring it on an LP-100A
I just repaired an early K3 belonging to my brother. When I got
finished, I noted that his passband centering control (left knob) was
inoperative on CW. My immediate thought was that maybe the encoder was
NG, but it worked fine for SSB. Someone else had a similar problem
recently and he re
In CONFIG, set SPEAKER to 1, then the next position SPKR+PH is set to
OFF. That is how mine is set and it works just as you desire. I remember
having similar problems. I hope I did not miss anything.
Dave K1WHS
On 3/27/2020 9:01 PM, w...@jetbroadband.com wrote:
Hello All,
Here's
Hello again
I finally sorted out the problem with my brother , K0ZK's Elecraft K3.
It was an oldie with a serial number in the 300s and it died on him in
the middle of a QSO. It has been dead for about six months and he is not
in the best of health, so I figured I would try to fix it for him.
in Watsonville and knows more about the K3 than just about anyone.
To put it another way, you were indeed contacted by Customer Support.
73!
Jack, W6FB
On Mar 24, 2020, at 7:46 PM, David Olean wrote:
I swapped out the non working synthesizer with a good one I had removed for an
upgrade. The new one
to a dummy
load while you are troubleshooting. It just might be a quirk of your
setup, and if you have no RX Antenna connected, it could be a
troubleshooting tool for you.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 3/24/2020 2:02 PM, David Olean wrote:
Thanks so much to all who responded. One thing I did not mention
I swapped out the non working synthesizer with a good one I had removed
for an upgrade. The new one did not work either, so it is something
else. I tried calibrating both synthesizers and received an error
message ERROR 00044 on both of them. I have been trying to contact
Elecraft support,
Thanks to all who offered an old style synthesizer. That is great. You
folks are the greatest (of course!) I actually have two old synths here,
so I can swap it out if it comes to that. I was just looking for
troubleshooting advice at the board level with the existing
synthesizer. I might
, David Olean wrote:
For all you tech gurus,
I am trying to fix an old K3 that belongs to my brother. He has
serious medical issues and I was hoping to fix his K3 so he can use
it and be on the air in between chemo treatments. He is very
isolated and a working ham rig would be a big help to him
For all you tech gurus,
I am trying to fix an old K3 that belongs to my brother. He has serious
medical issues and I was hoping to fix his K3 so he can use it and be on
the air in between chemo treatments. He is very isolated and a working
ham rig would be a big help to him. I am not having
I had the same problem on a older K3 that had gotten a lot of use. I
just ordered a new pot and got things running just fine again. It sure
sounded like a mechanical problem, and I did not delve any deeper.
Dave K1WHS
On 12/19/2019 8:52 PM, Rick Bates, NK7I wrote:
My K3 has the same issue.
Hello Ray
I built an RF limiter to put in my 2nd receiver line. It consists of two
toroids and a pair of 1N914 or other fast diodes. Basically you step up
the impedance to a pair of diodes and then step it back down to 50
ohms. Mine limits nicely at about 0 dBm or so. You can buy similar
I just had a graphic demonstration of the fact Bob mentioned when I was
just rebuilding an old R-390 receiver a few weeks ago. I was pleased
that I saw an AM sensitivity (30% modulation in a 4 khz BW) of 0.49
microvolts for a 10 dB S/N ratio at 26 MHz. I then realized that I had
the IF gain
Hi Wes,
You forgot to mention that Chris VK5MC was only running 150 watts
output. His pattern dropped off drastically as the moon exited his
window. When I built my humongous 144 MHz array in 1979/80, I figured
that my window with VK5MC would be a bit wider with the added gain from
the 24
du/~mm/ham/monmouth
73,
Mike ab3ap
On Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 11:14 AM David Olean <mailto:k1...@metrocast.net>> wrote:
I was a lowly 2nd Lieutenant at Ft Monmouth in 1968. I was going
thru a
tropo scatter class. I used to love to drop in to K2USA in that
wooden
barracks
I was a lowly 2nd Lieutenant at Ft Monmouth in 1968. I was going thru a
tropo scatter class. I used to love to drop in to K2USA in that wooden
barracks building. I don't remember much except that it was waay cool
to me. I wonder if there are any pictures of the place online?
