++++++++++++++++++++ See also K2 Operating Experiences K2 Discovering Elecraft ++++++++++++++++++++ To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:45:53 -0700 From: k6se at juno.com Subject: [Elecraft] DXCC with K2 #2622 My K2 just worked its 100th country since it was born on May 16, 2002. For a guy used to QRO, I'm amazed at what can be done with only 10 watts. Below is listed in chronological order the DXCC worked with K2 #2622. 73, de Earl, K6SE 1 ZK1JD N Cook Is 20 SSB 16 May 02 2 KH6AQ Hawaii 15 CW 18 May 02 3 5B4/UA9MA Cyprus 20 CW 20 May 02 4 EW2CW Belarus 20 SSB 20 May 02 5 SM3GOM Sweden 20 CW 20 May 02 6 DL1RTD Fed Rep of Germany 20 CW 21 May 02 7 F5LMJ France 20 CW 21 May 02 8 RN3AY European Russia 20 CW 21 May 02 9 JK1LHW Japan 40 CW 22 May 02 10 Z24S Zimbabwe 20 CW 23 May 02 11 P40Y Aruba 20 CW 24 May 02 12 PP5TO Brazil 10 CW 24 May 02 13 6Y2A Jamaica 10 CW 25 May 02 14 8P4A Barbados 15 CW 25 May 02 15 9A9D Croatia 20 CW 25 May 02 16 CS8W Portugal 15 CW 25 May 02 17 DU9/N0NM Philippines 40 CW 25 May 02 18 FM5BH Martinique 15 CW 25 May 02 19 M5ACC England 20 CW 25 May 02 20 HG4F Hungary 20 CW 25 May 02 21 IK0YVU Italy 20 CW 25 May 02 22 IS9C Sardinia 20 CW 25 May 02 23 W4MYA USA 10 CW 25 May 02 24 AL7NJ Alaska 15 CW 25 May 02 25 WP3C Puerto Rico 20 CW 25 May 02 26 LP5F Argentina 10 CW 25 May 02 27 LY7A Lithuania 20 CW 25 May 02 28 LZ9R Bulgaria 20 CW 25 May 02 29 OC4WW Peru 40 CW 25 May 02 30 OH7KD Finland 20 CW 25 May 02 31 OL5T Czech Rep 20 CW 25 May 02 32 OM3NA Slovak Rep 15 CW 25 May 02 33 ON7GB Belgium 15 CW 25 May 02 34 S58A Slovenia 20 CW 25 May 02 35 SP4DEU Poland 15 CW 25 May 02 36 J41YM Greece 20 CW 25 May 02 37 T92A Bosnia-Herzegovina 20 CW 25 May 02 38 VC6X Canada 15 CW 25 May 02 39 VK5GN Australia 10 CW 25 May 02 40 XE2AC Mexico 10 CW 25 May 02 41 YL8M Latvia 20 CW 25 May 02 42 YT9X Yugoslavia 20 CW 25 May 02 43 YW1D Venezuela 40 CW 25 May 02 44 ZL6QH New Zealand 10 CW 25 May 02 45 3v8BB Tunisia 15 CW 26 May 02 46 4L1DX Georgia 15 CW 26 May 02 47 9H0A Malta 15 CW 26 May 02 48 9M6A East Malaysia 15 CW 26 May 02 49 FY5FY French Guiana 15 CW 26 May 02 50 HB9DDO Switzerland 15 CW 26 May 02 51 WH0V Mariana Is 15 CW 26 May 02 52 OE2S Austria 15 CW 26 May 02 53 PJ2U Neth Antilles 10 CW 26 May 02 54 R1MVC Malyj Vysotskij I. 20 CW 26 May 02 55 UA2FF Kaliningrad 15 CW 26 May 02 56 RT9W Asiatic Russia 15 CW 26 May 02 57 UP6P Kazakhstan 15 CW 26 May 02 58 UT5PX Ukraine 20 CW 26 May 02 59 ZF1A Cayman Is 15 CW 26 May 02 60 4Z8GZ Israel 15 SSB 31 May 02 61 9J2CA Zambia 20 CW 31 May 02 62 ES1QD/0 Estonia 15 SSB 31 May 02 63 EI9E/P Ireland 15 CW 01 Jun 02 64 LA1VFA Norway 15 SSB 01 Jun 02 65 OD5NH Lebanon 15 SSB 01 Jun 02 66 DT8FWC South Korea 15 CW 02 Jun 02 67 CO6XN Cuba 20 SSB 04 Jun 02 68 BQ9P Pratas I. 20 CW 05 Jun 02 69 9M2/G4ZFE West Malaysia 15 CW 08 Jun 02 70 GM3WKZ Scotland 15 CW 08 Jun 02 71 YO4KCA Romania 20 CW 10 Jun 02 72 Z31PK Macedonia 20 CW 12 Jun 02 73 VP2E Anguilla 20 Cw 14 Jun 02 74 YA5T Afghanistan 15 CW 14 Jun 02 75 TA3DD Turkey 15 CW 16 Jun 02 76 YN8TLS/TI3 Costa Rica 20 CW 16 Jun 02 77 ER1QQ Moldova 20 SSB 24 Jun 02 78 5H3RK Tanzania 20 CW 25 Jun 02 79 HC2SL Ecuador 20 CW 27 Jun 02 80 UK8OM Uzbekistan 15 CW 29 Jun 02 81 CY9DH St. Psul Is. 15 SSB 30 Jun 02 82 EA6/SP4AOQ Balearic Is. 20 SSB 03 Jul 02 83 5W0TR Samoa 15 SSB 05 Jul 02 84 CX4GL Uruguay 10 CW 06 Jul 02 85 F6CTL/FO Austeal Is. 15 SSB 07 Jul 02 86 J75KG Dominica 15 CW 08 Jul 02 87 OH0/W6YA Aland Is. 20 CW 08 Jul 02 88 YB0GJS Indonesia 15 CW 09 Jul 02 89 EA2AFV Spain 20 CW 11 Jul 02 90 ZP6CW Paraguay 20 CW 11 Jul 02 91 PA2PKZ Netherlands 20 CW 14 Jul 02 92 V63ZF Micronesia 15 CW 14 Jul 02 93 A71EZ Qatar 15 CW 15 Jul 02 94 HP1XBU Panama 20 CW 15 Jul 02 95 5K0Z San Andres I. 15 SSB 19 Jul 02 96 CU9X Azores 20 SSB 22 Jul 02 97 FO5RK French Polynesia 20 SSB 23 Jul 02 98 5N1BHF Nigeria 20 SSB 23 Jul 02 99 HI8/AC4LN Dominican Republic 20 SSB 23 Jul 02 100 CE0Y/7K1WLE Easter Island 40 CW 24 Jul 02 +++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 11:42:20 -0700 From: Tree To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Some