6600 keying - external keyer - 80 meters - self keys. Other bands okay

John S Comella

6600 - keys properly on all bands with external keyer except 80 meters.  Continuous keying after initial key down.  Turn off 6600 to stop keying.  Okay on other bands and okay into dummy load.  Ferrite beads everywhere but problem continues.  Swapped 6600 with IC-7300.  No keying issues with IC-7300

Mike-VA3MW

This does sound like an RF problem, and I have had my share.  My latest nightmare on  my remote station was related to a 2M long patch cable that gave me high SWR only on 6M.  

Do you have a dummy load you can test into?  If it works into a dummy load as expected, then we need to look outside the radio.

As a similar test, what happens if you reduce the RF level of the radio to 50 watts or 5 watts?

Mike

John S Comella

Mike, thanks for your info.  No problem at reduced power and into dummy load.  Problem starts at about the 45 watt level, so most likely it's something outside the radio.  I'll check cables.

Sergey KN7K

I do not remember if i had the same issue or not about 6month ago, but I could not TX more than 30-40w. I found that that Amps limit on Astrron VS-35M was set too low. Just something to check.
Sergey, KN7K

John S Comella

Keying issue resolved.  I was using an outboard keyer and N1MM computer keying.  Fed each cable into a "Y" connector that plugged into the 6600 key port.  I noticed that disconnecting one cable or the other from the "Y" eliminated the keying problem.

I replaced the outboard keyer with a K1EL WinKeyer.  The WinKeyer is connected to the computer via a  USB cable.  Only one cable into the 6600 key port from the computer.  No key cable from the WinKeyer to the 6600 key port is needed, thus no "Y" connector and two cables.  N1MM keys the 6600 and I can also key the 6600 with my paddle.