Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-26 Thread David Woolley (E.L)

Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:


To avoid any misunderstanding about my use of the term 'strong', the 
level of the internal spurious signal at 7 MHz in my K2's receiver was 
approximately 10db above the noise floor at the output of the product 
detector when viewed with a suitable spectrum analyzer, with the 


What's the analyzer bandwidth (resolution)?

receiver connected to a 40m reference dipole at 70ft. The background 
noise here on 40m is usually 'below S1' with either dipole or beam, 
storm noise excepted. Receiver IF bandwidth was set to 400 Hz ,which is 
not, of course, the receiver's noise bandwidth because of the actual 
response of the K2's IF filter.


I get -21dB with an analyzer bin width of 10.8Hz, using spectrogram and 
an indoor doublet, consisting of about 20m of wire, but with only about 
10m horizontal.  Note that is 21 dB below the noise in 10.8 Hz, or about 
 37dB below the noise in 400Hz, and I cannot hear it.  I did turn the 
AGC off.


Using a 50 ohm dummy load at about 21 degrees C, I get about +28dB in 
the same bandwidth.  Looking at last month's RadCom article on noise, it 
looks like a quiet 7MHz should generate about 35dB over a 25 degree 
resistor, which would give -7dB in 10.8Hz even in ideal conditions. My
antenna noise, at 49dB over the resistor, is roughly in the middle of 
the range suggested in that article.


Either you are misinterpreting the effective noise bandwidth of the 
analyzer, or you have a faulty K2. The birdy, itself, will have very 
little bandwidth.


--
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-24 Thread Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy

David Wooley wrote:


Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:
I agree that this is one source, and one point of entry for this 
signal.is K16 / K17.


Why do you say that.  On my K2, the amplitude depends, in the expected 
way, on the settings of those two relays, indicating an earlier injection 
point.  Note that the microcontroller to which they are adjacent is shut 
down during receive, so one should not be picking up anything from it's 
oscillator. (The relays are the attenuator and pre-amp bypass ones.)


In my K2 the amplitude of the 7MHz birdy behaves in a similar way. The 
source appears to be the MCU on the Control Board, because the birdy can 
still be detected below both K16 and K17  using a 'sniffer' whose exposed 
'link' is approximately 1/8 inch in length, double shielded coax, when the 
VCO, Reference oscillator and BFO are shut down to eliminate a 7 MHz product 
from these sources. Changing the MCU's 4 MHz oscillator's frequency changes 
the birdy's frequency at the rate of 7/4 as seen on a spectrum analyzer. 
From 'sniffing' the pcb trace connecting K16 pin 3 to D6 (via C53) I found 
maximum birdy amplitude to be at the K16 end, and removing D6 has little 
effect. Between K17 pin 8 and the mixer there is not much difference in the 
birdy's amplitude, the higher level being at the K17 end.


The birdy can also be found in my K2 on the pcb traces which connect to the 
relay coils (pins 10) and in the nearby bundle of pcb traces, some of which 
eventually lead to the Control Board. Without destroying my K2's RF board, 
and with the test equipment that I have, I cannot be certain whether the 
birdy is being conducted all the way or whether spatial coupling is also 
present. However the existence of the birdy in the coil circuits K16 and K17 
raises the possibility of the classic problem i.e. unwanted coupling between 
a relay's coil and its contacts. I had intended to take a look at the RF 
bypassing of the relay coils, or adding L-C filters, time permitting.


Without further investigation I suspect that this 7MHz  birdy is being 
introduced either via the relay coil circuits or by direct pick up by the 
pcb trace between D6 and K16, or both.


If you would like to continue this discussion, I suggest that we do so 
off-list. I am leaving the house soon, but expect to be here tonight.


73,
Geoff
GM4ESD



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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-23 Thread David Woolley

Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:

David Woolley wrote:



  I am pretty sure that the birdy is a harmonic of the main

microcontroller instruction rate and is entering before the mixer.


I agree that this is one source, and one point of entry for this 
signal.is K16 / K17.


Why do you say that.  On my K2, the amplitude depends, in the expected 
way, on the settings of those two relays, indicating an earlier 
injection point.  Note that the microcontroller to which they are 
adjacent is shut down during receive, so one should not be picking up 
anything from it's oscillator. (The relays are the attenuator and 
pre-amp bypass ones.)