K2 pictures from WRTC-2002 Trey, N5KO and James, 9V1YC competed in the WRTC-2002 with a pair of K2s. You can find some pictures at http://www.kkn.net/~trey/photos/wrtc-2002/oj7s/ Never should your radio be smaller than your rotator control box. Tree N6TR tree at kkn.net ++++++++++++++++++++ From: kevinrock at earthlink.net To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 15:40:42 -0600 Subject: [Elecraft] A strange story from ABQ Howdy Folks, I built the K2 and listened quite a bit. I enjoyed just hearing folks around the world. I tried to contact them with my SSB module and the microphone but didn't have much luck except locally. So I built the 100 watt power amp. Concurrently I worked on my CW. I passed element one almost a year ago but that's entirely different than using CW as a mode. So I soldered and copied code, copied code and soldered. Now I have a working K2/100 but I find I don't pick the mike up. Often it is packed away. I find I am logging more and more CW contacts. And the funny thing is I rarely use more than 10 watts. So the 100 watt amp was fun to build but I rarely use it. I find CW much more fun than voice now and 10 watts or less are even more fun. How strange, I have come almost full circle. I built the K2 to go camping, I had problems making contacts, I built the power amp, but now I have no problem making contacts while camping. Since I have changed modes I am having more fun and using much less power. Once my code speed passes in to the double digit category I am going to reward myself with a new kit: the K1. I guess the moral of the story is that CW and QRP are more fun than QRO and voice (in my humble opinion, your mileage may vary). The most fun is working people from a camp site with a rig I built. I would really enjoy working someone while running off a solar cell given our copious amount of sunlight here in the land of enchantment. 72, Kevin. KD5ONS +++++++++++++++ From: "Fr Stephen King" To: Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 11:47:49 -0400 Subject: [Elecraft] K2 2644 & the PA QSO Party: SSB Lessons Learned This passed weekend I took some time to operate the PA QSO party from here in Western New York. They have a QRP division, so it seemed a worthy test of the new station location here near Buffalo and a new antenna (40m doublet up only about 30 feet). My goal for the contest was to sweep all 67 counties. I was planning on doing most of my operation on CW since there was a point bonus for CW contacts and as I "knew" CW is the "proper" QRP mode. Well, as it turned out, most of the activity on 40m (the only band I could operate really because of the constraints of propagation and antenna) seemed to be on SSB. So I decided to give it a shot. I've only made a handful of QSO's on SSB with the K2 (including the Heil mic), operating under the notion that SSB and QRP really do not mix ... Well, I set out hunting and pouncing for counties! I did not make my goal, but did work 60 (of 67) counties. More significantly, I found I could eventually work just about every station I could hear at the 5w level. When I mentioned I was working QRP I got some very good signal reports. Bottom Line: I was truly amazed at how well my little 5w of SSB was getting out. I never really tried SSB in the past because of my false notion that QRP and SSB are incompatible. I have seen the light! Admitting your problem is the first step to recovery! So, if you are like me and have never given your QRP SSB with your K2 a try -- try it! You might be as amazed as I was!!! Now when is that Phone SS weekend ......? Peace & 73 Stephen W3SMK K2 #2644 +++++++++++++++++ To: nccc at contesting.com, elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 04:36:53 +0000 From: k6iii at juno.com Subject: [Elecraft] k6iii/QRP - CQWW-CW summary Well I fooled around in CQWW for a few hours this weekend. Ran QRP at 5w again using the Elecraft K2. It was tough sledding this time. Signal conditions seemed to be down from a few months ago. There were many big gun stations out