Hi Dan:
As I wrote the reply, I was thinking that 40% duty cycle was way too
high, because, as you say, there's lots of dead time even while
transmitting, but I figured the example would show John how to go about
estimating the life of his battery using his own guesses.
There are lots of
Larry:
I haven't measured my K2 output power for a while, but I recall I can
get 10 Watts out on 10 meters and at least 15 on 80 meters when I'm
using a 13.8 volt power supply. A 12 volt gelcell doesn't allow for
full output, especially at the higher frequencies. If you are using
13.8
Mike:
I've had an ICE model 309 for just about 9 years now. It's been outside
all that time and, other than the label getting faded, it looks as good
as new. I have it attached to a 64 ft. doublet with ladder line and
have put up to 100 watts through it many times, but not since I finished
Mike:
How accurate is your DMM? The 8v and 5v regulators should still produce
8 and 5 volts even with a slightly low supply voltage. Also, if the
K2's internal voltmeter reads the same as your DMM, that tells me your
DMM is reading low because there is a diode in the K2 power line which
Mike:
If you look at the schematic, you'll see that pin 3 of T6 is attached to
pin 2 of T6. You should get continuity between all leads. If you
DON'T, something is wrong. Continue with your building...
73's,
John AA0VE
Mike wrote:
I just finished installing T6 on the RF board, and did
I found a birdie at 28.000 (QRP K2 #3401), but that's too close to the
band edge to worry about. None at 28.020. I'm guessing my birdie is a
harmonic of the 4.00 MHz oscillator. Is it possible your tuning is off
by 20 KHz? Until I got it right, my K2 dial clibration was off quite a
bit on
A GPS receiver inside an aluminum-sided house may also have some
trouble. Mine, which has no external antenna, has trouble picking up
satellites in my (brick-sided) house and in my (metal-sided) car, other
than on the dashboard near the windshield. If I ever get lost in my
basement, the GPS
Tim:
Here's my put on the topics:
1) I guess the default has to be something for the PRE/ATT switch. As
long as it seems to work and the K2 remembers the last setting per band,
it sounds to me like it is working OK. I can't remember what my
settings initially were.
2) Do the secondary
Gordon:
Also, the current drain depends on your input voltage. With a slightly
drained battery showing 11.9 volts on the K2, my current drain on 40M is
about 2.2 Amps. At 13.8 volts (showing 13.0 on the K2), it is 2.0.
John AA0VE
W3FPR - Don Wilhelm wrote:
Gordon,
2.2 Amps is probably
Tim:
I am using my Rev E manual for reference. It might be slightly
different in yours. There is a 2.7 pf capacitor (C22) listed and I'm
wondering if you have identified that when you did your inventory. I
suspect the blue 2.7C cap you found might be that one. Also, there is a
27 pf
Jim:
I guess my approach would be to buy and build the basic K2 first. My S/N
3401 just missed having the temperature stability mod included (I think
they started with S/N 3425 or so). Anyway, the only mod I ended up
making on it was that one. I am totally happy with the radio in that
Tim and Tom:
Tom's answer is ideally the correct one, but if you experience no
difference at all in your sidetone pitch when you switch from cw to
cw-rev with your K2, you should consider yourself very lucky. They
should be close (within perhaps 20 Hz), but don't expect them to be
Jon:
If you are sure you intend to buy the audio filter, you can buy the kit
now and install the proper connectors right away. You can then use a
couple of scrap resistor leads as jumpers to make the required
connections - the same as if you had the audio filter installed and
wanted to
Joe:
I tried it with a 3.57 MHz crystal and it worked FB. I'm guessing it
will work with most HF crystals in the 80-20M range.
John AA0VE
Joe Daring wrote:
Hello' Elecraft community...
I have just received my XG1 Kit...
