Jeff, You'll receive very expert advice on posible causes, internal to the K2, that may indicate to you a possible slightly low output on 10 metres (and 24Mhz).
This is a narrow perspective response, based on limited K2 experience (I built just the one), but some experience with amps. 1. Double check your input voltage to the K2 under full TX current draw, about 3 amps at full power. I used a DC lead that was too resistive first time around, lost a few volts in the process, 13.8V can reduce to 11.? at the rig easily. It is surprising how easy it is to lose volts at 3A current draw. I found that with a thicker DC cable, I could increase the DC supply voltage to give 14V as measured on the K2. That gave really pleasing power output on 10 metres. 2. Be circumspect about your indicated power output, especially if it is based on what the K2 power meter is telling you. That may be misleading, but not because of the K2 design itself. Using my Bird 43, I detected differences between the Bird reading and the K2 "firmware generated" reading. The differences were enhanced when I used different coax connecting leads to the dummy load. Probably dodgy patch leads, or at least slightly out of tolerance ones. Eventually, I connected the dummy load direct to the BNC connector, via an adaptor. Lo and behold, the power reading of the K2 changed and matched the reading on the Bird exactly. I won't try to explain this. 3. As a general rule, never build an amp until you are totally happy with your exciter. Otherwise you make any problems bigger. Best 73 Wyn, VR2AX _______________________________________________ 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