there that I could not bust the pile up; 6V, D4, etc... But I was gratified to work all continents and even break the pile up on a few. I had contacts on all bands, 10 thru 160. Tried to work a W and VE on each band (10-80) in all 3 zones. Got the W's but not all the VE's. Worked 1 JA on each band (10-80) for the 25 mult. Then H&P around looking for new DXCC (QRP) counters. Some of the interesting DX was R1ANF (Antartica), 9L1AB, HC8N (of course), VR2BG, LX5A, C53M, ZD8Z, ZS4TX. 73 de Jerry/k6iii Total Q's 92 Total Multiplier: 110 (63 DX, 47 Zones) Final Score = 21,450 Operating Time = 5:31 (Weekend obligations kept me from working longer) ++++++++++++++++++ From: "Dave Sergeant" To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 12:06:19 -0000 Subject: [Elecraft] CQWW CW G3YMC I also had a bash in CQWW with my K2 in the QRP section - in fact I operated for around 32 hours, so I guess it counts as reasonably serious. Summary results below. 636 QSOs in 76 countries. I worked a reasonable number of the dxpeditions, but failed to crack some of the pileups, certainly it is a QRO contest these days. But quite pleased with the results. There were no all band QRP entries from G last year so it is not possible to compare, but my 253,006 points looks good. Conditions were mixed. There was talk of solar during the weekend, so perhaps they were down on normal, but there were good openings on 10m to the USA. The worst time seemed to be in the early evening (1900z) after the hf bands had closed and the lf bands had not really opened. On Sunday evening the only stations left on 20m were weak USA stations, and I managed to work a great string of them who all seemed to copy the QRP OK. Summary Sheet Callsign : G3YMC Claimed Score : 253006 Created by : SD V9.91 and SDCHECK V9.91 Contest : CQ WW Contest Date(s) : 23-24 November 2002 Mode : CW Single/Multi Op: Single Section : QRP All band Contest Exchange (Zone, District) : 14 160m 80m 40m 20m 15m 10m Total Valid QSOs: 31 122 142 132 113 96 636 Total Mults: 18 40 56 57 59 33 263 Total Points: 30 127 193 191 168 253 962 Zone Mults: 2 4 10 13 16 12 57 Country Mults: 16 36 46 44 43 21 206 TX/RX : Elecraft K2 Power o/p : 5W Antennas : 60 ft long wire at 30 ft 73s Dave G3YMC k2 #2498 dsergeant at iee.org dsergeant at btinternet.com http://www.dsergeant.btinternet.co.uk ++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 09:04:58 -0500 (EST) From: kc4kgu at ENTERZONE.NET To: Dave Sergeant Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Re: Noise level on 160m On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, Dave Sergeant wrote: > On 25 Nov 2002 at 4:01, LA3ZA wrote > > > I notice that the band is very noisy, but my K2 behaves in a strange way as > > I have to work it with the Attenuator on and RF gain in the 10 or 11 o'clock > > position to get rid of a kind of noise that makes it almost impossible to > > copy anything. The Noise Blanker makes it a little bit easier, otherwise the > > RF gain has to be turned down even more. The noise seems to come as the RF > > gain crosses a threshold and then it will distort the received CW also. To > > me it seems like some sort of overload or oscillation in the RF/IF part of > > the receiver. I have also noticed this kind of behavior on 80 m from time to > > time. > > I also suffer from very similar noise on top band and to a lesser > extent on 80m. I had originally thought it was local noise to me (and > was certainly not there some years ago when I was more active on the > band). It is certainly not generated internally in the K2 and was > completely absent when we used my K2 in the RSGB Field Day in June. > It is also usually absent during daytime and the early morning hours. > I rather suspect it is from the increasing use of computer and TV > devices (ADSL springs to mind as well). A month or so ago, I chased a noise on 75/80 + 160m here at my shack. Strangely, for the first two days or so, I thought that it was atmospheric garbage or that the band(s) were just poo-poo. It sounded like a wind storm on the K2 and on