Elecraft K2 questions

[gil]

Man does that make me want to build another kit!

Gil.

[KK0G]

And on to the RF board............

[KK0G]

First time power was applied............... no smoke!

[RadioRay]

Good job!  You are going to love this receiver.  The very low internally generated noise makes it great for small signals. 


>Ray

[KK0G]

RF is board coming along nicely............ one piece at a time :o .

[KK0G]

Receiver section complete, aligned and tested, works fine. I have the majority of the transmitter section done also. The only real building left to do is wind and install 12 more toroids and install the final transistors followed by more tests and alignment. The pile of parts is getting very small now.


Of course after I complete the basic K2 I have three optional modules to build and install :o ........... one piece at a time.

[KK0G]

I completed the RF board late last night and assembled all the boards into its enclosure.............. this thing looks like a radio now. 8)  Tonight I'll do the final alignment and assemble the top cover/speaker and I'll have a complete, working basic K2.

[gil]

I highly suggest using Spectrogram. See the attached files...

Gil.

[KK0G]

Thanks Gil, now I just need to find a windoze machine to borrow to run the software.


First thing I need to worry about though is finding where I lose the signal in the receiver. I did some signal tracing last night and have it narrowed down to one section but then this whole "go to bed so I can get up and go to work" thing got in the way. 8) 

[Flatus]

Man thats awesome. Good luck on troubleshooting ... definitely will be worth it in the long-run! How many hours total did it take you? Seems like it went by quickly.

[KK0G]

Man thats awesome. Good luck on troubleshooting ... definitely will be worth it in the long-run! How many hours total did it take you? Seems like it went by quickly.

Well I started on it Wednesday evening and completed it Sunday evening, adding up all the evenings plus the weekend I'd estimate it took roughly 36-38 hours give or take. I probably finished mine in the average time that most others do, I just tend to do marathon sessions. 8)

[KK0G]

SUCCESS!! IT'S ALIVE!!


Got home from work today and started tracing from the antenna towards the receiver, found an unsoldered joint at diode 3. Soldered it and tah dah!............. working receiver. It's amazing what a good nights sleep and stepping away for a while will do for finding the problem.

[RadioRay]

Great job!   Please keep us posted on how your contacts with the new K2 go!




>Ray

[KK0G]

I absolutely LOVE this radio! I built and installed the audio filter last night and the receiver in this thing blows my old TS-2000 out of the water, they're not even in the same league. Add in the fact that I can easily troubleshoot and repair practically any problem it might have in the future; it's power consumption while not as low as my KX1, is still minuscule in comparison to the old Kenwood, and I definitely made the right choice to swap rigs.

[KC9TNH]

I can attest this thing sounds beautimous. Looked at briefly on a waterfall last night & we compared VFO's (my 450D was recently calibrated & the KX3 is pretty on the money). Next sked I'm going to fire up both rigs & flip between them with the waterfall running, and because I can get down to .000 with the KX3.

I thought initially Chris was QRO, bumping my 450D's meter like he was. Dialed back to 8w he was S9 throughout & no spurious krap visible on the waterfall other than tight little dits & dahs. And VERY stable.

I have it on good authority that Chris is accepting Christmas donations for solder packs as stocking stuffers....
8)