Hi Jim, TNX for your suggestions on the Harris amps on my website. I agree that they should have some good switching on them, and have been suggesting that people use good coaxial relays, preferably those with an extra set of protection contats, so the amp is not turned on until the coax relays has switched. They are great amps, though, and have fantastic protection circuitry built into them, so they are really hard to damage ;-) And it is nice to be able to get around a kw on 6m with only 10w of drive!
However, my discussions recently have not been involving those big amps at all...rather my current application is to use the KX3 on overseas 6m EME Dxpeditions in conjunction with the M2 6M-1000 12 pound 6m amplifier. I greatly appreciate all the guidance, and I will plan to build up some sort of arrangement to key the KX3 via the PTT line out of the MIC connector. VY 73, Lance On 3/5/2012 8:29 PM, Jim Brown-10 [via Elecraft] wrote: > On 3/5/2012 11:09 AM, W7GJ, Lance wrote: > > However, my solid state 6M-1000 amplifier has a little mechanical antenna > relay in > > it, and the last thing I can afford to do is to hot switch that amp on a > 6m EME > > DXpedition and blow up the transistors and/or the little transfer relay > inside it. > > I understand, and like many others, greatly appreciate your initiative > to recycle those high quality ch 2 power amps for 6M. BUT -- designing > and building some sort of bulletproof T/R antenna switching ought to be > part of that conversion. It doesn't take much to rig a suitable vacuum > relay like the Jennings, Kilovac, or Gigavac, and the Ten Tec schematics > for the Titan 425, which are on my website, illustrate an easy way to > sense that the relay has positively switched. They did it in the late > 70s with discrete small signal NPN and PNP transistors, and it still > works just fine 35 years later. BTW -- Alpha uses Gigavac relays in > their current production, and they're not expensive. They will sell > small quantities directly to hams at about $80 each, and I've heard of > at least respected ham vendor who beats that price by something like 20%. > > While it's great to see more features built into Elecraft rigs, we must > realize that they are not free (at a minimum there is engineering time > to do the programming and document it), some can be costly or > impractical, depending on the hardware, and when they are costly, it is > not reasonable to burden all KX3 owners with things that can (and > should) be done outside the radio. > > 73, Jim K9YC > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] </user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7346275&i=0> > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion > below: > http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Elecraft-KX3-Owner-s-Manual-now-available-preliminary-tp7343177p7346275.html > > To start a new topic under Elecraft, email > ml-node+s365791n365791...@n2.nabble.com > To unsubscribe from Elecraft, click here > <http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=unsubscribe_by_code&node=365791&code=dzdnakBxLmNvbXwzNjU3OTF8OTMyNDMwOQ==>. > NAML > <http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=macro_viewer&id=instant_html%21nabble%3Aemail.naml&base=nabble.naml.namespaces.BasicNamespace-nabble.view.web.template.NabbleNamespace-nabble.view.web.template.NodeNamespace&breadcrumbs=notify_subscribers%21nabble%3Aemail.naml-instant_emails%21nabble%3Aemail.naml-send_instant_email%21nabble%3Aemail.naml> > -- Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ) P.O. Box 73 Frenchtown, MT 59834-0073 USA TEL: (406) 626-5728 QTH: DN27ub URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj Windows Messenger: w...@hotmail.com Skype: lanceW7GJ 2m DXCC #11/6m DXCC #815 Interested in 6m EME? Ask me about subscribing to the Magic Band EME email group, or just fill in the request box at the bottom of my web page (above)! -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Elecraft-KX3-Owner-s-Manual-now-available-preliminary-tp7343177p7346437.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ 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