the TS-2000. Then, one night, I was monitoring the 75m wind storm while I was working on some power runs (installing some new lighting) in the house. I wasn't sure which breaker was which (they're now labled) so, I simply broke out the flashlights and killed the main power. The shack has a large battery for backup so, the radios stayed on. Much to my amazement, the "wind storm" went away and the band was VERY good. After I completed the electrical work, I started tracking the noise source down. I live about 500yds from a sub-station and I had this sinking feeling that I was going to be in for a long drawn out battle with the folks at AEP over something at the sub-station causing noise on the lines. I grabbed my portable receiver and walked outside. The noise was louder on the ground floor then in the basement where the shack was. I was getting even sicker. Then, as I walked towards the sub-station, the noise got softer. The further I got from the house, the less noise I heard. I finally tracked the circuit that was causing the noise down to my upstairs office. Then it dawned on me. A week earlier, I had brought a "retired" machine home from our datacenter to use in the office. I hadn't been on the air for a couple of days after bringing the machine home so, the "cause and effect" relationship didn't stick out in my mind. I turned the office breaker back on - the noise came back. I powered the computer down and the noise went away. It was the computer. I haven't powered it back up since then. I'm fairly certain it is the power supply. You can literally hear the HD spin up on the air when it is powered up. So, if you have introduced something new to your environment, look there. I've not had PC noise issues ever before. I've even operated portable from just outside of our datacenter with no issues. This one machine caused quite a racket though! I'm just glad it wasn't the refrigerator or heat pump! 73 de John - K4WTF ++++++++++++++ From: bills4570 at att.net To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 17:33:23 +0000 Subject: [Elecraft] K2 on top in TARA PSK Rumble Contest All: There have been several suggestions by local ham friends that I post a recent contest win on the Elecraft reflector, and now that the results are final, I guess that's appropriate. I used K2 #2715 to win the Super category (5 watts and below) of the 2002 TARA PSK World Wide Rumble, which occurred the first week of October. I made 131 QSO's during the 24 hour contest period, and had a lot of fun doing it. My K2 is unmodified, with KSB2 and KAT2 options and it runs fine in the digital mode at 5.0 watts. I drove an 80M G5RV wire inverted vee with the peak at 50 ft., and I used a Rigblaster interface and MixW 2.02 software. There was nothing special about this station (other than the fact that it's a K2); just the average stuff that nearly anyone can put together. Even though the antenna was oriented to favor North/South, I had no trouble working the Eastern US, and several Japanese stations to the West during 20, 15, and 10M openings. I thought the agility of the K2 band change coupled with the autotuner performance was key to following the tricky band conditions. The ALC architecture of the K2 is perfect for PSK-31 mode. No fiddling with mic gain, or drive levels to get a nice clean signal. I also used this combination during the PODXS 160 M PSK sprint contest driving a 160M inverted vee dipole with good results. It was the first time I had operated on the 160M band, and I was surprised that my QRP signal was competitive with those running up to 100 watts. Kudos to the Elecraft team for a fine design and excellent support. This is the most fun I've had in a long time! -- Bill Schwantes, W7QQ K2 #2715 ++++++++++++++ From: bills4570 at att.net To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 17:33:23 +0000 Subject: [Elecraft] K2 on top in TARA PSK Rumble Contest All: There have been several suggestions by local ham friends that I post a recent contest win on the Elecraft reflector, and now that the results are final, I