Hi, our clubs K2/100 has the same problem with high curent at full power on
160m, but my own is ok. Has anyone found a cure?
73 Fraser G4BJM
From: John Reiser [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: J F [EMAIL PROTECTED],Elecraft Discussion List
elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft]
I have recently been plagued by rain static on a new vertical antenna,
this is a 42 foot vertical fed at the base through an SG230 auto tuner,
and used on all bands. It seems I need a static bleed of some sort, a
choke or resistor. What is the best component to use in an outdoor
environment?
My
Build this kit last summer just for the fun of building another K2. I am
an electrical engineer and have been building kits for some 50 years. I
would like to sell it just at the price I payed for it, including
postage from the US and taxes (VAT) and including the US$ 50 Dayton
discount: EUR 675
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.
I'm sure this has been asked before but I sure would like to have VFO-B have
its own 'mode' register so I could store 28.025 as CW and 28.500 as USB.
Is that possible or is there no room at the inn?
Also, does the RS-232 command set allow querying which VFO is active? I use B
for SSB during
I should have said ..so I could store 28.025 as CW on VFO-A and 28.500 as
USB on VFO-B
- Original Message -
From: Tom Althoff [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 7:37 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 Firmware request
I'm sure this has been
Deni,
I would be tempted to wind my own RF Choke. Use a large ferrite core
(FT240-61 for instance) and wind as many turns of 20 guage wire on it as you
can. Connect it from the vertical to ground and see if it works.
Unless you have some unusual condition where the static noise is creating
Stan,
That is quite unusual to have the S-meter at an S-3 level with no antenna on
only one band - that would be an indicator of some internal signal being
picked up inside the receiver. That is not typical, so you do have
something abnormal there.
One potential source is 2nd harmonic radiation
Fraser,
What is the power level at 'full power'? I have seen K2/100s that could
easily develop 160 watts on 160. To be consistent, measure the current
drawn from the power supply while the KPA100 is delivering 100 watts to a 50
ohm dummy load. All other comparisons are filled with unknown
Have KX1 w/30m and tuner and key. Looking for 4 band K1 , preferably with
battery pack and tuner.
Anyone interested?
Can send pics.
73
John K5MO
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Dave,
Stick to the KPA100 amplifier for your K2. I use one here and there is
no comparison with other amps.
The KPA100 is fully integrated with the K2 and is a real pleasure to
use. Trust me!
73, Bob VE3XM
K2/100 S/N 04031
K2 S/N 04575
___
G'day,
| I'm sure this has been asked before but I sure would like to have VFO-B
have
| its own 'mode' register so I could store 28.025 as CW and 28.500 as USB.
|
| Is that possible or is there no room at the inn?
This has been asked for for years. Sadly it will fall on totally deaf
ears at
Deni,
My suggestion is that you use a resistor and not a choke. A choke at some
frequencies will become a series resonant L-C 'tuned' circuit, and it is
quite possible that the choke will resonate in or close to one of the bands
that you use. If that is the case you will loose transmitter
Purchased kit a little over a year ago - decided to build the
KDSP2 instead. Please contact off list
73,
Jack KA1QG
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Very interesting Geoff, thanks for the comments. I've deliberately not
installed those front end diodes in my K2.
As to the rain static, we've had very severe rainstorms in France as
I believe you too have experienced in the UK and this problem with rain
static I have never heard so bad,
Wonder how much trouble it would be for Elecraft
designer(s), to beef up the K2's final amp pair
- like 50%? It would seem to be fairly straight
forward to swap out the matched amplifer FETs - with a
pair and associated changed circuitry to beef K2's
output potential to like 30watts? Or double
K2 enclosure acting like a heat sink will not be enough to handle more
heat/power A heat sink should be added to have the ability to handle more
BTU ! :-))
- Message initial
De : Fred (FL) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
À : elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Envoyé le : samedi 9 décembre 2006, 10 h
Hi Mike,
The AN762 has sparked my interest too. I have several low power rigs
besides my K2.
Can the power output be easily adjusted to say 25w, and if condx
warrant, crank it up or down on the fly? Also, I take it you need to
build a set of low pass filters for every band you plan to
FWIW. I built one of the CCI amps (don't recall which one at the
moment), and I was not very impressed with the input or output return
loss. I have a plot from my VNA if interested. Distortion was fine, but
the match was terrible.
