+++++++++++++++ From: "John McClain" To: , Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 #2644: The Adventure Begins! Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 14:01:58 -0700 Stephen, Good luck on your new acquisition. Here are a few tips: 1 - INVENTORY the parts. INVENTORY the parts. INVENTORY the parts. 2 - The LCD backlight plugs in either way, it is symmetrical. 3 - Read the instructions pertaining to winding toroids before winding them, not after. 4 - Believe what people tell you on this reflector, especially when they say it is a great radio. 5 - If you have a problem setting up the filters, don't fight it for a month like me, call Gary. John K7SVV +++++++++++++++++ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 16:37:06 +1100 From: "Bill Scovell" Subject: [Elecraft] K2/1946 Hi All, This is to announce that K2/1946 is now airborne 'down under'. First contact (contrived) was an all Elecraft affair with the K1 of Ron Willcocks / ZL1AJP. A subsequent contact, the fourth I think, and not contrived, was pleasantly surprising --- it was with Mike ZL1MH, he was working QRO and when I proudly told him I was 10 watts with a 'just completed' K2 he asked me to PSE AS, and then returned a minute later saying "you are now working K2/681" A few comments about the build:- The only problem I encountered was when I inadvertently changed the position of S1 whilst adjusting L34 and appeared to lose the ability to monitor the power supply voltage. The problem was soon discovered but not before I had posted a help message on the reflector which quickly yielded a number of replies all with the correct diagnosis and very practically demonstrating the value of the reflector. My thanks to all who responded. I made two mistakes when loading components to the RF board by placing C144 and C172 into adjacent but not 'outlined' holes. Fortunately I discovered these two errors on final visual inspection before 'power up'. Having read the reflector for a couple of months before starting I guess I had some reservations about the 'toroids' --- should not have worried, they were a 'piece of cake' and the solder blob method of tinning the leads is the only way to go! Nearing the end, I took time out to build a simple Watt meter which enabled me to very confidently do the final alignment of the band pass filters --- almost an essential piece of equipment for this stage of the build, I think. For me at least an illuminated magnifier was an essential piece of equipment and my old Weller soldering station with a PTF7 tip was equal to every task on the boards with a larger tip for tinning the toroid leads. In summary I guess I was a little bit lucky that everything went so smoothly but providing you take your time and don"t try to rush, and read every word in the manual at least twice, almost anyone should be able to duplicate my enjoyable experience. My build time was not fast more like 50 than 40 hours but I deliberately went slowly, checking and double checking believing that time so spent would probably be less than a long 'trouble shoot' at the end. Right now I'm strip-boarding a noise generator so that I can finesse the filter settings with Spectrogram. The K2 is an elegant example of electronic and mechanical engineering and properly approached will probably be the most enjoyable radio project that many of us will ever experience. 'Hats off' to Eric and Wayne. Bill Scovell / VK2SOE --- Another satisfied customer. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 01:10:25 -0400 From: "Arlan Levitan" Subject: [Elecraft] Gestaion and Delivery Summary of Newborn - K2 #2089 Happy to report that K2 #2089 is alive, well, and on the air. I was a bit nervous about tackling a kit of the K2's complexity so I did travel the "build a K1 first" road in April. I'm glad I did...it was not only a delightful experience, but it shored up my confidence and the skills I needed to build a "whole enchilada" K2. I have a feeling that K2 #2089 was a bit more problematic than most from a parts perspective. Ran into: 1) The well-documented reflective backing issue on the display, 2) a mangled 20 pin female connector (J8) for the RF/Control board mating ritual, 3) a K1 length flat head screw (too long) for the front panel, 4) chipped R44 body, 5) and extraneous solder tabs on S1, which prevented the Control Board from seating all the way until judicious surgery with a pair of fine dykes, and 6)a missing ground terminal fitting for the KAT2. I learned some important lessons: 1. The Right Tools DO Make a Difference. Lots of folks say this, but let me add my voice to the chorus: Cough up the ducats for a good temperature controlled solder station and the proper fine point conical tips. It has a HUGE impact on ease of assembly. Bought mine before I built the K1, and am glad I did. Having an Oak Hills WM-2 Watt Meter was also a blessing...a lot easier to read at these power levels than a Bird 43 with 50H slug. 2. READ EVERY STEP COMPLETELY before executing it. Then read it again. Why they have us install R16 before R15 in the same step is a mystery to me...as well as why I installed them in reverse order. Arghhhhh!, the ol' dim display problem! (Which the troubleshooting section of the manual bailed me out of in a trice) 3. Don't drop a torroid on a tile floor while winding...it becomes quite clear afteward that the base material is indeed powdered ferrite (half a donut, anyone?). 