Hi,
First of all Merry Christmas to all of you!
Yesterday I went over to a friend and we did some quick tests on my new
K2 (basic, no options yet).
To be clear, everything has been aligned with basic tools, as in the
user manual.
Here are some things we noticed:
1. when looking at the
Has worked fine since building earlier this year but after returning from a
trip via airline it starts transmitting as soon as I turn it on. Sending
'dahs with a key plugged in. When I plug in a key I hear its side tone as I
normally would under the continuous series of dahs being
Should have added that the problem continues even with no key installed.. I
have since reseated the MCU but it still continues to transmit dahs when I
turn on the power with no key installed.
Read in the archives that another ham had the same problem with his back in
June and have sent him
Hello again and happy holidays!
With regard to the K2 frequency stability...
Several good points were raised and I realized that I wasn't
adequately specific before. The drift I notice is primarily
related to warmup and not during normal operation. I will
perform the aforementioned test to
Bob,
This has to be a simple matter of a closed (or shorted) dash line. Does it
behave normally with the key NOT plugged in? If so, check the key plug
itself with your ohmmeter. If you find a short between the shell and either
the tip or the ring, check the plug, the cable and your paddles.
Hi Group,
Christmas does give me some spare time to construct the serial cable to
link the W1 with my notebook computer.
I run W1, K2 with DL1 dummy load. I notice that the power reading of W1 on
my notebook computer is higher than that calculated from the DC voltage
measured on DL1. For
Don, I left out key info in my first post. Problem exists even with no key.
Would not have posted if the problem was a simple as a shorted key but maybe
there is still a simple solution and I appreciate all responses.
Will go back and check voltages and resistances after Christmas.
73
Bob
In a message dated 25/12/06 10:53:49 GMT Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
1. when looking at the transmitted signal using a spectrum analyser,
the signal didn't seem as clean as we liked it. We didn't have
time (it was the day before X-mas!) to really start counting the
dB's, but
What with Elecraft's eventual HF AMPLIFIER(s)
product, becoming available - I'm wondering if this
will mean new K2 builders will not need to go the
KPA100 in-chassis amplifier route? I've never felt
good about building and layering a KPA100 amplifier
on top of the great little K2 bare bones rig.
You won't be able to drive the KPA800/1500 products to their full output
with a bare K2.
I don't understand the reluctance to add the KPA100 but at the same time
suggesting a smaller, non-Elecraft amp to drive the new KPA800/1500. You can
build your KPA100 in a separate case if that's the
On Christmas morning Jurgen wrote ...
Is there any chance we can get these bands 'cleaner' by further tweaking the
filters?
--
Jurgen,
Even though the K2 spec sheet states 10 meter coverage, the K2 is really
only designed to cover the bottom 1.2 MHz of the band. Here are several
resources
Jurgen,
If you peak the 10 meter bandpass filter at 28.4 MHz, you will have greater
power output at 28.8 MHz.
Note that the specified 10 meter band coverage for the K2 is 28.0 to 28.8
MHz. Above that range, the output power is expected to decrease.
There are mods to increase the 10 meter
Don and Jim thanks for your help.
I may have discovered my problem. On page 18 of the KX1 manual it says DO
NOT TRIM the 28-pin socket pins before or after soldering. These pins are
hollow and form the lower part of the socket for the IC pins.
When building, I was so used to trimming pins
I thought new FCC rules are going to relax limitations on amplifier gain. I
vaguely recall the Elecraft guys saying they might change the drive level
requirements of the KPA-800 to allow full output power when drivin by 15W
after the new rules went into effect.
- Original Message -
Bob,
The correct way to fix it is to obtain a new firmware chip and socket from
Elecraft.
You certainly can remove the socket and solder the firmware directly into
the PC board, and yes you can use a wire to repair the broken pin. That is
the least expense and for this instance, it would be
At 12/25/2006 11:27 AM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
Bob,
The correct way to fix it is to obtain a new firmware chip and socket from
Elecraft.
You certainly can remove the socket and solder the firmware directly into
the PC board, and yes you can use a wire to repair the broken pin. That is
the least
Hi, Jurgen:
Regarding 10 meters, the specifications say the K2 will deliver at least 10
watts from 28.0 to 28.8 MHz - a range of 800 kHz. It is not designed to
cover the whole 10 meter band. I'm not sure where you see the power drop
off, but if it's making 10 watts at 28.8 MHz it's working within
Jim, Glad to know that I was not the only one to make this mistake. We have
been trained well to cut pins after soldering. Thanks for you offer of the
chip. Mine is the very latest since I also have the uninstalled 30/80 kit I
ordered at the same time this summer. The number label on the
Unfortunately (IMHO) the 15 dB maximum gain limitation was retained
in the new rules (do we need a KPA400?)
