[Amps] AL-80A - fighting with the relay again

Will Matney craxd1 at verizon.net
Wed Jan 11 21:13:25 EST 2006


Bill,

It's dirty/worn N/C relay contacts. The N/C contacts are the ones that let the incoming signal through to your rig. You may try to clean them with a contact burnisher made by GC Electronics, or replace the relay. That's about all you'll be able to do. A few relays use a screw to hold the relay armateur together. I have seen these loosen and cause a similar problem where tightening the screw cured the problem. That wouldn't do you any good though if the armature of your relay is fixed solid like most are.

Best,

Will

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/11/06 at 9:06 PM Bill Coleman wrote:

>I'm using an AL-80A with an Elecraft K2/100. I recently operated the  
>RTTY Roundup running about 300-400 watts out.
>
>Intermittently, when the AL-80A would unkey, the received signal  
>strength would be reduced by 10-30 dB. If I would key the AL-80A  
>again, even without transmitting (eg just hitting the PTT with a  
>straight key connected for this purpose), sometimes the receive line  
>would return to normal, sometimes it would still be attenuated.
>
>A few times, it took 3-8 raps on the straight key to remove the  
>attenuation. Other times, it just took once.
>
>What causes this sort of intermittent attenuation? What can I do  
>about it?
>
>Someone earlier mentioned hot-switching of the relay. After  
>discussing this with the designers of the K2/100, it appears the rig  
>cannot hot switch - the K2/100 will bring the amp keying line down  
>about 15-20 ms before it starts producing any RF. Since I was using  
>VOX keying, there's a longer delay before the rig unkeys.
>
>Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
>Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>
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