4. Even if you set up your filters using the calibration method in the construction manual, try using Spectrogram and your computer's sound card to recalibrate after you get used to running the rig...I was somewaht daunted by the program at first, but the excellent tutorials on the Elecraft web site walked me through it nicely. Boy does it make it easy to set things just right! 5. I also learned that Elecraft has the best damn support staff in the business. Scott patiently answered at least a dozen dumb questions from my end over the course of two weeks, and was blazingly quick at shipping replacement parts. At the end of construction, a High Current condition had both Scott and I scratching our Heads. He passed me on to Gary, who was quickly able to help me nail Q4 on the Control Board as the culprit...a defective 2N7000. Looking back at the past two weeks, there were times I laughed, times I cried, and a whole lot of time spent (50+ hours) doing satisfying and educational work with the sweet smell of hot rosin and baked enamel insulation wafting through the air. I sold my K1 at Dayton to help pay for the K2, but I doubt that I'll be parting with this radio for a long time to come. It's a truly fine rig, and the way its controls and software are thought out make it a pleasure to use. May I offer a sincere "Thank You!" to everyone at Elecraft and on the reflector. Hope to work many of you on the air in the days to come. 73 ES GUD DX Arlan Levitan W8OW +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 18:49:26 -0400 From: kb1dxc at discovernet.net (kb1dxc) Subject: [Elecraft] My K2 building Experience Hello to All, As you know, I have completed K2 s/n 02097 and all seems to be going well for me with it so far. I will be getting together with my friend, this Friday, that also has a K2 and a frequency generator for the final alignment and tweeking. I felt that it would be fitting to share my building experience with the hopes that it might encourage those contemplating building a kit and be helpful for those that are in the process of building one. For those that might ask "is it difficult?" I would say no. It is, however, quite a project as far as time goes. I spend nearly 2 months of putting in all my free time, I estimate somewheres near 150 hours. For those that think this is a lot, read on and you will understand why it took me that long. For those that think it would be an impossible task, just remember, you are not really putting all those parts together as you think you may be. What you are doing is putting one part on a board, then inspecting the connection, then putting another part on the board. So, just think, if you can solder one part to a board, and do that over and over again, you can put this kit together no problem. It does make sense to have an area that you can devote to this project alone for as long as it takes. Do not use the area for anything but this kit. Keep all eyes and hands away if you have children, preferrably, behind a locked door when you are not there. Naturally, the first thing that I did was take inventory of the parts. This was no quick task. I spent 3 days doing this. I have to use a magnifier on all parts to read those tiny numbers. Since I have to check all the parts anyways, as I am doing that I tape each part to a paper and label it on the paper. I labeled the value of the part, the marking of the part and the board designation(C1 or R1. etc). This does save a considerable amount of time finding the parts when it is time to put them on the boards. I had about a dozen 8.5x11 sheets of paper with components. I also kept similar parts together, caps took 3 pages. The caps that came in quantity, many in a small envelope, I checked each one for value and counted and put back in the envelope. The IC's I left on the foam, taped the foam to a paper and labeled the paper with arrows. Just to note, I did check each part with the glass again as I took them off the paper to put on the board. After my inventory I was missing 2 parts. I sent off an email to Elecraft and they sent