Well it happened. While operating one of the digital modes for several hours today I lost communication between the radio and computer. My K3S, s/n 10169, just stopped communicating with the computer.
Nothing has or was changed in station configuration and under clear blue skies, no lightning and no power spikes recorded. The Device Manager does not show the normal comm port number. Can not control the radio from the computer and there is no audio from the radio to the computer. Tried the K3 Utility and it can not find the radio port. Thus can't revert to a known good backup configuration. Tried shutting down the radio, turning off power, disconnecting the USB cable, rebooted computer, replaced USB cable. Turned on power supply, turned on radio. No change. Conclusion is failure of the KIO3b. I am told by Elecraft service that no replacements are available. Also checked with Larry Sharpo, K6RO, who indicated he had none available. Any suggestions? Pack it up, get a RA and send it to Watsonville. But on the other hand I read, one customer radio was returned as not repairable. 🙁 It is not a happy thought to loose such a nice feature on still one of the best performing radios in the marketplace. Since many seemed to have experienced failure of the KIO3b for various reasons, there is a demand for these boards. I ask each of you to communicate with Eric and ask for a new production run of these boards. I know they are used in the upgrade of K3 radios and standard with K3S radios. And there are a few thousand of each being used every day. Yes, I know it is a 10 year old radio, but ?????? ERIC : PLEASE consider a production run of these. 73 Bob, K4TAX ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