guess that's appropriate. I used K2 #2715 to win the Super category (5 watts and below) of the 2002 TARA PSK World Wide Rumble, which occurred the first week of October. I made 131 QSO's during the 24 hour contest period, and had a lot of fun doing it. My K2 is unmodified, with KSB2 and KAT2 options and it runs fine in the digital mode at 5.0 watts. I drove an 80M G5RV wire inverted vee with the peak at 50 ft., and I used a Rigblaster interface and MixW 2.02 software. There was nothing special about this station (other than the fact that it's a K2); just the average stuff that nearly anyone can put together. Even though the antenna was oriented to favor North/South, I had no trouble working the Eastern US, and several Japanese stations to the West during 20, 15, and 10M openings. I thought the agility of the K2 band change coupled with the autotuner performance was key to following the tricky band conditions. The ALC architecture of the K2 is perfect for PSK-31 mode. No fiddling with mic gain, or drive levels to get a nice clean signal. I also used this combination during the PODXS 160 M PSK sprint contest driving a 160M inverted vee dipole with good results. It was the first time I had operated on the 160M band, and I was surprised that my QRP signal was competitive with those running up to 100 watts. Kudos to the Elecraft team for a fine design and excellent support. This is the most fun I've had in a long time! -- Bill Schwantes, W7QQ K2 #2715 ++++++++++++++++ From: "Smith" To: Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 15:54:08 -0500 Subject: [Elecraft] CQWW CW WOW! Well, my K2/KPA100/KAT100 has now reach most-favored rig status over = my 756PRO. The CQWW CW contest was the clincher. The 756PRO is a fine = rig, but the K2/KPA100/KAT100 is a superior contest rig. I finished up = the KAT100 on Saturday morning with plenty of time to dabble in the CQWW = CW contest. =20 What more could you ask for: Awesome, bulletproof receiver (you don't need lots of bells and = whistles when you start off with superior receiver performance). You = can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em. You can hear 'em with this = receiver! And work 'em with the KPA100 (even with a G5RV - which is = where the KAT100 comes in). By the way, the K2 is much easier on the CW = ears than the 756PRO, which is prone to accentuate key clicks in the = narrow filter modes -- a real headache generator. Instant band changes with the KAT100. Flawless operation with = Writelog software. Excellent keying with a Rigblaster Pro. ... Smooth. And best of all, the QSK ... Silky Smooth. As my kids would say, Sweeeet! Rich W1EZ ++++++++++++++++ From: "g3pjt" To: Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 09:33:11 -0000 Subject: [Elecraft] XT2DX CQWW CW with K2 Hi Some observations from the XT2DX contest operation ( HP M/M) by the Voodoo Contest Group. Lee KY7M and I ( G3PJT ) took our K2s to see how they would perform. We used 2 K2/100s one on 80 and one on 10m. Each driving an Alpha to 1 Kw. No K2 equipment failures at all . And with Air France being VERY picky on excess baggage the K2 were light and small enough to pass through as carry on luggage. 80m. Qs 602 Zs 21 Cs 75 - as is normal on 80 it was necessary to set up the gain distribution in the rx in order to get the best result under such heavy noise conditions. - the RANT instruction is too clumsy for contest operation. Although we set up Fast Play to jump directly to the menu RANT ON/OFF it requires 3 key presses to change RANT and another three to get back to where you started from. Ideally it should be possible to set the K2 so that one key press toggled RANT on and off. This would be a useful firmware enhancement. 10m Qs 3671 Zs 34 Cs 145 - one report of drift - this was however on the K2 which had not been modified to use only one instead of two xtals in the 12.5 MHz oscillator. The other K2 which had been so modified was entirely stable. - very noticeable that we were able to copy very low signal levels - especially on the Sunday when we were looking for every contact we could get. Overall a very satisfactory result and it is evident the K2 is robust enough for this type of contest DXped. Our total score Qs 15241 Zs 181 Cs 699 for a claimed score of 39.9M which on claimed scores looks like 3rd in world. 