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It’s dead, Jim.
6 February 2015 | by  |
| My “first” KX3 during its early days at KG9DW. |
I heard back from Elecraft yesterday, and my KX3 is officially toast. You see, it wasn’t ever designed to have 120VAC applied to the external power connector. As I feared, the current transitioned through the control board, wiped out some components, traveled across the leads to the RF board, took out multiple components, and then exited through the well grounded antenna connection.
Talking through the options, fixing it is cost prohibitive. The guys at Elecraft are working on an option for me, so I’m hopeful I’ll have a working KX3 back in the shack in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’ve got a loaner radio from a buddy in the shack. It transmits fine but its receiver is so, so deaf compared to the KX3. It’s like going from an iPad Air to a Palm Pilot.
In the comments of my last post about this mistake, the suggestion of fusing along with a diode was brought up. I’ll definitely be putting more thought into my power supply cables after this costly error.
5 Responses to “It’s dead, Jim.”
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- Matt W1MST, Managing Editor
I think this is the only sensible comment to this I can think of (specifically the last comment in this youtube video is kind of strikingly true) HI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yXqU-w9U0
The one thing that Capt. Kirk didn’t have is Elecraft’s customer service department. I’ve heard nothing but good things. I’m sure they will work out a very fair arrangement for you.
@Andor – very true, time to let it go!
@Matt – that’s true….and if Scotty worked in customer service, I bet he would work at Elecraft.
Good afternoon Mike, not good to have that kind of news for sure. I will be interested to see what Elecraft comes up with?
Mike
Man! That sucks royally Mike! So sorry to learn of your misfortune! I’m glad the Elecraft folks are going to help you out. Best of luck to you and I hope to hear you back on the air soon.
Very 73,
Cliff – KU4GW