Now that my K2 is just about complete & while it's still fresh in my mind, I thought I'd offer a couple suggestions that might make the already fantastic manual possibly even a little friendlier. These are very, very minor, though. The manual makes it incredibly easy to start from a bag of parts and end up with a first rate rig.
----- RECOMMENDATION: When winding toroids the manual indicates how long to cut the wire. It would be nice if it also mentioned approximately how long a lead this assumes. WHY: If you use too long a lead that's ok because you can start winding from that one if you run short on the other end. But if you start with a shorter lead, like I did, you end up working extra hard to make tight turns only to discover at the end that you had plenty of wire left over. But I did catch on after a few toroids! ----- RECOMMENDTAION: It would similarly be nice if the manual mentioned when you use the last piece of a given color or type of wire so that you know the rest is now extra. WHY: For example, when told to make links for the "binocular" transformer I found myself reading ahead to see what wire was still to be used to know which hookup wire would be safe to use for this. Same goes for the coax when making the RF probe. I wasn't sure if more coax would be used later, and so ended witing till the very end to finish the probe. It's also helpful to know how much extra you have so that when you make a mistake, you have the info to know whether to cut a fresh piece or conserve and work with what you've got. ----- And for anyone ready to start building & wondering about winding toroids, I had great luck using the "solder blob" method described in the manual. It's not as easy as a solder pot, but not that much harder either. I actually found winding the toroids to be a relaxing break from the install & solder routine. 73, Mike AB3AP Avondale, PA _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