I'm wondering if I have any chance to use a different XTAL to make
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anyone mention that the K2 resistors
are packed in the correct order from the factory. Also being
color-blind, I never bothered to try to read the color codes. I just
grabbed the next one from the string of resistors, checked it with the
DVM, and installed
Nobody has mentioned denatured alcohol yet. Since it also is not
drinkable (more than once), it does not have any liquor tax and is quite
a bit cheaper than Everclear. I'm wondering if there is some reason NOT
to use this product, which I believe is mainly ethanol and methanol.
John AA0VE
Like it or not, the US is still using feet and yards, not centimeters
and meters. The shortwave bands have traditionally been specified using
the metric system. However, we don't typically have meter sticks
handy. So if the ARRL would say to use an antenna 10.52 meters long,
the first thing
For me, the most important part of doing inventory is identifying all
the components, especially the tricky capacitors - like the ones
labelled 270 and 271. It's pretty darn easy to use the 270 for a
270 pf capacitor and then later on complain that the 27 pf capacitor is
nowhere to be found.
Jonathan:
There would be no problem using the 7ah gel cell if you ran the K2 at 5
Watts. 50 Watts is something else. First of all, the 7ah rating is
based on a 20 hour discharge. This means you will get 7ah out of the
battery if you draw 350 ma for 20 hours. But you won't be able to draw
I replied privately to Craig, but for the benefit of the reflector, I
found that the Heathkit electronics courses are still available. Just
go to www.heathkit.com for details. I have no idea how expensive they
are these days - might be pretty pricy. I recall they weren't cheap 20
years ago
Andrew:
This is exactly what we do at Field Day every year. We search and
pounce, so our transmit duty cycle is relatively low, but after
operating all afternoon, the 7 Ahr battery used with the QRP K2 is
almost fully charged (assuming sunny weather, of course). We use two 5
Watt solar
.
73 de Brian/K3KO
John R. Lonigro wrote:
Andrew:
This is exactly what we do at Field Day every year. We search and
pounce, so our transmit duty cycle is relatively low, but after
operating all afternoon, the 7 Ahr battery used with the QRP K2 is
almost fully charged (assuming sunny weather
Hi everyone:
I have Thunderbird check for the magic characters K3 in the subject.
When they are found, those emails are put into a separate folder. Not
owning a K3, that makes it easier for me to quickly scan through topics
that probably aren't of interest to me. Some folks don't bother to
Kristinn:
Looks like the resistor gods were with you this time. If you look at
the schematic for the KSB2, you'll see (upper right corner) that RP2 is
4 separate resistors with no pins in common (1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8), so you
can keep RP2 installed reversed. The same is true for RP1. HOWEVER,
I agree about putting the radio in the subject line, but there's at
least one gotcha. I've had my email program put all email with K3
in the subject line into a separate folder for quite a while. I was
mildly surprised when I found a few emails in that folder that referred
to the K2. They
Phil:
The easiest way to check things out is by substitution. First try a
different computer, preferably one with a built-in serial port. Do you
have a spare one that wasn't affected by the event? If not,do you have
a friend with a laptop (and a USB-serial adapter) who wouldn't mind
having
This reminds me of a slick solution to the toroid stripping and tinning
problem I saw on another reflector (I think). Get an old soldering iron
(I used a wood-burning iron) and drill a small blind hole in the tip to
make a mini solder pot. When you are ready to strip the toroid leads,
get
Phil:
I've bought cables with Amphenol connectors from www.cablesondemand.com
and have been very happy with them. Besides high quality RCA cables,
they sell 6 pin mini-din cables (all 6 pins connected) and 50 ohm BNC or
SMA or N-terminated coax. I can't say the RCA audio cables are 100%
Mike:
This is a shot in the dark (I don't even own a K3). Did you tune the
rig when you installed the dummy load? If it is like the K2 (and I
think it is in this regard), the antenna tuner stays at the settings it
last made for whatever load was placed on the antenna input. Putting a
dummy
Hey, everyone:
While using a wall-wart directly is probably not a good idea, you might
want to see what Terry (WA0ITP) did to solve the problem. Essentially,
he epoxied an LM7812 and heatsink to the back of a wall-wart, added a
couple of capacitors, and checked the output for any ripple.