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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-22 Thread David Woolley (E.L)

Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:


for tuning L34 using the quote 'weak' 7 MHz birdie - more like a angry
elephant. After doing some work to reduce the number of K2  receiver


It's not all that strong compared with sky noise with even a small antenna.


birdies, it struck me that the 7 MHz birdie signal is entering the receiver
chain at not just one place, or could be perhaps two separate signals from
different sources.  If one 'birdie' signal had established itself in the
receiver chain before L34 and another 'birdie' signal  entered the chain


I am pretty sure that the birdy is a harmonic of the main 
microcontroller instruction rate and is entering before the mixer.  It's 
very unlikely that a post mixer birdy would move in the same way with 
tuning setting.


AFTER L34, then tuning L34 as suggested in the manual using the birdie 
might

not result in best overall receiver performance in terms of noise floor.


What I would have liked is an explanation of the theory behind the 
separate noise and signal peaks.  The possibilities I can think of are:


- some of the noise is coming in on the image frequency, but that
  would seem to be so far away as to be completely in the stop band
  for L34.
- there is a close in gap in the crystal filter stop band and the noise
  is coming in there - possible, but I wouldn't have thought a filter
  weakness would be enough for just white noise to be an issue.
- the combination of the L34 setting and reactance in one of the
  adjacent chips reduces the internal generated noise voltage at the
  the chip interface - I'm not sure why people should be saying that
  one should be specifically optimising for noise above the birdy.

--
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-22 Thread Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy

David Woolley wrote:


Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy wrote:


for tuning L34 using the quote 'weak' 7 MHz birdie - more like a angry
elephant. After doing some work to reduce the number of K2  receiver


It's not all that strong compared with sky noise with even a small 
antenna.


To avoid any misunderstanding about my use of the term 'strong', the level 
of the internal spurious signal at 7 MHz in my K2's receiver was 
approximately 10db above the noise floor at the output of the product 
detector when viewed with a suitable spectrum analyzer, with the receiver 
connected to a 40m reference dipole at 70ft. The background noise here on 
40m is usually 'below S1' with either dipole or beam, storm noise excepted. 
Receiver IF bandwidth was set to 400 Hz ,which is not, of course, the 
receiver's noise bandwidth because of the actual response of the K2's IF 
filter.


In my book a receiver internal spurious signal of this magnitude is 
certainly not 'weak'!!


 I am pretty sure that the birdy is a harmonic of the main

microcontroller instruction rate and is entering before the mixer.


I agree that this is one source, and one point of entry for this signal.is 
K16 / K17.


It's very unlikely that a post mixer birdy would move in the same way with 
tuning setting.


Unfortunately there is evidence of multiple mixing due to the high level of 
signal from the various oscillators, VCO, BFO etc found right across the RF 
Board and elsewhere.This makes it highly likely that some products at IF 
will move in the same direction as the signal mixer's injection frequency.


 What I would have liked is an explanation of the theory behind the

separate noise and signal peaks.  The possibilities I can think of are:
- some of the noise is coming in on the image frequency, but that

snip

At the risk of oversimplifying, my thinking was as follows. If the birdy as 
observed was in fact the resultant of two signals, one of which had entered 
the signal chain before L34 and the other after L34, and the point at which 
the birdy was being observed was considered to be the summing point, then 
tuning L34 would result in a change in amplitude of the observed birdy. This 
change would be due not only to any change in the raw addition of signal 
power as L34 is tuned, but also due to the relative phase of the two signals 
at the summing point - which relationship would be changed to some extent as 
L34 is tuned. The noise power which determines the noise floor on the other 
hand is dominated by the 'legitimate' noise power coming down the receiver 
chain, and I have found no evidence that any part of this noise signal 
enters the receiver chain after L34. I should mention also that in my K2, 
the level of the VCO, 12.xxx MHz reference and spatially coupled BFO signals 
are high in the region of the two crystal filter


The situation becomes quite different if a legitimate input signal is used 
to adjust L34 because the effect of phase change when tuning L34 is taken 
out of the equation. I have no evidence that any product produced by a 
signal introduced at the antenna finds its way into the signal chain after 
L34 when the applied signal level is useful for alignment purposes. However 
at high levels of input signal this is no longer true.



