Hi Stewart,
The modular design of K3 is really good. We can identify the problematic area
and just send back / acquire the problematic part to / from Elecraft if
necessary.
As we are overseas K3 users, I do like the modular design. It would be
absolutely painful for me if I had to be so unfortunately to send back my
IC7800
to Osaka, Japan for servicing.
cheers,
Johnny VR2XMC
----- 郵件原件 ----
寄件人﹕ GW0ETF <gw0...@btinternet.com>
收件人﹕ elecraft@mailman.qth.net
傳送日期﹕ 2010/11/30 (二) 12:00:06 AM
主題： [Elecraft] Love/Hate your K3
Three hours into cqww the output power on my K3 started fluctuating wildly
and then went to zero. It happened last week too but recovered but this time
it looked final; after significant preparations for the contest and in the
middle of a freezing night I wasn't a happy person.
I'd sort of resigned myself to waiting a few hours and then driving 35 miles
to hopefully borrow a K3 from a friend who wouldn't be doing the contest;
first though I'd quickly check the reflector and to my delight up popped a
message describing this very fault, caused by the TMP cable coming loose
from the J7 connector on the KREF3 board (thanks N3CAQ..!). Off came the lid
to reveal a well seated cable but a nudge on J7 with a pen brought the rf
back to life! Mightily relieved I carried on and things were fine for a
couple of hours until the same thing happened; this time I removed the 2nd
receiver and took out the cable to test it and sure enough the meter across
the centre pins showed intermittent continuity....gently flexing the cable
caused the connection to come and go.
Interested to speculate how long the cable has been faulty; this ancient
model (#145) has definitely showed power fluctuations in the past on
occasion but I've assumed a software source (can't explain it..? must be
software..!) so maybe it's been like it from new, don't know. The good news
was I remembered having a spare new TMP cable left over from the KRX3
fitting which I used and all was then back to normality. This now begs the
question of getting replacement TMP cables which I will pose to Aptos since
I assume they are custom made and I can't imagine a non-specialised crimping
tool doing the job.
Moral of this tale is check the reflector first, and watch your connections;
the few problems I've had over the years (including random error messages)
have all been traced to less than perfect contacts of one sort or another.
CQWW was excellent though I am considering claiming for an hours worth of
points from Aptos ;-) Thanks to all those calls familiar from here for the
Qs on 40m - I was sosb low power.
Stewart Rolfe, GW0ETF
--
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