Sunday, January 27, 2013

A day in the park.........

Packed and ready to go
Powering up..and NOTHING
Julie had a great idea the other day, I could get my new Elecraft KX3 some on air time from the car. The plan was we go to a park, me with the radio and Julie with her camera. While she was off taking photos I could operate QRP from the car. First my KXBC3 (to use NiHM batteries and charge then)  had to be installed in the KX3. That was done yesterday evening without any problems (I did a YouTube video
of it soon to be posted) I then placed my Ansmann 2850 MaH batteries in 

 the radio and set it for a 16 hour charge. I tried the radio at home today on The internal batteries and the KX3 was dead!!!! Off to the manual were I found out the rig is preset if  the voltage is not over 10 volts the rig will not start. ( Rig holds 8 AA batteries) No problem I was told to drop the threshold to 8.5 volts if using  
NiMH batteries. That was done and on came the rig all was well. Off to the park ......Julie helped me get setup and off she went. I'm ready to go.....powered up the KX3 NOTHING!!!! Very frustrating to say the least. I packed everything up and
Julie had more success than me
now waiting for Julie's return and composing this blog post on my IPhone in the parking Lot.
NOTE....UPDATED POST TO ALLOW CANADA GOOSE PHOTO TO BE VIEWED IN LARGER FORMAT. 

5 comments:

VE9KK said...

HI Paul, sorry your comment was deleted when the post was redone. But again thanks for your comments on the pic.
Mike

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike, very recognizable. I hope next time all runs smooth for you. But I also discovered, that composing a Blog post is also part of the RADIO fun. When I say the pictures are beautiful, I don't only mean the KX3. hi. The goose is awesome. 73, Bert

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike, the goose photo is great! Btw. Can't you use the 12V car battery? Or doesn't the IQ have a 12V plug? The IQ really needs a carwash ;-) Is the license plate real? 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Hello Bert, I found out that it was user error with the KX3....go figure eh. I thought this was what it was all along I just had to find out what is was. I did charge the batteries the proper way. So they did not receive a charge at all and if the batteries are really low the rig will not turn on. So all is well now Oh and Julie thanks you for the nice comment about her pic.
Mike

VE9KK said...

Good evening to you Bas, I do have the 12 volt hookup in the car but I wanted to see if the batteries worked as well. I plan to take this radio out and about with me, so this was a dry run. I have not figured out what went wrong and it was user error regarding the charging of the batteries. Yes the IQ sure does need a wash but with the snow here you can wash it one day and the next day it looks the same. As for the license that is my call. We can get plate here that have your call on them.