73 Bob G3PJT and Lee KY7M ++++++++++++++ From: "Dave Sergeant" To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 06:55:00 -0000 Subject: [Elecraft] ARRL 10m contest G3YMC I had a serious 'dabble' in the ARRL contest last weekend as below. Callsign G3YMC QTH Bracknell, Berks Section CW SO QRP Operating hours (approx) 19 CW QSOs 348 Multipliers 86 (46 DXCC, 40 states/prov) Claimed score 119,712 Equipment Elecraft K2, 5W output 5/8 wave vertical groundplane Comments: Great fun, and although a bit of a struggle with my QRP I was pleased with results. I thought conditions although fair could have been better. There was a noticeable difference in propogation between the two days. Saturday there was activity by 0630z but the band faded totally around 1745. Sunday didn't really open until 0800 but stayed open later until 1830 (at which time both ZF2TN and TI5N were coming in 599 with no other signals on the band. I missed both 5B4AHA and ZC4DW who I was expecting to come up well in strength as the morning progressed but if anything they got weaker. The quirks of 10m! In last years results the only UK entrant in CW QRP achieved 84k points and the world leader was on 400k. Considering that conditions were way up last year compared with this I guess my score is very respectable. GW4ALG in Chepstow put up an identical vertical for his K2 and surprisingly achieved virtually an identical score so like minds think alike! As usual the K2 worked flawlessly as my experience in CQWW indicated it would do. The antenna I used, a 5/8 wave vertical, was an experiment. I used my 10m fibreglass pole and taped a 7.3m wire to it for the radiating element, and four quarter wave radials for the ground plane. Matching was with a series 1.5uH coil at the feedpoint to roughly produce 50 ohms - final tuning was via the KAT2 which had no problem in producing a perfect match. Switching between the vertical and my 60 ft longwire showed little difference between signals on most paths, but the background noise was noticeably lower on the vertical. Best DX was XW1IC and I worked a few more new ones to bring my K2 county total to 164. 73s Dave G3YMC dsergeant at iee.org dsergeant at btinternet.com http://www.dsergeant.btinternet.co.uk ++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 12:14:03 -0500 To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net From: "L. D. Ingram" Subject: Re: [Elecraft] "discovering" Elecraft I'll add to the bandwidth here - I had a ticket back in the late 50's, 60's and early 70's that I let expire because I became too busy. All the transmitters I had were home brew or Heathkits except for a second hand Harvey Wells that I had for a while. The last rig was a little Heath HW-8. Just before Christmas a year ago my grandson started asking me about the Morse code and I decided to see if I could still copy anything. To make a long story short I found that I could copy well enough to pass element 1 and so I took the tests and got my license last January. The question I faced then was what should I do for a new rig (the only thing I had left from days of yore was my straight key). I wanted to build it myself so I started searching the internet for kits - that's where I found about Elecraft. Looked good but a little steep for my purse - especially when I remembered what I had paid before. But, in the end I decided to take the plunge and ordered the K2 with all accessories except the 160M add-in. I greatly enjoyed putting it together, only one slip-up, a bad toroid joint, and I was on the air in April. I started off on 40, 30, 20 and 15 and later added antennas for 17, 12, and 10. Running 9 or 10 watts, mostly casual operation, all but 1 QSO on cw, I have had 250 QSOs and worked 47 countries and 40 states. To say I have been having fun with this great little