The cable should plug into the rear of the head. If you’re plugged into the body, it’s the wrong port. I should do a better video including hookup and configuration. This was just a quick video I made while using winlink.
I used to work my CW/AM Homebrew radio on 80 m in late 1980s. Now with FT-710, I am yet to hear anything on 80 m. Either no activity due to near solar maximum or high noise due to numerous electronic gadgets around causing RFI. 73 de Jon, VU2JO
When you want to tune via the kxpa100 atu, do you just set the pwr output on the kx2 to 11 watts so the amp is engaged? I usually tune at 5 watts on my other rigs.
When using the KX3 or KX3 with the KXPA100 amp, it's best to just think of it as a single device. The "device" will know what do do when you press the tune button. Just set the PA and ATU to external in the radio menu and it will handle it for you.
Bravo....done to be EFFECTIVE as a Go-Kit. Some of the ridiculous large and ornate things people put together are more DISPLAY kits or Go (get a hernia) kits.
Hi there! Greetings from the UK. Great video, very useful. When paired with the KX2, are we able to monitor current draw (TX and RX and STBY of both KX2 and KXPA100) on the screen of the KX2? If not, are you able to tell me the current draw at 20W and 50W on TX? And on STBY or on RX as well? From the specs I can tell it is typically 20A (presume on TX at 100W) I am Interested to be able to estimate the running times when used on the field with the batteries and solar panels I have. Thanks for sharing
I don't remember if you can display it on the radio itself. I made the huge mistake of selling this amp so I cannot test it now. If you have one, do not sell it.
If you turn your keyboard beeps back on, what sort of feedback do you get from the radio? When you hold the button, you'll hear a beep, and then when it starts scanning, you'll hear a slightly higher beep. I wonder if your keypad is somehow defective. I can't reproduce this on my D74. Does it change when scanning on the other VFO?
Thanks so much for commenting. The keyboard beeps are actually on but the level is set to 1. It beeps as expected with the higher tone coming when it starts to scan. I never thought to try the other VFO. I just did and the problem does not happen on band B. I am going to change my settings to use band A for data and B for talking. You may have just solved my problem!
@@K4MJV That's definitely weird - I haven't experienced that on my D74 when switching to the other side for scanning. The D-Star TX History menu does get slow (i.e. slow scrolling) once a few entries get filled up. I reported it to Kenwood but they never fixed it.
Keep your eye on QRZ and QTH swap pages. They also come up on retailers used list from time to time. If you see one, don't hesitate. If they are priced in the $550-$600 range, they sell very quickly. Hopefully Kenwood will release a new model with the same functionality. No one currently offers a radio packed with as many features right now.
Im about to install a dual band in my 2008 F250 super duty. The dash in your truck is the closest to mine that ive seen in an install video. Did you have to loosen the black cowling between the hood and windshield to route the wires?
I did not. There is just enough gap between the cowl panel and fender in my truck to squeeze the RG8x cable in and it's just tight enough to keep it from coming out on it's own. 4 years later and it is still routed the same and working great.
well,these links you sent no longer works ,Yeasu desabled them??? did you have a special cable to used it as a node . i need a node here but not a repeater,no much $$ for our budget 73 from quebec gervais,ve2ckn
You can't use this radio as a node. The Yaesu video just showed how to use the mic buttons for some basic Wires-X functions on the radio to connect to existing nodes.
How many people under 40 know cw? I learned it for my Tech plus 5 wpm test and do not remember anything but Sos and cq ! Maybe bring back the novice test so little kids can get a license as they learn languages more easily so some will learn Morse. Anyway use cw with a computer if you have to .
I purchased the KXPA100. Almost all of the cables you show in your video are NOT included with the KXPA1OO. With mine I received two of the USB cables used to updated the KXPA100 firmware (weird), the RCA plug cable, and one power cable. All other cables must be purchased separately. Most of them can be purchased from suppliers other than Elecraft, which will save time/money and allow you to avoid dealing to much with Elecraft. The cable designed to connect the KX3 to the AMP is $60.
That's a shame. When I purchased mine they included the cables of choice. The only cable I paid extra for was the KX2 adapter. I see on their site now that they have changed that. They have also increased the price of the amplifier so much that I don't think I could justify buying it now. I paid $1200 with the ATU and all cables just a few years back. Same purchase today is over $1800!
For the KX2 do I need to have a mores code key for the kx2 to work. I want one but I’m not sure if It has to have a key on it and also does the kx2 have capabilities to make contacts all over the work including in other countries
If you want to operate CW, you would need a key. It doesn't need to be the Elecraft key though. You can find some decent keys on ebay or amazon that will work fine.
Nice video...Are u still using the KX3, Pan adapter as a base unit? Or have u changed/upgraded? Curious...I have a KX2 and a KXPA100 and really like the combination but as a base it has its drawbacks, particularly having to dive into menus on the KX2...
Regretfully, I sold that station. I wish I had not though. Huge mistake. There is no way I could buy one now with the prices the way they are. I am using a Yaesu FTdx10 in the shack but still use my KX2 when operating away from the qth,.
Great video! Question , I just received my KXPA100 , can I leave the battery in the KX2 and plug it into the amp? And/or can I just use battery power from the kx2 to get rid of 1 wire in this setup? Thanks in advance.
I know you asked this a while ago. Sorry for the slow reply. You can use the battery in the radio and not connect the power. Personally, if I am connecting two or three cables, one more is not a big deal.
I have one.. had it for years.. I like it for many reasons.. but the main beef I have with it is you cannot keep custom receive settings intact with vfo and band changes..this is not good for me at all.. compared to my icom icr75 receiver it is noisy, and not all that intuitive.. I like it, but it has some real drawbacks.
That is a Diamond antenna. I don't recall the model but it's the ten element VHF antenna. It's not high enough to work well. Had it mounted much higher at my last house and it worked very well.
Got to get that antenna up higher, put that pole on your chimney.. lol But seriously you're line of sight so that yagi with that much power isn't going to make much of a difference over your vertical without propagation.
so I have a diamond 10 element beam first I put it up horizontal worked all 10 hams in my area on side band lmao.. flipped that puppy vertical and had a lot better results I am active on fm simplex and work people all over the tri state area..
80 watts from the amp, versus up to 50 watts from the rig (barefoot, 2m & 70cm), is only +2dB. And that's only about one-third of a typical S-unit. Typically it's not worth getting out of your chair unless the change you're contemplating is a 'doubling' to achieve a +3dB increase.
I have the same power amp and the finals don’t work. So I called mirage mfj etc and no one works on this power amp anymore. If someone would replace my finals I’d pay them handsomely
I followed your video exactly, and I am seeing the transmit frequency offset change now on my programmed channel 0. I can hear the repeater when it transmits but no one can hear me, and I can tell I am not tripping the repeater. I also notice I have no CTCS indicator. Menu settings for CTCS is not sticking. KE5FAR
No matter what I did at that point CTCS-T would not setting would not save. So I did another factory reset, started over, set CTCS-T first, then followed the video and it worked. Problem solved. Suggestion, for the video you should have started with the factory reset. Yours worked because you had CTCS-T set before the video started.