  I'm not sure why people should be saying that
  one should be specifically optimising for noise above the birdy.


I believe that the birdy was being suggested in lieu of a signal generator. 
Elecraft's XG1 should do the job.


73,
Geoff
GM4ESD 


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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-22 Thread Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy
Where I had written  'will move in the same direction as the signal 
mixer's injection frequency.'  I should have written ' - will move 
in the same direction as the tuning. '


73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

- Original Message - 
From: Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: David Woolley (E.L) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Elecraft Discussion List elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?
snip

It's very unlikely that a post mixer birdy would move in the same way with 
tuning setting.


Unfortunately there is evidence of multiple mixing due to the high level 
of signal from the various oscillators, VCO, BFO etc found right across 
the RF Board and elsewhere.This makes it highly likely that some products 
at IF will move in the same direction as the signal mixer's injection 
frequency.


snip 


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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-21 Thread Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy

Kevin,

When I first aligned my K2 I followed the instructions written in the manual
for tuning L34 using the quote 'weak' 7 MHz birdie - more like a angry
elephant. After doing some work to reduce the number of K2  receiver
birdies, it struck me that the 7 MHz birdie signal is entering the receiver
chain at not just one place, or could be perhaps two separate signals from
different sources.  If one 'birdie' signal had established itself in the
receiver chain before L34 and another 'birdie' signal  entered the chain
AFTER L34, then tuning L34 as suggested in the manual using the birdie might
not result in best overall receiver performance in terms of noise floor.
Tuning L34 will have an effect on the combined level of the two birdie
signals as seen by Spectrogram as a single signal (tuning birdie against
birdie),  and some effect on the observed noise floor, but not necessarily
result in the overall noise figure which the receiver is capable of
'delivering' at 7 MHz and other bands. Tuning the 40m bandpass filter does
affect the 'before L34 birdie', an effect noted by Bill KE5KWE.

Using a signal generator connected to the antenna input running at a
frequency further up the 40m band, to separate the observed signal from that
wretched 7 MHz birdie, and setting the generator level so that the observed
output signal was about 10db IIRC above noise, I found the optimum position
of L34's slug to be near the top of the can but not at same place as when
using the birdie, about 1/2 turn below IIRC. With L34 tuned this way,
antenna noise can be heard on all bands 80m - 10m when using my K2 with a
400 Hz filter setting at this very quiet rural location.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD


Kevin Cozens  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  wrote.


bill KE5KWE wrote:

I went through the same thing just today.  We also used a spectogram but
after failing to hear an apreciable change we followed the next
suggestion,
alligning the 40-meter band pass filter.  Once this was aligned we were
able
to tune L-34 by ear. It did indeed occur near the top of the can, as
stated
in the text.


The internal signal on my K2 had peaked around the time that L34 was
half-way down but the noise to the right of the internal signal didn't
drop until about the time the slug hit the bottom of the can. Unless you
use Spectogram to you may be close to the best position of the L34 slug
but not at the ideal spot.

One thing I'm interested in is the difference between the peak of the
internal signal and the peak of the noise floor on K2 radios. On my radio
I see a difference (between the black cross and red cross on the screen
capture at http://www.ve3syb.ca/tmp/K2-L34.jpg) of about 17db as seen with
Spectogram.

Is this typical, above average, or below average of what other K2 owners
have noticed? I'm still trying to convince myself that my K2 is hearing as
well as it should. So far, it seems to be hearing everything I can hear on
my shortwave radio.

--
Cheers!

Kevin.


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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-21 Thread k6sdw


Kevingreat advice! Don't know why I didn't use the Spectrogram software
in the first place instead of my ears! just checked and I was a ways
off the peak, but using the PC and Spectrogram I've gained some sensitivity
without raising any noise.

Good call Kevin!

73


Kevin Cozens-2 wrote:
 
 Eddy Avila wrote:
 Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
 Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
 of the canis this normal?
 
 I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
 is working as it should.
 
 I recently went through a similar situation where I felt my K2 was not
 hearing 
 as well as it was supposed to be hearing. After checking for construction 
 problems, I went back over the alignment including re-adjusting L34. I
 came up 
 with a little tip on how to make adjusting L34 a little bit easier.
 
