Stan:
I have experience the main component of what you have described,
namely, the high "S" meter reading with the preamp on.
I have intermittent line noise here (luckily, mostly gone). When the
noise is "off," I can switch in the preamp and there is no change in
the ambient reading on the meter. If the noise is "on," my meter sits
at 1 bar (not as bad as yours) and when I put the preamp on, the meter
jumps up a lot (I really did not take notice of how much, but a lot)
and the band feels "not usable" due to so much loud noise.
I would suggest that you "test" whether or not this is a local line
noise (or some other source: touch lamps, etc) by putting together a
small but directional antenna. A simple rotatable dipole will do
(kinda big for 30m, but smaller will be okay too...try it on
10m...assuming that you have the noise on 10m as well).
Then just "rotate" the dipole (arm-strong method is fine) and see if
you can notch (null) the noise. At least you'll know where the noise
isn't then and also know that your K2 if working FB.
Good luck!
de Doug KR2Q
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