Hi Tor:
At 10:29 AM 8/9/04, Torsten Clay wrote:
I used my pair of K2/100's in last weekend's NAQP CW. Band conditions were
pretty good for August, and I ended up with 789 qso's. I use the pair
SO2R, meaning I am listening on one band while transmitting simultaneously
on another band. In the NAQP mults count on every band (including 160),
and you change bands a lot.
I was reminded again of a K2 firmware "bug" that has been very annoying to
me: after changing bands, the K2 transmit power is reset to zero. I takes
several dits for the power to come up to 100%. That means if I change
bands, the first station I call gets something like "AOGW" instead of
N4OGW! If I forgot to hit the tune button or send a string of random dits,
the station I was calling frequently came back with "?" I'd rather not
have to QRM other stations "tuning up" every time I change bands.
Is it possible to make the K2 start out at 100% TX power? Is this supposed
to protect the finals?
In the NA Sprint contest (coming up in September!) this is a really big
deal. There, you must QSY after calling CQ, and if the station I am
calling misses my call, I may never hear him again!
The resetting of power upon BAND change is a function of the ALC which is
NOT hardware-derived, but software-driven. When you change bands, and the
power level generally WILL change because each band has a little bit
different efficiency, hence different drive levels required for the same
requested power output, the ALC must measure the actual output against the
requested output and make a determination as the drive required. This
requires a number of RF cycles to accomplish, thus the need to hit a few DITs.
Now, regarding the Sprint... unless you actually change BANDS after each
QSO, this should NOT be a problem since the K2 doesn't require resetting of
the ALC upon a frequency change WITHIN BAND. However, if you do change
bands after each QSO, then it will... and (VERY UNFORTUNATELY) I see no way
to get around it... sorry.
Maybe Wayne can some up with a way to save the ALC level DAC count and
apply it to the initial setting for the next band selected so you'll at
least have SOMETHING (more than mW) going out when you hit the key...
73,
Tom Hammond N0SS
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