 As you are probably aware, adjusting L34 is best done with Spectogram. It
 is 
 very difficult to tell when you have the maximum strength on the internal 
 signal with the lowest noise just by ear.
 
 Take a look at the screen capture I made
 (http://www.ve3syb.ca/tmp/K2-L34.jpg) 
 while adjusting L34 on my K2. You will notice there are two cross style 
 cursors, one in red and the other in black.
 
 Once you have the K2 set up and Spectogram ready to go (ie. you see the 
 internally generated signal), move the cursor so the horizontal part of
 the 
 cursor is just at the top of the internal signal (the black cursor) and
 left 
 click with the mouse to mark the level. Next, move the cursor to the top
 of 
 the noise floor (red cursor) but do not click with the mouse.
 
 You can now easily watch for changes in the level of the internal signal
 while 
 watching the noise floor. When adjusting L34, this set up made it easy to
 see 
 when the internal signal was at its peak. You can left click with the
 mouse 
 during the procedure to move the cursor that indicates the level of the 
 internal signal as needed (ie. as it starts to get stronger) so you can
 tell 
 when you have hit the peak remembering to move the cursor back to the top
 of 
 the noise floor afterwards.
 
 When adjusting L34 on my machine, I was easily able to see when the
 internal 
 signal was strongest. While adjusting L34 I never saw a change in the
 level of 
 the noise to the left of the signal. After the internal signal peaked, 
 adjusting L34 so it went further in to the can meant that the signal to
 the 
 right of the internal signal began to drop off at a sharper angle. On my
 K2, 
 the slug seems to have bottomed out and makes me wonder if a cap needs to
 be 
 changed so the optimum setting of L34 will be with the slug somewhere in
 the 
 middle of its range of travel.
 
 I hope the idea about positioning the cursors to aid in detecting changes
 in 
 levels of the internal signal and the noise floor might be useful either
 to 
 you or to other people.
 
 PS. I have discovered that Spectogram seems to work when run under Linux
 via Wine.
 
 -- 
 Cheers!
 
 Kevin.
 
 http://www.ve3syb.ca/   |What are we going to do today, Borg?
 Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172  |Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
  |  Try to assimilate the world!
 #include disclaimer/favourite |  -Pinkutus  the Borg
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-20 Thread Kevin Cozens

bill KE5KWE wrote:

I went through the same thing just today.  We also used a spectogram but
after failing to hear an apreciable change we followed the next suggestion,
alligning the 40-meter band pass filter.  Once this was aligned we were able
to tune L-34 by ear. It did indeed occur near the top of the can, as stated
in the text.


The internal signal on my K2 had peaked around the time that L34 was half-way 
down but the noise to the right of the internal signal didn't drop until about 
the time the slug hit the bottom of the can. Unless you use Spectogram to you 
may be close to the best position of the L34 slug but not at the ideal spot.


One thing I'm interested in is the difference between the peak of the internal 
signal and the peak of the noise floor on K2 radios. On my radio I see a 
difference (between the black cross and red cross on the screen capture at 
http://www.ve3syb.ca/tmp/K2-L34.jpg) of about 17db as seen with Spectogram.


Is this typical, above average, or below average of what other K2 owners have 
noticed? I'm still trying to convince myself that my K2 is hearing as well as 
it should. So far, it seems to be hearing everything I can hear on my 
shortwave radio.


--
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/   |What are we going to do today, Borg?
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172  |Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
|  Try to assimilate the world!
#include disclaimer/favourite |  -Pinkutus  the Borg
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-18 Thread bill KE5KWE



Eddy Avila wrote:
 Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
 Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
 of the canis this normal?
 
 I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
 is working as it should.

I went through the same thing just today.  We also used a spectogram but
after failing to hear an apreciable change we followed the next suggestion,
alligning the 40-meter band pass filter.  Once this was aligned we were able
to tune L-34 by ear. It did indeed occur near the top of the can, as stated
in the text.

Once done everything tested ok!

Bill- KE5KWE
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-16 Thread k6sdw

It's you guys on the forum and Gary and Scott at Elecraft that keep me coming
back!! To all thanks for the email responses to my question.I'm feeling
a lot more confident my k2 is working 100%

73 all.../ed




Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
of the canis this normal?