the parts right away, I had them in about 4 or 5 days. I also had a question about a substitution that was not addressed in the manual and they confirmed the substitution of the IC's. I did follow the instructions exactly. This way it is hard to forget where you are when you stop one night and start the next day. Also, I found that as I put each part on the board that checking it off in the manual was a good idea, this way I can tell just what is done and what is not. I can also find my way back after leaving off for a day or two. The actual work of putting the kit together was a pleasure for me. I am one that truely enjoys building kits when the directions are not a mystery. I found the directions to be extremely good. I did have a bit of trouble when it came to winding the toroids, I wanted to do them backwards, found my error right away and then paid very strict attention. There was one toroid or transformer, I forget which one that got wound the opposite direction as the others, it pays to study these pictures closely. As I have said, I inspect each part with the glass before installing it. I also did all soldering under a glass. My eyes even with glasses just are not good enough to do this without the magnification. After each solder, before I snipped off any lead I inspected the solder joint with a pretty strong glass, I think it is about 4 power. As I was going I did find a few solder joints that I immediately resoldered, then inspected again. I know that this sounds real slow and tedious, but it is worth the effort. The reason I worked so hard to make sure all solder joints were good the first time is that I find trouble shooting to be very difficult. The results are in, I put the kit together and it works wonderful. The only trouble shooting that I had to do was when I finished putting the 40 meter receiver and tested it. I had no signal. I did the signal tracing and found that I had actually left out D3 off the RF board. When I went back to the manual I found that I had not checked it off. I attributed this to the fact that it was mixed in with capacitor and resistors in the order of placement. So, I recommend really paying attention to checking off the parts as they are installed. By being super careful and inspection each and every connection, also checking continuity with the toroids and transformers, I ended up with a radio that worked without any hassle. I did not really understand the alignment all that well, but I got it close. I will be getting together with another club member that has build a K2. He has the frequency generator and understands the procedure, so I should have one of the top performers when the alignment is done. summary 1. take an inventory, lay out the parts so you can easily find them again. 2. Follow the directions precisely and you will not get mixed up. Check them off as you go. 3. Inspect all parts before installing them, for value and markings. 4. Inspect all solder joints before snipping the leads. One other note here, if two holes are touching it pays to plug one hole with a toothpick so the solder does not accidentally flow into the other hole. I did learn this the hard way, I had to uninstall one part to clean up another hole, it did not happen a second time. 5. Check continuity on all transformers and toroids. I did like the solder blob for cleaning off the enamel and tinning of the leads, a very neat trick. That trick also made me think of the problem I have stripping insulated wires, now I cut the insulation with the soldering iron. 6. Check anything else you can as you are going, this saves big problems in the end, I had no problems when it came time to test things out. I hope that some find this helpful, and some find it inspiring. I feel that anyone can build one of these kits if they can solder a component to a board. Good luck to all, I will keep reading on the reflector as I find it all interesting and there are some threads that pop up from which I can learn. Who knows, perhaps I will be able to help someone that has a question. 73 and 72, Mike KB1DXC K2 s/n 02097 P.S. Now all I have to do is get proficient with CW, ha ha!!!!! ________________________________________________________________________________ "The power to question is the basis of all human progress." - Indira Gandhi _______________________________________________________________________________ email address : kb1dxc at discovernet.net MY WEB SITE IS: http://www1.discovernet.net/~kb1dxc/ MY RADIO WEB SITE IS AT: http://www.qsl.net/kb1dxc The web site of the Stamford Amateur Radio Association: http://www.qsl.net/w1ee MIKE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 08:52:13 -0700 From: Eric Swartz WA6HHQ - Elecraft Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 Build Question No problem. The Z1 and Z2 beads are not conductive. 