Larry N8LP
Paul - VE1DY wrote:
Hi Mike,
The AN762 has
I have a K2/KPA-100 and the tuner also. I have recently tried 160 M. and
noticed that as I operate and the rig heats up from transmitting the SWR
begins to increase after the fan has been on for a while. I have not noticed
this before. Anyone else observe this?
I made sure the tpa was set
I recently uncovered a surprising source of in-house r.f. interference on
40 meters, hindering reception on my beloved K2/100. I had already eliminated
such sources as defective touchlamp units, and replaced wall-mounted dimmer
switches that are infamous for the static they generate. That
Pat,
Exactly where does the SWR increase? If it is on the tuner indication, it
cannot be the KPA100 causing the increase, that would have to be in the
tuner.
Does the SWR indication increase on the K2 display? If so, then remove the
tuner and operate the KPA100 into a dummy load to see if
FWIW on the AN762. I built one about 4-5 year ago and had nothing but trouble
with it. Got almost no support from the supplier. Finally gave up on it. A
couple of months ago I finally built up the courage to dump it in the trash.
Sometimes you get the bear sometimes the bear gets you.
GL
It's been my experience that adding anything less than 6 dB additional
power, quadrupling the output, isn't worth the effort. Doubling the power -
a 3 dB increase - is, under most conditions, a change that is just barely
detectable at the receiving end. Often, when QSB is swinging the signal up
Door bell transformers can also be a problem we've found also.
Paul K7PM
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On Saturday 09 December 2006 09:55, Mike Harris wrote:
This has been asked for for years. Sadly it will fall on totally deaf
ears at Elecraft. Not even a hint if it's possible or not.
This is the problem with proprietary firmware.
Does Elecraft think that someone could make a rival
Ian Stirling wrote:
This is the problem with proprietary firmware.
Does Elecraft think that someone could make a rival
product if the source code were released?
Any determined capable person could write the firmware
for the K2, or a rival product.
You would have to be *very* determined and
Do you think this kit can be made to to full QSK?
On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 11:49:11PM -0600, Mike Short wrote:
I just assembled the AN762. It is an easy build, although the directions
are nowhere
Near Elecraft quality. I had to go between the drawings and the schematics
some to figure out what
I keep trying to think of a reason I need to know the auxbus protocol
but I haven't yet. Most of the things I would want would require K2
firmware changes as well, and I agree that is not going to happen.
My closest call has been wanting to make the power knob work with a
non-Elecraft
I can only agree 100% with Vic! As one who spent most of his professional
career trying to force the most code into the least amount of memory and make
every nano-second count (I became king of the self-modifying instruction) I can
say without hesitation that you DO NOT want the source code.
I have been following this thread with great interest.
I have a QRP K2 and would like to add an amplifier. I love the integration of
the KPA100 and KAT100 but would like more power and no fan.
I would like 400 watts output, QSK without relays and no fan.
The KPA800 seems interesting, but has
For those of you with no interest in QRP contesting, delete now.
When I'm qrp, I frequently (almost incessantly) sweep the band over
and over and over looking for new contacts. My method is to start at
the bottom (say, 14000) and tune up towards the top. At some point, I
decide it's time to go
Fellow Elecrafters,
There's lots of stuff in the antenna literature about inverted V antennas,
i.e., where the feedpoint is higher than the ends. But I can't find anything on
dipoles and such in which the ends are not in the same vertical plane as the
center.
I'm thinking of putting up a
Many of us place a small muffin fan on top of the K2 heatsink. I have my
muffin fan housed in a small plywood box (blowing down at the fins) with a
resistor in series with the fan so that it turns fairly slowly and makes no
noise at all. With this auxillary cooling the noisy little fan in the
Dale Kretzer wrote:
I'd never thought of the KX1, or any of the little Elecraft
rigs, as an rf interference sniffer, but they work ideally
for that purpose. A properly designed, handheld loop antenna
might be required in tougher cases, but give anything handy
a try and see what surprises
Real world implementations of antennas are constrained by
the type and location of support structures that are on site.
That said, put it up and see how it works.
Any antenna is better than none.
Bob K3YT
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Next time you're at the low end of the band, press and hold Band-/Store,
then press one of the 0-9 buttons. When you want to get to the bottom of the
band, press and hold Band+/Rcl then press the digit you pressed above.