Bob, N7XY
On Dec 25, 2006, at 7:49 AM, Tom Althoff wrote:
I thought new FCC rules are going to relax limitations on amplifier
gain. I
vaguely recall the Elecraft guys saying they
Yup... That's the reason I stopped building them.
73,
Ken Wagner K3IU
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brent Sutphin
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 3:25 PM
To: Craig Rairdin; elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA100
Yes, yes, yes
From what I understand, the KPA800 has two 400 watt power modules combined to
produce 800 watts. So, a KPA400 with just one of the power modules, a
built-in lower power antenna tuner, no combiner, a smaller power supply,
solid state T/R switching, and without some fancy bells
Oh, and I forgot one thing. No FAN! Just a nice HUGE heatsink. No matter how
quiet the fan, I just hate fan noise.
The things holding me back from buying a KPA100/KAT100 are only 100 watts and
the fan. Another 6 db and no moving air noise would tip the scale for me.
On December 25, 2006 01:14
Brent Sutphin wrote:
You seem to be correct on your price assessment. It is a shame that
such a great radio goes so cheap. I have built several and I enjoy
building but just am not willing to lose 20- 30% per kit. There was a
time when it was easy to get the kit price for a newly built kit.
I agree that's part of the dynamic at work here. But I also think it's no
different than any other used piece of equipment. I am willing to pay 50% to
70% of the retail price for a current model of some piece of electronic or
computer equipment. I might go as high as 80% if it's a hard-to-find
Hi folks,
I would like a vote. This is a semi-democratic sort of thing :) I
take votes and then try to find a line to fit through them. It appears
the bands both go away as I start the twenty and forty meter nets. What I
would like to do is move both of them earlier by an hour. So
I'm adding an additional two band board to my K1. I have the original
40/20 board, added sometime back the four band board 40/30/20/15
and am now adding the 80/17 meters board.
All going well until on the 80 meter band kit it mentions about
adding the 10-uF electrolytic capacitor at C78 on
For a point of reference for N1KO's observed 800 cycle
drift as his K2 warms up with use, I looked up the specs
for one of my non-TCXOd radios (IC-765) overall the radio
can drift +/- 350 cycles from 0 to 50C after 1 minute
from switch on, +/- 200 cycles in the first hour.
Bung in a 0.5 ppm
I'll probably get thrown off of the Elecraft list for what I am about to
say...8-)
Don't get me wrong...I love QRPmost of my contest participation is at 5W.
I can work the world with 5W. And on 10M during a solar peak I can break
pileups with 5W.
But my experience is that 100W with a
Tom,
I don't think you will be thrown off the list - this is not a QRP reflector,
and with questions about the (hopefully forthcoming soon) KPA800 and
KPA1500, it is definitely not all QRP oriented - there are folks of both the
QRP and QRO persuasions using Elecraft gear.
Your thoughts are
I believe the N1KO data was that he observed a drift of 80 Hz, not 800 Hz.
A drift that large would indicate something seriously wrong in one of the
oscillators. The current K2 design is not as good as a TCXO, but it is a
lot better than an unstabilized crystal oscillator. It should be
A few months ago, after completing #5390, I ran a check on the cleanliness of
the K2 transmitted CW signal on 28Mhz, using the spectrum scope in my IC-781 as
a spectrum analyser. I could not detect any trace of spurii and the slopes of
the received trace were sharp and smooth, with the scope
My original inquiry concerned my options, with a
new K2 build - for adding some more power later down
the pike. I've always liked separate items; xcvr,
tuner, metering, and amplifiers. In some way - the
way I upgrade frequently - its easier with all the
pieces, for me to swap/sell out a single
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Has anyone attempted mounting a K2 into a 19 inch rack case either
with or without the case? Its something i am contemplating doing.
This might be a kit suggestion idea for Elecraft. A new front
panel design that will mount in a 19 inch rack case.
Has anyone attempted mounting a K2 into a 19 inch rack case either
with or without the case? Its something i am contemplating doing.
This might be a kit suggestion idea for Elecraft. A new front
panel design that will mount in a 19 inch rack case. It certainly
could enhance the ergonomics
K2 # 4498, 2 years old !
Just checked this caracteristic : starting from cold (ambiant temp 18 C), tuned
on RM (9996.000) time station, the receiving frequency was 9995.942, rising to
9995.985 in about 2 minutes, then to 9996.008 to 011 in the last 20 minutes and
variing slowly arround this
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