Hi All, Just spent this past weekend in the ARRL International DX Contest (CW) with my K2. I haven't spent more than a few minutes in front of it despite getting it back in August '06 so this was a good opportunity to become acquainted with it.
Previous transceivers I have owned were an HW-101, Icom 706 MkIIG, Yaesu FT-857D, and a KX1. As a contest rig, in my limited experience my K2 leaves the Icom and Yaesu far behind as an easy to use transceiver. However, the time spent with it this weekend naturally leads to a list of likes and wish list items for future products so here goes: Filters - Absolutely lovely. Better than the optional filters I added to my Icom 706 and my Yaesu 857D. I only wish there were UP and DOWN buttons to select them, like the Band select buttons. Yeah, I know there are only 4 filters! DSP - I kept it on throughout the contest and loved the way even weak signals popped up out of an almost-silent background. It eliminates the noise from my notebook computer's charger and greatly reduces listening fatigue. However, I'm still struggling with the controls and I've yet to find the real time clock. RIT - In my entire 33-year ham career I have never felt the need for RIT (and XIT even less). Not exactly a complaint (it's probably just me) but to me the RIT control takes up a lot of real estate on a cramped front panel. Make the RIT control an encoder (if it isnt already) and then you can have it do any number of other cool adjustments at the press of a button (Id put the keyer speed control on there if it was me and make some room on the front panel). AF Gain/RF Gain/Speed/Power Controls - Way too close together. I found the best way to use them was to push directly on the end of the knob with my fingertip and turn it that way, rather than trying to grasp the knob. How about putting AF/RF Gain to the left of the tuning knob and Speed & Power to the right? (also see the above RIT comment) Display - OK, as far as it goes. I'd take out the bargraph S-Meter and expand the LCD display to fill the space. Use a dot matrix LCD and run a bargraph S-meter along the bottom of the LCD display. A dot matrix LCD gives you tons of flexibility to show additional information, like the status of many of the controls such as DSP (if installed) and filter selections. Tune Button How about making it so that hitting Tune automatically reduces transmitter output to just a few watts for the tune operation, then returns the K2 back to its previously set output when tuning is complete? I was using the N1MM Logger software and a MicroHam Winkey-based keyer so hands-on control of the K2 was limited to mostly tuning and filter selection. N1MM Logger and the K2 get along very well together. I can't comment on the K2's keyer. Hope this is of some interest. 73, Ken Alexander, VE3HLS _______________________________________________ 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
