On 22/06/2022 02:50, elecraft-requ...@mailman.qth.net wrote:
With more K3 radios broken on the bench than working at my contest station
(J68HZ) and NO spare modules to work with,
I am actually wondering about that. One of the magazines I read, the
German Funkamateur magazine, has a story each month about a group doing
some DXpedition and nearly every month they report about equipment
getting broken during such an event. As these things often use Elecraft,
there are reports of K3's failing.
But I wonder the failure mode because the stories don't report anything
about that. I know of a few failure modes:
- Diodes at input blown up because of extremely strong signals
near-frequency. Bandfilters may help, as does careful frequency planning
and some antenna distance. (ages ago I used a FT747 which uses a light
bulb as protection - after a heavy radio weekend I had the lightbulb
open and one of the input coils fused!)
- PA kickback causing the low-power amplifier transistors to fail -
there has been discussion on the list to add transzorb diodes
- Encoders for filter settings etc may fail - easy to replace
- volume knob was bumped on, causing potmeter broken - just replaced it
- Plastic knobs cracked - partially solved by Elecraft warranty, partly
solved by buying new ones myself ($$$$ with shipping and customs)
- Audio amplifier dying because of a short circuit at the output. There
is a mod kit for that.
I wonder about other failure modes. How does a K3 die at a contest
station, or a DXpedition, and what can be done to prevent?
What are the failures on the broken radios you are reporting about?
73,
Geert Jan PE1HZG
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