Dave K1WHS
On
Some people go through radios like eating popcorn. I am sort of the
opposite animal. I too bought a K3 about three weeks before the K3S was
announced. I suspected something was going on when I discovered that
there was a new synthesizer in my new K3. I was not too upset at all.
Anyway, I now
Hello Dave,
"Why?" is the big question. I have no idea why it fell off. There is
nothing that sticks out to invite damage. That RJ-11 receptacle is
hidden underneath the P3. There are six surface mount solder connections
to the board, and there are two small metal inserts in the plastic
I went up to my remote ham shack to take out the ham gear for the
winter, and turn off the heat. I had a K3 with P3 panadaptor there for
my ten meter station, and when I started disconnecting things, I heard
something rattling around inside the P3. (?) When I got home and opened
it up I
I had a pair of huge lead acid AGM batteries die on me after a bit over
six years of very light use in a solar panel and battery system.
Consulting the factory, they stressed that the batteries were getting
cycled each day that the Sun came out and the charger started charging
the batteries. I
Good point, Wes.
If you have a really good station on both ends, SSB would be a lot
faster and more fun in my opinion. I used to get sked requests from
K9NS for contest points on 50 and 144 a few years back. We used SSB and
not digi mode. In September it took about 1 minute to complete with
Sporadic meteors are arriving from all sorts of directions, and the best
time for sporadic meteors is at 6 AM local time because that is the time
when your location on Earth is moving into the wind so to speak. The
Earth's travel in its orbit and the forward momentum of the spinning
Earth
Darn! I better get going on a new beverage for 140 degrees or so. I have
one at 180 and another at 100 degrees, but neither is optimum. I had a
temporary one last season for the aborted Bouvet DxPedition, but I took
it down as it was in the way for mowing my field. It was only 4 ft off
the
Erik,
Most Type N connectors have a captive center pin that is pressed into a
teflon dielectric. Some can be removed easier than others. There is a
knurl on the center pin to hold it in place. I have popped them out on
occasion and used a metal push pin that is drilled out to surround the
John,
Thanks for that post. The B Bender, while not Elecraft related, sure
was an interesting wrinkle in guitar tech, and all from the minds of
Clarence White and Gene Parsons. Clarence White was a huge presence
tragically cut short at the age of 29. I learn so much from this reflector.
I would echo the comments about the Baker/ Howland Island DXpedition and
Elecraft. I am only on two HF bands: 160 and 10 meters. I figured that
ten meters was a stretch, but that 160 meter CW was possible from Maine
with a little luck. I was away from my shack for most of the operating
period,
Hey, Ed,
Piece of cake! (10 Ghz) But I worked up to it slowly. Building gear for
the lower microwave bands sure helped with wrapping my head around the
problems encountered there. I loved pipe cap filters!! Now I am having
a real hard time getting my 160 meter receive antennas to work!! I
family and pets.
Mother Earth is not a SINK for RF - that is what common mode chokes on
the coax are for, use effective ones.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 3/28/2018 2:54 PM, David Olean wrote:
I have been rebuilding my little hamshack these last few days. I am
only operating on one band (160M) so there is not
I have been rebuilding my little hamshack these last few days. I am only
operating on one band (160M) so there is not much gear involved, but I
am trying to do it all correctly to minimize noise pickup from common
mode signals arriving in the shack from many RG-6 beverage feed lines.
Most of
I was NASA certified to solder components back in the late 60's. I don't
remember much except that stripping wires teflon wires required thermal
wire strippers, and each solder joint used the minimum amount of solder
and wires were wrapped around terminals for a specified number of
degrees.
Richard,
The FET amplifier is adjusted for a given power output. You have no
PI Net adjustments with the FET amplifier. It is tweaked to have maximum
efficiency at somewhere near the full rated output. It is all up to the
designer. What you will see is an increase in efficiency as you
I had a similar bad weather situation with my VHF operating in VHF
contests. The 144 MHz position was next to the door that went outside,
and the shack was alone on a rocky hilltop. It was 26 miles from the
ocean, so very little salt air, but the door was usually open and fog
and humidity was
Looks good, Steve,
I did something similar a number of years ago. I put a low power DEMI
xverter in a pair of K2s but ended up with a birdie that was pretty
loud near 145.1 MHz where we had our microwave calling frequencies. I
ended up removing the xverter and put it in a different
Hi John
I am assuming that you are referring to K1MS/b in FN42. I know that
K1SG,Steve Gilbert, is involved with that beacon as well as K1MS, Ivan.