Lee:
Besides using solder wick (available at Radio Shack, I think), you can
use a needle to clear out the hole. Solder doesn't seem to stick to
needles very well. Just heat the needle near the point while trying to
push it into the hole. Usually works like a charm.
73's,
John AA0VE
Lee
Jim:
I don't think that should be a problem. The crystal has only 2 leads,
so if you can pull it a little while heating up one of the leads, the
end you are heating will break loose. Do the same with the other lead
and it should come out painlessly. Then clean up the holes in the PCB.
You
Russ:
It uses a 5.5 x 2.1 mm power connector. I don't have a KX-1, but I
downloaded the manual at one point in time. This morning I checked the
parts list and I see the size of the connector isn't listed. However,
the part number is E620032, which is the same part number as the
connector on
Gary:
I built one of those M+ controllers many years ago. For Field Day this
year, I had two 5 Watt solar panels hooked up in parallel going to it
and then to a 5 AH gel cell. After about 6 hours of operating (search
and pounce) with my K2 at 5 Watts, the micro M+ was cycling, indicating
the
My solution is to filter out any email with K3 in the title. It all
goes to a separate folder. The same goes for email with elecraft in
the title. As a result, I have 3 in folders. The third has most of
my non-radio communications in it. That is the folder I check daily.
I also try to
Bud:
Here's a little tip (I'll leave the poetry to Wayne): The first winding
tends to be the loosest, so wind N + 1 turns and then remove the first
one, ending up with the correct number. But make sure you double check
the number of turns. Being off by only 1 turn may not sound bad, but
in
Chris:
If I understand what you mean by twin lug, Jameco has it
(www.jameco.com, part number 99354) for a little more than $5.00 plus
shipping. This item has a BNC male on one end and twin banana
jacks/binding posts on the other.
73's,
John AA0VE
Does anyone know a source where I can
Gary:
I've experimented with baudline (www.baudline.com) and it seems to work
pretty well.
73's,
John AA0VE
Gary Montalbine wrote:
Is there an equivalent of spectrogram for use in Linux? I found
xoscope. However it does not seem to be supported.
John and Charles:
The Heil Prosets with the HC-4 or HC-5 elements don't have quite enough
output to drive the K2 without either an external preamp or tweaking of
the K2's internal circuitry. The version with the electret element
seems to work better with the K2. I believe the Heil K2 Proset
Folks:
Also, I suspect replacement parts sales (other than warranty service)
contributes to Elecraft's bottom line and helps them keep product prices
where they are. Unless their replacement prices go sky high or their
service goes south, we might as well get our parts directly from them.
In
Steve:
I believe the problem is you can't just adjust the pitch of your
sidetone on the K2. I realize it looks like just another menu item that
you can tweak, but once you change the pitch, you have to go through
filter alignment again, to position the passband in the right place. My
guess
Bob:
One solution might be to set one of your programmable function keys to
be sidetone level. At least that would eliminate the problem of going
through the menu each time you needed to change it.
73's,
John AA0VE
Bob Tellefsen wrote:
Hi Sverre
The problem with the in-line volume control
Paul:
Ditto on the IC-706. Use a stereo plug - shell and tip. Put it in CW
mode first(important) and enter Q4 menu (press and hold disp). Select
CW Paddle OFF. You can use other Q menus to change pitch and break-in
delay.
73's,
John AA0VE
Don Wilhelm wrote:
Paul,
I can answer with
Lynn:
This sounds to me like the classic bad solder connection: sometimes it
works perfectly and sometimes it doesn't work at all. If you can tune
in the oscillator when the interface isn't working, you might
concentrate your inspection from J1 to U1 and J2. Also, your tests
indicate the
I too am colorblind (red-green) and have always had trouble reading
resistor values. In the good old days, reading the colors was
difficult, but the XYL (or my mother when I was younger) was usually
around to help. They would tell me a 33K resistor was brown, orange,
brown, orange, brown,
Tom:
I have only the QRP K2 and have no experience with KPA100 fan noise.