Or you can do it the way I do: Press Band+ and Band- at the same time, then
On Saturday 09 December 2006 13:59, Vic wrote:
The main problem is this: How would Elecraft support the K2 if the
firmware could be changed? Could anyone guarantee that his change to,
for example, the frequency control, didn't impact the t/r switching?
Note that slowing down the code in
Albers wrote:
Anyone see any major pitfalls with this approach??
Tom, N6BT (founder of Force 12) has been known to say, Everything will
radiate. He often shows pictures of his Illuminator antennas to
prove it. One is a light bulb on a post fed with coax and a current
balun at the socket.
So if I make one Q on 10m this weekend do I win? I seem to be the only one
on the band from where I'm sitting.
Oh shoot. That means if I make one Q it will be a tie for first. :-)
Craig
NZ0R
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So if I make one Q on 10m this weekend do I win? I seem to be the only
one
on the band from where I'm sitting.
Its pretty bleak right now, and for most of the day. Yesterday evening
there was a nice opening from here in Colorado to Texas, Calif and the
Northwest states around 0200 UTC. I
Hello all
This may not sound palatable or down right offensive to some in the group.
How many of you have dropped the K2?
What height and the survival??
Regards
moe
MM0MRM
K2 # 5158
PS.
I have dropped several times accidentally ---not great heights though.
Still working OK. Although i get
If I recall correctly, John Heys' (G3BDR) Practical Wire Antennas published
by RSGB has a discussion on the Vee Beam (horizontal Vee, twin fed vertical
element) antenna. As I recall it was a practical wire antenna with
directivity in some bands. ;) I think if you find Jimmy Hoffa, you will
When nobody else is home and I want to find noise in the house (or
eliminate that the noise is coming from my house) I have my K2 connected
to a battery and I go over to the circuit breaker panel and start
flipping breakers off. I can start with everything off if I want to be
thorough and
While experimenting with 15 meters today, I noticed that when
transmitting a CQ at 10 watts, HI CUR would appear intermittently on the
display. I have never seen this on the lower bands (20 meters and down)
where I do 99% of my operating. Turning the power down to 8 watts on 15
meters
I am unclear on the correct orientation of C13 and C20. The directions
state this [flattened] side must be oriented towards the flattened side
of the component outline. Unfortunately, the component outlines on my
RF board are symmetrical as far as I can see, with no sign of
flattening.
Hi Doug,
I'm not a super contester, and I'm just starting to hone my abilities as
such, but I've found that by clicking on the bandmap to either a
specific frequency (such as the bottom of the band) or a callsign of a
station that I hadn't logged on my previous run through the bands (and
Mine fell off a table from about 3 feet. It worked fine, and in fact
identified a problem I had been having with
Audio. Guess I had a bad solder joint.
I consider my self lucky. It landed on its rear panel. Had it landed front
first, the results would have been very different.
Mike
AI4NS
I've used a center fed antenna like that with good results. The same rule
apples as applies to an Inverted V: keep the angle 90 degrees to avoid
excessive signal cancellation.
Feeding it off center means your feed line is not just a transmission
line: it's another radiating element in the
Kathy,
I am building a K1 here too and just stumbled across this same problem. It
seems like the silk-screen does not stick on the new ROHS compliant boards
(or something like that - the flats used to be in the silkscreen).
Put the flat side toward the back of the K1 board - if you have any
I am unclear on the correct orientation of C13 and C20. The
directions state this [flattened] side must be oriented towards the
flattened side of the component outline. Unfortunately, the
component outlines on my RF board are symmetrical as far as I can see,
with no sign of flattening.
Well, you could still use the bottom cover if you put a whizzer fan there. And
if you did it right, you could have the fan blow down to draw heat away from
the rig and to lift it up to eye position for better viewing.
:-)
- Keith N1AS -
plus
perhaps a
K1 Serial 02129
KFL1-4
No output on 20 meters
Works fine on other bands.
It used to work.
I did some signal tracing.
I see signal on pin 1 and 2 of P1 of the filter board for all bands
I signal on pin 2 of T1 on all bands
I see no signal on pin 4 of T1 on 20 meters - good signal on all other
Cathy,
There could be a variety of reasons for a Hi Cur - one is simply that your
threshold is too low, or it could be associated with the particular load
that the antenna presents to the K2 or it could be a problem with the low
pass filter in the K2, or it could be your power supply voltage.