They contacted me to design and build a rugged small yagi for that
beacon as all the previous commercial ones they used fell apart in the
Hi Mike
I am running the KPA-500 now on battery power. It isn't mobile, but
it could be with the same hardware. The method I use is a 115 volt AC
inverter that runs off a 12 volt battery. I use the Xantrex Prosine Pure
Sine Wave 1800 watt inverter.
I would echo Frank's comments. I learned long ago that you never measure
antenna gain with any BNC connectors in the signal path. Each joint
would introduce intermittent loss depending on how much the cable
moved. They are not very stable at VHF frequencies. They sure are
convenient though
Hello Fabio
I have two beverages that are somewhat close to my TX antenna. One
had about 75 mw on it during TX while beverage #2 had about 1 watt! This
is enough power to cause damage to preamps, so I made two power limiters
and now the inputs are clipped at about 0 dBm. All it took was
It always pays to keep your eyes open. The local (and only ) surplus
store here has a pile of heat sinks that look just great for a 250 watt
solid state PA. The good part is that they also have a pair of SMA
connectors, PC boards, and associated flanged 50 ohm resistor good for
several
Wow, another person who ascribes to the theory of Electron Psychology. I
have long believed that electrons had feelings and needs. You can
explain coax cable losses very easily. All the electrons start down the
inner wire, but soon start to wonder if they will ever get to the end.
The longer
Last summer a friend of mine got a new K3s and had problems with it on
just six meters. As soon as he raised power above about 10 watts, the
SWR reading went crazy and the rig gave high VSWR warnings. He checked
his six meter yagi with another SWR analyzer and the antenna checked
good. After
Hi Gary
FB on the six meter QSOs. You really need a dedicated antenna for
six to really enjoy the band. long wires work, but you need something
better if you start to get serious. I was operating with a loosely
knit group in Kennebunk, Maine, using the call K1N. We set up at a
Hello Tom,
I am plagued by excessive amounts of power line noise on 50, 144 and
222MHz. It has been going on for years to the point where the FCC (both
Riley Hollingsworth and Laura Smith) have sent letters to the local utility.
I have used several receivers and none really took out the
Ask him if his receiver is noisy!
- Original Message -
From: Phil Hystad k7...@comcast.net
To: Matt Palmer kd8...@gmail.com
Cc: Elecraft Discussion List elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] My Predicament
I got it. Should we send
I have two K3s, one has the new DSP board, so I hooked them up together and
listened to low frequency tones. The higher SN radio definitely has more
bass. In fact I have noted a few times, just how low it goes. It seemed very
unusual for a communications radio to do that. So I listened to the
Hi Dave,
You are out of luck below 490 kHz. Also, you need the general coverage
board so that you can tune below 1.8 MHz. There is a bandpass filter that
rolls off on the normal antenna jack, (for BCB protection) but you can use
the aux antenna jack on the KIO3 strip and get great
Hi Tom,
Someone on the Elecraft reflector ordered the plastic box variant and
was going to report back on that. As of yet I have not heard anything, but I
suspect it is just as serviceable and even lighter than the aluminum cases
that I bought. I looked at your website and it looks like
It is like thiswhat are you going to do for an encore when the K2 and
the K3 have set a standard?
I don't know about you, but I would like to build an Elecraft color TV or
Elecraft electronic organ. I know the feeling..kit withdrawal is
serious!!
Dave K1WHS
(former Heathkit builder)
- Original Message -
From: Matt Zilmer mzil...@verizon.net
To: David Olean k1...@metrocast.net
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 3:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Protective zener diode failure
Hi Dave -
Does this zener have a designator on the board? Just curious. Looks
like it might be D28
I have a K3 and for the second time, the protective zener diode has shorted out
for no apparent reason. The first time, I sent it back under warranty, but I
was charged for the repair. It died again today with the voltage set at 12.4
vdc at the power supply, (an Acopian commercial rack mount
Hello
I presently have a pair of K3s. One of my dilemmas is that I am constantly
hauling the rigs around between my house and a remote hamshack. Of course the
K3 gets top billing and sits on the passenger seat of my pickup truck (rather
than in the back with all the picks, shovels, and tower
72 matches
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