But my recommendation to you is to first build the thing stock before
you start thinking about modifying it. In other words, don't try to
solve a problem that might not be a problem to start with. If you build
it
I just went to the Heil website and verified the ProSet-Ic has an
electret mic. That means you need to do what Don W3FPR suggested.
(When in doubt, do what Don suggests! You'll seldom go wrong.)
73's,
John AA0VE
Soaring Eagles wrote:
One more quick question:
I've got the Heil ProSet-Ic
Nick:
One problem I had winding coils was the first turn always was looser
than the rest. So I would intentionally wind an additional turn and
then remove the first turn. Just make sure you end up with the correct
number of turns.
Also, after the coil is wound, before I try to strip the
Terry:
Better the UPS than the K2. It did its job of protecting what was
plugged into it. Remember, the gel-cell inside can be removed and used
as a great power supply for any of your QRP rigs. I don't think I've
run my K2 on anything but gel-cells so far. If you are lucky, maybe you
can
While it is true these trucks were probably diesels and therefore there
was no IGNITION noise, it is certainly still possible for them to have
produced electrical noise. If nothing else, they have alternators. I'm
sure we've all heard alternator noise and I suspect the alternators on
these
Tom:
I've got an MFJ-259 (not the -B model). It has performed pretty well
over the years, not perfect, but it always seems to work for me.
You can get by a lot cheaper with an absorptive SWR bridge and your QRP
radio. Go to www.ad5x.com (Phil Salas' website) for some suggestions
Steve:
PTT is the same as the dit line for CW, so that works because all you
are doing is closing the dit line with your mic PTT switch.
John AA0VE
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
This morning I connected a Heil - Elecraft MH2 mic after installing all 8 RF
board header pins and the requisite 5.6K
Mike:
If it's an electret mic, it requires power. Assuming the power is
coming from the K2, then it needs the resistor. The 1201 mic kit
doesn't come with a connector (I just checked), so you are free to wire
it any way you want, after you buy the proper connector. Just make sure
the K2 is
Scott:
I suggest you return or sell the KAF2. You can install EITHER the KAF2
OR the KDSP2, but not both. They both go in the same spot. I don't
have the KDSP2, so I can't compare the two, but I believe most people
agree it is superior to the KAF2, although the KAF2 works pretty well if
Bill:
You only NEED to use the wrist grounding strap when handling some ICs
and some of the transistors. To be safe, I use it for all ICs and
transistors, but especially the ones that are supplied in anti-static
foam. Resistors, capacitors, and inductors are not sensitive to static
and are
Larry:
You can also buy a BNC - banana plug adapter from Jameco (no
affiliation) for a few bucks. Take it off when not using it and you
have a stock K2.
73's,
John AA0VE
Larry Wright wrote:
The build is going well. My question is this: has anyone used alligator clip
outputs in place of
Vic:
While I was at Ozarkcon 2006 in April, I saw a demo of SMT soldering
using a toaster oven. For a tutorial, go to www.qrpradio.com and click
on projects and then SMT oven soldering. At Ozarkcon, Cecil
(KD5NWA) soldered all the resistors onto the NORCAL QRP dummy load board
(both sides)
Karl:
Do a Google search on Flight of the Bumblebees. You will find it points
you to:
www.arsqrp.com/ars/pages/bumblebees/bb_rules.html
73's,
John AA0VE
Karl Larsen wrote:
Where can I learn about this contest Ron? Do you have a website?
While I agree the K2 is a great radio, just remember the other station
may have been putting out a whole lot more than 10 Watts. Then it would
make perfect sense for you to hear him, but not vice versa, even if his
radio had as good a receiver.
73's,
John AA0VE
Ken Alexander wrote:
I
Tom:
I don't know about the fuses, but www.dcpwr.com has a good selection of
zip-cord wire. They also sell powerpole parts. No affiliation, but I
have placed an order with them and was very happy with their response.