73, Eric WA6HHQ ========= Jim Campbell wrote: > > I am nearing the end of assembly of K2 #2268 . However, in > installing Z1 and Z2, it appears to me that one of the beads of Z1 can > touch the emitter pad of Q7, and one of the beads of Z2 can touch the > base pad of Q8. No mention was made in the manual about positioning the > beads so there is no such contact. Is there a problem or is all well? - --- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 20:17:06 -0400 From: frastephen at comcast.net To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] K2 #2644 success! Well, K2 #2644 is on the air!!!! The "maiden voyage" was with YO3JD in Bucharest on 14060 at 2337z on 5/30/02! He gave me a 569. Not bad for 5 watts, huh!?!? Our Internet service was down for a week so I did not get to share my "building" excitement with you all! I spent 54 hours building #2644. Completed everything this afternoon and got up and running on the air this evening. The construction went relatively smoothly. I was so blessed -- everything checked out FB the first time at each stage of the construction. Not one glitch! I have to admit I was expecting some problems -- None! Can you tell I am excited? Well, now for a few observations that may be of interest for all those "Dayton Elecraft" purchasers like me... Having the illuminated magnifier made all the difference in the world! I could not have done the kit without it and it sure prevents LOTS of mistakes! I bought a cheapy $19 one at Staples. The Soldering Station from Circuit Specialists ($34) is really great -- again, a soldering station is a "must". I was lucky to be able to put a fait amount of time into the kit in a short period of time, but as you can see my pace was a lesirurely 54 hours. Take your time and I am sure you will save lots of troubles later. I doubled-checked every part before soldering and caught a few potential errors that way. Inventory the whole kit before you start building -- I found that it helped to become familiar and comfortable with the kit right from the start. It took me about 5 hours to do the inventory, but it was worth the effort to make the learning curve a little less steep. DON'T BE FRIGHTENED (as I was) BY TOROIDS. It is LOTS easier than you would think. On the other hand I HATED getting the enamel off the toroid wires -- my least favorite part of the project. In my previous experience with toroids I used the butane lighter method. This time I used the "solder blob" method. In retrospect, I think the butane lighter method (even though you need to partially unwind the coil to do it) is still more efficient and less prone to cold joint issues. I was AMAZED at how easy the alignment procedures are. It took me longer to tune my MFJ Cub, I think! This Elecraft really is "ELEgant" in its design and ease of alignment (and hence, the ability to reproduce a reasonable facsimile of the ideal radio at home with simple tools and equipment -- quite an achievement, to say the least!!!) Here's a question ... why don't they have you install the bottom-mounted parts first? It seems it would be LOTS easier to do that, but I am sure there is a good reason why the instructions don't do it that way. Well, K2 #2644 "designed in California, built by a ham in New Jersey" is on the air! Hope to see you there! Have fun ... and if you are thinking about building a K2 or K1 and are not sure -- go ahead and treat yourself!! It is a blast! This is the most fun I have had in ham radio for a LONG time! Thanks Wayne and Eric and all at Elecraft! Peace & 73, Stephen W3SMK +++++++++++++++++++ From: "David Walker" To: Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 06:55:01 +1100 Subject: [Elecraft] SN 3222 - K2 Built and running I've just finished building my K2 and everything seems to be fine at = this point. My Power out levels are: 10 W out on 80mx 12W on 40mx 15W on 30mx 7.5W on 20mx 12W on 17mx 10W on 15mx 10W on 12mx 8W on 10mx (7W on 28.715) I'm pretty happy with it - but 20mx could be better. I've peaked the = L3's for all bands to get the peaks. On LSB when I switch from FL1 to FL2 the reciever shifts down about = 600hz (so I have to tune up to find the signal. On CW the rx shifts up = only a few hz when the FL2 filter is on.) Switching between CW and CW-R I have to tune up about 1Khz to find the = signal. The reciever starts squeeling at 14.361.37 and stops abruptly at = 14366.37. I'll need some advice on this from somebody who may know what = may be the issue. I have the KSB2 built and ready to put into the rig but I'll do that = when I get my alignments right. Thanks to all that helped me out with advice on this thing. Dave VK2ICQ ++++++++++++++++++