As a receiver gets heavily overloaded it's not uncommon for the audio output to drop as amplifier stages are driven so hard they become attenuators.
As others suggested, the *only* way to confirm is with a wattmeter. 1) What does the wattmeter built into the K3 say? 2) Did your K3 pass the TX Gain procedure without errors? Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- > Hi All, > > During the course of testing my recently built KPA100, I'm > experiencing odd results on the cw transmit tests. All tests, > resistance, and voltage checks up until this point have been normal. > > When transmitting cw into a 100 watt dummy load, things appear normal > when transmitting in QRP mode (below 11 watts). The strength of the > cw signal on a separate receiver increases in strength as does the > current draw up until the 11 watt level. > > When the K2 Power level hits 11 watts, the high power relay clicks > but the signal strength actually drops. At 20 watts, the signal > strength on the separate receiver is quieter than at 10 watts. > However, the current steadily increases and did not drop after the > high power relay kicked in. > > My approx current draw measurements at key down for various power > levels (measured by my power supply's meter): > > 5 W ~ 2 A > 10 W ~ 3 A > 15 W ~ 7 A > 25 W ~ 8 A > 50 W ~ 11 A > 100 W ~16-17 A > > My current draw during tune at less than 11 W is 343 mA (I have a > number of option modules, fixed audio output mod, and Z10000 output > buffer). > > My current draw during tune at 11 W plus the fan on low is 545 mA. > > I set the bias current so the current draw during tune at 11 W plus > fan on low is about 950 mA, although it rises pretty quickly to above > 1000 mA during tune. > > As always, many thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. > > 73 > > N5BCN - Brian ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