Obviously, you can get the fuses locally from any number of automotive
Actually, that's the main reason Type N's are better for VHF/UHF.
There's no impedance bump in the feedline at the joints. Not true for
PL259's.
73's,
John AA0VE
Ken Kopp wrote:
Jim's correct - There ARE differences between 75 and 50 ohm coax
connectors ... especially Type N.
73! Ken Kopp
Don et al:
I've never tried this, but I've been wondering if any protection would
be given the K2 if there were a reverse-biased diode running from the
+13.8V input to ground. Put a 5 amp fuse in the positive line between
the diode and the power socket and it should immediately blow if the
I recently finished building the KSB2 and did the alignment on the
filters. Everything seems to be working as advertised, except on
transmit my voice sounds raspy. I haven't had time to dig into the
problem yet, but I did try 3 separate mics and got the same result. For
my test, I
Well, despite not thinking I'd have time to correct my K2 raspy audio
until after the holidays, I managed to squeeze in a little time early
this morning and here's what I discovered:
1) There is probably nothing wrong with the K2 or the KSB2 board, as
far as wiring is concerned.
2) Don
Cary:
I have a Heil Proset which I've tried with my K2. I'm using the Kenwood
adaptor, which is the right one IF you have configured your K2 for
Kenwood mics. You just have to be consistent: If you configure the K2
header for Kenwood, you need to use the Kenwood adaptor. Several people
Jerry:
The K2 autotuner seems to work FB for me. I don't think you can go
wrong getting one. It's a lot more convenient than having a separate
tuner. Just push the tune button and away you go. And it seems to
tune just about anything.
73's,
John AA0VE
NR5A wrote:
I'm finially
Keith:
Just so you aren't misled, the 100 Watt PA CAN indeed go into a separate
enclosure and serve as a linear, but ONLY for a K2. It CANNOT be used
as a general purpose linear for any other rig.
I wasn't sure this point has been made yet.
73's,
John AA0VE
Keith Darwin, wrote:
Can
Fred:
You are doing it right. This discussion is mainly by people who think
the down arrow isn't a good enough indicator of split mode. Either
that or they just like to constantly improve their K2. I have too many
project boxes around the house with 1 or 2 spare holes in them, due to
Don:
The K2 internal battery is a gel-cell (or sealed lead-acid) battery, not
NiCd or NiMH, but much of your discussion probably still applies. It
may take a while for the equalization charge to get all the (6) cells
charged to full potential, which is always true, but might be more so
when
Paul: Here's the way I'd figure it out:
Transmit current = 1000 ma
Receive current = 70 ma
Xmit duty cycle = 12.5% (25% transmit x 50% duty cycle while transmitting)
Average current drawn = 0.875 x 70 ma + 0.125 x 1000 ma = 186.25 ma.
Using a 2400 ma hr battery, you'd think you could get
John:
The external speaker jack is mono. When you plug a stereo plug into a
mono jack, you only get sound on the speaker connected to the tip of the
plug. I guess you could either replace the mono jack with a stereo one
or replace the stereo plug with a mono one. Either way, you'd have an
I haven't installed my KNB2 yet, but I was thinking that a hair dryer
with an AC/DC motor (i.e., with brushes) should be a fine noise
generator. Other possibilities might include an electric shaver or a
power drill.
Good luck,
John AA0VE
___
Clint:
The while line might designate the positive lead, but why guess? The
best way to check is with an ohmmeter. The lead that measures 0 ohms
with the outer barrel would be the negative lead. You can check the
inner connector while you are at it, to make sure there are no opens or
Looking back on it, to me the biggest advantage of doing a complete
inventory before starting construction was the problem of identifying
capacitors. I remember how thankful I was that the resistors were packed
in order and wanted the same convenience with the capacitors. I laid out
several
Werner:
I went to the ICOM website and did a search on the SM-8 microphone. I
found the IC-718 uses the same mic, so I suggest you download the manual
for the IC-718 and you should find enough info about the microphone and
the connector to get it working on your K2. I don't think there's a
Dave:
The US CW QRP calling frequencies are:
160M 1.810
80M 3.560 and 3.710 (Novice)
40M 7.040 and 7.110 (Novice)
30M 10.106
20M 14.060
15M 21.060 and 21.110 (Novice)
12M 24.906
10M 28.060 and 28.110 (Novice)
I know I'm supplying more than you asked for, but it can't hurt to
mention all the
Jim:
Radio shack has it for about four bucks. Go to their website and search
on 8 pin microphone connector and you'll find it. No affiliation with
Radio Shack and no idea how good or bad the quality of the part is. I'm
sure all of the usual electronics parts houses also carry it.