I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
is working as it should. Signals on the K2 with the
Preamp switched in sound about the same as they do
on my Ten Tec Argonaut V from 160 thru 10. With the
preamp out, signals sound a little softer than the
Argonaut, but I can still hear them. Is this normal as
well?

Serial number: 3349

Thanks for the help!

73/ed
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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-16 Thread Kevin Cozens

Eddy Avila wrote:

Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
of the canis this normal?

I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
is working as it should.


I recently went through a similar situation where I felt my K2 was not hearing 
as well as it was supposed to be hearing. After checking for construction 
problems, I went back over the alignment including re-adjusting L34. I came up 
with a little tip on how to make adjusting L34 a little bit easier.


As you are probably aware, adjusting L34 is best done with Spectogram. It is 
very difficult to tell when you have the maximum strength on the internal 
signal with the lowest noise just by ear.


Take a look at the screen capture I made (http://www.ve3syb.ca/tmp/K2-L34.jpg) 
while adjusting L34 on my K2. You will notice there are two cross style 
cursors, one in red and the other in black.


Once you have the K2 set up and Spectogram ready to go (ie. you see the 
internally generated signal), move the cursor so the horizontal part of the 
cursor is just at the top of the internal signal (the black cursor) and left 
click with the mouse to mark the level. Next, move the cursor to the top of 
the noise floor (red cursor) but do not click with the mouse.


You can now easily watch for changes in the level of the internal signal while 
watching the noise floor. When adjusting L34, this set up made it easy to see 
when the internal signal was at its peak. You can left click with the mouse 
during the procedure to move the cursor that indicates the level of the 
internal signal as needed (ie. as it starts to get stronger) so you can tell 
when you have hit the peak remembering to move the cursor back to the top of 
the noise floor afterwards.


When adjusting L34 on my machine, I was easily able to see when the internal 
signal was strongest. While adjusting L34 I never saw a change in the level of 
the noise to the left of the signal. After the internal signal peaked, 
adjusting L34 so it went further in to the can meant that the signal to the 
right of the internal signal began to drop off at a sharper angle. On my K2, 
the slug seems to have bottomed out and makes me wonder if a cap needs to be 
changed so the optimum setting of L34 will be with the slug somewhere in the 
middle of its range of travel.


I hope the idea about positioning the cursors to aid in detecting changes in 
levels of the internal signal and the noise floor might be useful either to 
you or to other people.


PS. I have discovered that Spectogram seems to work when run under Linux via 
Wine.

--
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/   |What are we going to do today, Borg?
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172  |Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
|  Try to assimilate the world!
#include disclaimer/favourite |  -Pinkutus  the Borg
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[Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-15 Thread Eddy Avila
Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
of the canis this normal?

I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
is working as it should. Signals on the K2 with the
Preamp switched in sound about the same as they do
on my Ten Tec Argonaut V from 160 thru 10. With the
preamp out, signals sound a little softer than the
Argonaut, but I can still hear them. Is this normal as
well?

Serial number: 3349

Thanks for the help!

73/ed


  

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Re: [Elecraft] L34 on K2 tuning question?

2008-01-15 Thread Don Wilhelm

Eddy,

I cannot answer about the comparison with the Argonaut, but I can say 
that the setting of L34 is very broad.  If you cannot discern a peak, 
then set the slug 1 1/2 turns from the top of the can.


One can usually set L34 for the best signal to noise ratio when using 
Spectrogram.  Listen to the 7000 kHz birdie with the preamp on and no 
antenna attached.  Use an IF filter between 500 and 400 Hz.  Tune L34 so 
the Spectrogram display shows the 'signal' at a peak and then further 
refine the setting so the out of passband noise is at a minimum while 
still having the signal at the highest peak.


73,
Don W3FPR

Eddy Avila wrote:

Changes while tuning L34 on my K2 are very subtle.
Just barely hear L34 peak with the slug near the top
of the canis this normal?

I'm just trying to determine if the receiver on my K2
is working as it should. Signals on the K2 with the
Preamp switched in sound about the same as they do
on my Ten Tec Argonaut V from 160 thru 10. With the
preamp out, signals sound a little softer than the
Argonaut, but I can still hear them. Is this normal as
well?

Serial number: 3349

Thanks for the help!

73/ed

  

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