XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.equipment

W2LJ QRP - When you care to send the very least!

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Crap!

Posted: 19 Sep 2021 04:45 PM PDT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/feedburner/KhQX/~3/-ugqbOKWUQo/crap.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


I was reading some stuff on the internet this morning when my phone
chirped to let me know that my friend Bob W3BBO was on the air calling CQ.
I saw that he was on 30 Meters, and I thought the band might be conducive
to a Pittsburgh to Central Jersey QSO, so I ran downstairs to fire up the
KX3. I flipped the switch on my Astron 20 Amp power supply and there was no
hum and the rocker switch didn't light up.
Not good.
I checked to make sure the power strip that I have it plugged into was
working and that showed to be fine. My Astron 7 Amp power supply is plugged into the same surge protector and it fired up just fine. I replaced the
fuse and powered up again. This time, there was a hum and the rocker switch
lit up - all for about a second. Then the new fuse blew.
I unplugged it, took off the cover and gave it a visual inspection. Nothing burnt, nothing charred, no funny smells. I then took a meter to all the
major semiconductors - pass transistors, diodes and SCR and the readings
were normal - no shorts. The filter caps look ok - from my experience with repairing studio strobes, those big electrolytics tend to bulge a bit
before they have a "non passive failure" so I doubt they're the problem.
That leaves the transformer itself or something on the voltage regulator
board. I'm thinking the voltage regulator board as transformers in and of themselves really don't go bad without some evidence of getting overly hot
or burning.
I don't have the time or resources to go into deep trouble shooting right
now, so I'll rely on the 7 Amp supply for the time being - too many
projects, too many things to do. Besides, running 5 Watts shouldn't even
make it raise a sweat. While I was down there, after getting things
transferred over and squared away, I made a couple contacts on 15 Meters
with some Texas QSO Party stations. I also had a brief QSO with Lazlo HA3NA
on 17 Meters (and I got a 579)! It was really nice to see 15 and 17 Meters alive for a change. Maybe the sun spots ARE making a comeback.
When I do get the time, there are some wonderful resources on the web for fixing these babies. One in particular can be found here - http://www.repeater-builder.com/astron/pdf/astron-troubleshooting.pdf
It's a nice step by step resource and as it's been over 14 years since I repaired circuit boards down to the component level every day for a living,
my trouble shooting skills are a bit rusty to put it mildly. I'll take
whatever help I can get.
On another note, I downloaded Hamrs onto my cell phone after watching Tom
K4SWL use it on his POTA videos. It's a super easy logging program to use,
even easier than Ham Log NG. I like that you can create specific logbooks
for individual POTA activations or other events. Each log can be converted
to an ADIF so that I can import them into my master AC Log logbook on the laptop. I also downloaded it onto my Android tablet which should be a bit easier on my fat fingers in the field. This, of course, assumes that I will give up on paper and pencil. That may be easier said than done! LOL!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

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