73's,
Tom:
On my paddle, the tip represents the dit and I believe all of my rigs
are set to right-handed.
73's,
John AA0VE
Tom McCulloch wrote:
Can anyone tell me if the tip connection of the plug generates the dots
and the middle (is that considered the 'ring'?) the dashes, or is the
other way
Mine has a bug in the DST function. I disable that feature and then do
what Alexandra does to make it read properly in the Spring/Summer.
John AA0VE
Rich Lentz wrote:
My Radio Shack desk Atomic Clock switched as required.
Rich,
KE0X
-Original Message-
Meanwhile my dumb atomic
I don't know if my previous post made it. If not, that's OK because
there was an omission:
I did a Google search on NIST 432 and got the NIST Special Pub 432 -
Time and Frequency Services. It seems like WWVB bits 57 and 58
transmit the DST data (page 20). WWV and WWVH have DST data on bit 55
Bill:
There is a mic preamp schematic on the Elecraft website. Just go to
Builders Resources, then KSB2 SSB Adaptor Notes, and finally look at
Microphone Preamp.
73's,
John AA0VE
Bill Coleman wrote:
I couldn't find a schematic for a pre-amp on this web site. (I found a
bunch of other
Bob:
If you go to www.cablesondemand.com, they have all kinds of Amphenol
cables for sale. I've only ordered from them once (absolutely no
affiliation), but the cables I bought seemed very high quality and
reasonably priced. They have all kinds of cable, not just audio, but
coax and computer
My metal isolation box shares ground with the computer. That way I can
use normal audio jacks and cables. On the other side, I use a DB9
connector to isolate the box from any wires going to the radio. My PTT
connection is isolated via an optoisolator (4N33), requiring another DB9
to the
LS:
As a test, I just installed spectrogram 16 on my Sun VirtualBox virtual
Windows XP machine (Ubuntu). It installed with no problems and seems to
run. I didn't take the time to insert an audio input to the sound card,
but I suspect that should work as well.
Haven't tried VMware.
Many years ago, I decided to build the mic preamp that was posted
somewhere on the Elecraft website by Mike N0MF. I believe it is still
there. It boosts the signal from a Heil Proset dynamic element up to a
level sufficient to drive the K2/VOX. Since that time, I believe Heil
has produced a
I refuse to get into the plus/minus arguments about Powerpoles, but I do
have a warning about a particular product I bought a few years ago. It
is a plastic frame designed to hold a bank of powerpoles, which I
installed on a little battery pack/charger storage case I built. It
contains 4
Steve:
Is it possible your dummy load is not 50 ohms at 6M? In other words, is
your dummy load designed to work at VHF frequencies? Maybe it's only
designed for HF frequencies. Just a thought, but it could possibly
explain your problem.
73,
John AA0VE
Jim Rodenkirch wrote
I'm not sure
Jan,
In the "good old days", you could check a serial port by connecting pin
2 to pin3 at the end of the serial cable. Set the port to software
handshaking (or else connect the control pins together in a similar
manner-I don't recall the pin numbers). Then run a dumb terminal
program. What
As I understand it, JT65 requires a highly accurate clock, accurate to
less than a second. However, unless the KX3 is capable of
encoding/decoding JT65, that accuracy is required in the computer doing
the encoding/decoding, not the radio. Sure, it would be nice if the KX3
clock were more
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