I
Well, you could still use the bottom cover if you put a whizzer fan there.
And if you did it right, you could have the fan blow down to draw heat away
from the rig and to lift it up to eye position for better viewing. :-)
- Keith N1AS -
Oh, no, Keith! Now you've done it. The lengthy
Mark J. Schreiner wrote:
The most noise I had and eliminated quite easily was my computer
monitor which was replaced about 1 year ago with an LCD monitor, WOW,
big difference!
I have been considering a switch to an LCD monitor, but since finances will lead
me to buying the cheapest thing I
Mike,
I'd sure be curious if you find out what is causing the NO output on
20 meters. I'm experiencing the same problem and have been doing so
for some time. I've done a lot of trouble shooting as well but to no avail.
Do you receive signals on 20 meters? I do.
If I plug in the two band (40
Hello everyone,
A few days ago I bought a new Rigblaster (the small model with a single serial
port) interface to do a bit of PSK work with my K2. The new interface was a
replacement for an identical one which apparently died and which I'd used for
several years with my K2 with no problems
Very interesting Greg,
I can hear some signal on 20 but weak.
Sounds like we have identical problems,
I wonder what could have caused 20 to go out?
The K1 was on the shelf for a couple of months and was
working fine when I put it up. I dont think I did
anything dumb to cause it to stop
Working on building my K2. So far the instructions have been great. I do have
a couple concenrs about the LCD and diffuser installation.
Instructions say not to remove the backing from either side of the difuser. Do
they really want me to install the LCD over the diffuser glass with that
I attached a cliplead to the antenna jack of my station receiver and
dropped a
loop of it inside of my K1. I could hear local oscillators at
40 meters15.003
30 meters17.997
20 metersnothing heard at 22 mhz
17 meters26.048
so I pulled out the 22 mhz xtal from the KFL1-4 board
This morning there were a bunch of east coast stations (NJ, PA, VA,
MD, NC, GA) booming in to the Seattle area, much to my suprise. I
never heard anything on 10 during the CQWW a few weeks ago. I made
15 contacts on CW in as many minutes, but didn't have time to work
the contest
Tom,
Leave the backing on the diffuser where it is. The protective film is
extremely thin. But it is mostly likely there.
Good luck,
Doug -- K0DXV
Tom Zeltwanger wrote:
Working on building my K2. So far the instructions have been great. I do have
a couple concenrs about the LCD and
My LCD is a ViewSonic VX924, Model VS10162. Purchased for less than $300.
Mark, NK8Q
Sam Morgan wrote:
Mark J. Schreiner wrote:
The most noise I had and eliminated quite easily was my computer
monitor which was replaced about 1 year ago with an LCD monitor, WOW,
big difference!
I have
Time to build something new so I offer for sale my K1 s/n 1902.
It is in like-new condition...perfect.not a mark on it.
This K1 covers 40m, 30m 20m 15m with full output on all bands, has the
antenna tuner and LCD backlight installed along with a finger dimple on the
main tuning knob and
My LCD monitor (now long out of production) was indeed a lot less noisy than
the old CRT model. My LCD screen came with a small switching 12 volt power
supply, though, and it generated a lot of hash by itself. I finally
replaced the little switcher with a linear (non switching) power supply
Thanks to Leigh's (WA5ZNU) suggestions, I found the source of my
noise right here in my own shack. It was a noisy (switching) wall wart power
supply for my D-Link 7 port USB hub.
Jeff (WB5GWB) said he was also having some major noise at his QTH,
and he found that his DSL router
I recalibrated my S-meter and now the constant 2 bar reading on 30m
is not present any longer. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time that I have
had to recalibrate the S-meter in the 2 1/2 years since I built my K2. Has
anyone else had to recalibrate their S-meter occasionally? Is something
Good Evening Folks,
Our sun has been quite active this week. Two X-class flares, a coronal
mass ejection near miss, and a very strong solar wind from the coronal
hole. There are times when the bands are quite attenuated and others when
they are fantastic. I listened to 10 meters two
Hi,
The other night I left my K2/100 and KAT100 still attached to the
antenna, and we must have had a thunderstorm or the like pass through. I
had been using the rig before I hit the sack, and everything was fine, but
in the morning I got the dreaded Hi Cur warning if I tried to transmit
70 matches
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