Keith, It all depends -- any builder, beginner or not can do a fine job of building a K2 - it is designed so that that will happen. I usually say that there are 2 requirements for properly building a K2 (or any other Elecraft kit) - first the builder must be able to do a good job of soldering and second the builder must be able to follow well written instructions properly. If the beginning builder has that capability, then the K2 will be good. I must assume that a pro builder already has demonstrated that he has that capability through his track record.
If the builder does a poor soldering job overall, that can cause problems that are intermittent, and are not always easy to find, and they may not show up for months and years afterwards. Components may be swapped with other values - 0.1 uf in place of 0.01 uf, 47 pf used where a 470 pf should be (the 47 pf cap is marked 470 and the 470 pf is marked 471 - easy mistake to make if one does not follow the instructions carefully). So you have to judge the builder on two points - the ability to solder properly and the ability to properly follow written instructions carefully. The K2 may appear to work just fine with many construction faults, but it will not display optimum performance. Proper alignment - especially the IF filter alignment seems to be one of the major problems with obtaining optimum performance from the K2 - the 'standard' filter settings will work, but they can be made much better by the use of Spectrogram or a similar audio spectrum analyzer - all of the Elecraft builders for hire that I know about will align your filters with some kind of tool to aid the process, but the beginner may be satisfied with doing it 'by ear' and the manual settings. Of course, you can easily re-do the filter alignment and dial calibration yourself. The K2 has a goodly amount of design margin, so it can work with several faults that occur during the build process, and the inexperienced builder may not even know they are present. 73, Don W3FPR > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Darwin, Keith > Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 9:18 AM > To: Elecraft Discussion List > Subject: [Elecraft] Does build quality affect performance? > > > Hey guys, > > Does a K2's performance vary depending on how well it was built? Is > there a difference in performance between one built by a pro, one built > by a beginner who has no problems and one built by a beginner who has > lots of problems and does rework to correct them? > > > - Keith KD1E - > > > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > 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 > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.1.1/271 - Release Date: 2/28/2006 > > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net 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