rig is a major understatement. I really have nothing but my memories of past rigs to compare with the K2 so I really can't say anything about how it stacks up against the competition but I can say that I am very happy I discovered Elecraft. Thanks Eric and Wayne and the rest of the crew for giving me a great experience getting back into ham radio. Larry Ingram AG4NN K2 #2529 +++++++++++++++++ From: "Mike Harris" To: Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:00:37 -0300 Subject: [Elecraft] Beacon G'day all, For what it's worth K2/100 #1400 has just completed 330 hours of QRSS 10 (3:1) duty as a Grey-line experiment beacon on 40 metres, 10 hours per night. The output was set to 11 watts. Heatsink temps were running at approximately 46C and the whole K2 was comfortably warm. I have just taken the lid off and had a look around the PA unit for any signs of stress, cooked components etc. and all looks OK. The PA's had been burnt in and retightened before the beacon run. No further slack in the screws. The drift took about 20 minutes to settle thereafter nothing to worry the receiving stations and was predictable, that is, the frequency returned to the same place every night. SpectrumLab was used as the recording FFT application and was unattended overnight. Frequency stability mods have not yet been done, still waiting for the kit. Regards, Mike VP8NO (IOTA SA-002) GQRP 10148 K2/100 #1400 ++++++++++++++++ From: "Dave Sergeant" To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 11:38:31 +0100 Subject: [Elecraft] WPX CW G3YMC Well G3YMC had a semi serious bash at WPX this weekend in the QRP section. I now have the KIO2 fitted to my K2 and this made it a delight to use as with the KAT2 it was really instantaneous band change. Logging via EI5DI's Superduper on my old 386 Toshiba laptop. Conditions were fairly average and very little DX about - nothing at all from JA or the far east, and even Cyprus stations were scarce. However after 35 hours operating (single operator is limited to 36 hours by the rules) I managed 677 QSOs, 318 multipliers, 69 DXCC and a grand score of 391,140 points. Two all time new QRP countries were added to my list making a total of 181 (124 during 2003). QRN was a problem on the low bands and I only worked 3 stations on 160m. 10m was dead on Saturday but had a nice opening during Sunday and was open well into the evening with some nice DX worked (usually first call!). Operating times were adjusted to allow normal meal times - breaks have to be a minimum of one hour so I used those to advantage. Didn't quite manage to planned Sunday start at 0100z though.... I await to see the results, but with CQ they don't even publish claimed scores and the results take a very long time to get published. Also uploaded the logs to eQSL and have already received 7 eQSLs for the weekend. And to ARRL LOTW to give me some more... By the way the results of the ARRL 10m contest last December are now on the members only pages of the ARRL site at http://www.arrl.org/members-only/contests/results/2002/10-Meters/ I operated QRP CW in that contest and in that section, in the non-USA entries I am leading G in 15th place (European 6th) with 115,584 points. My good friend Steve GW4ALG, also a K2 owner, beat me by a hairbreadth 200 points into 14th place. 73 Dave G3YMC K2 #2498 dsergeant at btinternet.com http://www.dsergeant.btinternet.co.uk +++++++++++++++ To: nccc at contesting.com, elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 15:01:34 +0000 From: Jerry Bliss Subject: [Elecraft] a Brag... K6III 1st place in QRP Sparton Sprint Just braggin' I managed to share 1st place in the June edition of the Sparton Sprint, a 2-hour quickie contest for QRP ops. Sponsored by ARS (Adventure Radio Society) the 1st Monday evening of each month. Interesting scoring having to do with the weight of the equipment. I weigh-in at 14.12 pounds with my K2 rig (including battery, paddle and earphones). I did a 20m-only, CW entry, running 4-watts to a Force12 C4 at 50ft. de Jerry/k6iii San Jose, CA ++++++++++++++++