+++++++++++++++++++++++ See also - Building a K2 - How Easy is Easy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 07:31:54 -0700 From: "Victor and Lisbeth Trucco" Subject: [Elecraft] Newbie Question on Building a K2 I'm new to the reflector and considering purchasing a K2. While I'm handy and have some soldering experience, I'm am a little weary about taking on the project of building a K2. I have considered having someone build a K2 for me. I would appreciate input from the group on what I should expect to pay a builder and who the premiere builder is out there. I am very meticulous and would prefer a builder who pays very close attention to detail and know the insides and outs of the K2. 73's, Victor Trucco KD6PTO +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 17:02:43 +0200 From: "Ingo DK3RED" Subject: [Elecraft] Re: Newbie Question on Building a K2 Hello Victor, Built Your own K2. It's easy and is a great fun! Each one who can handle an iron can built a K2. Try it! If You have a question, so write your problem on the mailing list and all will help You. If You realy not built Your own K2, so I think You will find a builder for hire on elecraft's http://www.elecraft.com/k2_builders.htm 72 de Ingo, DK3RED E-Mail: dk3red at qsl.net - Homepage: www.qsl.net/dk3red +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 11:35:12 -0400 From: "ZOOM" Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Newbie Question on Building a K2 Victor; Don't be weary! You will really be missing something if you let someone build this kit for you! The directions are virtually fool proof plus you get the added bonus of personal pride and accomplishment when you finish the K2 and operating your own tranceiver that YOU built! You can't buy that! My only suggestion is take your time. Spend perhaps 1 hour per day working on it and within a month or two you'll be up and running. Many in your same position have successfully completed their K2 and K1. Also you'll learn allot by building your own. The task is not so daunting and Elecraft is there to help you should a problem arise. Their support is second to none. You can't fail! Cheers, Robert VE3RPF K1 #455 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 09:57:25 -0700 From: Phil & Chris Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Newbie Question on Building a K2 Victor...do build it yourself...its good for the soul and easy on the mind...If you should have problems...help is a phone call or an email away. The precess is quite simple and besides what are you going to do after work anyway? Watch TV right. - -- Phil and Christine Lontz Tucson in the winter Summer in Santa Fe ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 21:41:24 -0700 From: "Victor and Lisbeth Trucco" Subject: [Elecraft] Re: Newbie Question on building a K2 I appreciate all who responded to my post. I received some very good information and encouragement. Thank you!!! The overwhelming response from everyone was "build it yourself". I have reconsidered my approach and I have decided that I'll build a K2 myself. Based on the responses for the group I have no doubt help will be just a keypad away. Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to share your experiences. Kind Regards, Victor KD6PTO ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: "Rick Shindley" To: "elecraft digest" Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 11:25:08 -0600 Subject: [Elecraft] to build or not to build... The ham radio community is made up of people from all walks of life. Many of us are attracted to it for its technology. Others are attracted to it for other reasons such as contesting, friendships, or just plain soapboxing (new word?)! For us technological types, the supposed downside issues of toroid winding, lead tinning or fear of kit building are non-existent. Those issues are just part of the fun of building a radio station. We enjoy jumping into a box of electronic parts and wading around in it until a radio happens! Sometimes it's fun to simply enjoy the pleasures of eye-hand coordination that kit building affords. There's comfort knowing that all the parts you need to build something are there on the bench before you. No need to go scrounging or "making do" with odd-fitting components. Just follow the yellow brick road. It's relaxing to know that success is assured. On the other hand, some hams may not share the same enthusiasm for building things. Some have no aptitude for it. Often they don't care HOW things work, just that they DO. To them getting a license means passing a test; no big deal. They have more important issues and fascinations in their lives than do some of us myopic techies! Sigh. My late father-in-law, K1GUM, was an avid techie (and through him I met my wife!) but his greatest excitement in ham radio was when he talked with the late senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) on the air! So, when some technical milktoast seeks encouragement by daring to admit on this reflector his/her questionable ability to assemble a Kx kit, hoards of techies pounce in an online pileup of encouragement to come join them in their "techiness". I've done it. Now I don't know if that's always the right thing to do. It may not be enough. Maybe some turn their backs and walk away in fear. It's ok to be a non-techie. If someone feels that they just aren't up to building a Kx, hey, there is an abundance of us techies out here that will do it for them for free, or for a modest fee! We should stress that avenue to them as well as just offering building encouragement. It offers the wavering potential Elecraft customer a sure path to success and it sells another Elecraft kit, which benefits everyone. Rick KC0OV K2 1360 ++++++++++++++++++ From: To: "Elecraft Reflector" Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 09:50:47 -0700 Subject: [Elecraft] Prospective K2 buyers: rig comparisons Hi folks - Many times when I read the reflector emails I think about what a prospective K2 buyer might be perceiving from the various exchanges. A lot of technical info flies by and it could really rattle the average guy who wants to to build a rig, but knows little more than how to solder (like me). So for those shoppers I want to throw out some quick thoughts. 1 - You will see discussions, like today, about rig comparisons. I have had my K2 (and now K2/100) side by side with a TenTec Omni C, an Omni V.9, and my Icom 756PRO. IMHO these are all great radios and they are not all aimed at exactly the same audience. In all honesty I never did find a signal that one radio could hear and another could not. However, there are very distinct differences in noise level and what I would call the "type" of sound. A 756 will definitely sound different than a K2. For normal operations and non-laboratory types I would suggest that these differences will boil down to individual preferences. Using the word "quiet" can be misleading when talking about radios because it means different things to different folks. I think though, that most operaters would describe the K2 as easily the most quiet radio in the sense the term is used by most of us. I love operating my 756PRO and I think it is pretty outstanding and I no longer own a TenTec......but if I could have only one rig it would be the K2. It is an absolutely pleasing radio to operate and listen to. That's not lab specs - it's just a solder jockey's impression from sitting in his shack and having fun. 2 - Sometimes I hear folks comment about the cost of a K2. If you are shopping for a K2, I would like to suggest that the first QSO you have with it will be priceless and you will wonder why you ever struggled with the question of buying a K2 or not. There is something absolutely amazing about connecting that whole box of parts together and seeing a radio come alive. It is a thrill. And don't forget - when people do rig comparisons, they are doing it with top of the line cw rigs like the TenTec Omni's. The little K2 is being compared with the cream of the crop and generally always comes out on top whether the comparison is "gut feel" or by lab specs. 3 - During and after your build you will start to realize that this reflector is priceless too. The guys and gals that are on hear include some EXTREMELY knowledgable people. And you should note that the designers, Wayne and Eric, are monitoring it all the time and very frequently throw in adivice or clarify various questions raised. 4 - A lot of the questions raised are just because people are curious and like to fine tune a Rolls Royce. I suspect most builders solder that last connection, fire the rig up, and operate happily ever after. But then some start to realize that the K2 can be a constant learning tool if you have the desire. You can tweak and play and ask questions to your hearts content - not because there is a problem - but because it is fascinating. I hope my 2 cents worth helps a few shoppers out there....especially if it's your first rig! 73/Tim NZ7C +++++++++++++++ From: "Tom" To: Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 19:19:45 -0400 Subject: [Elecraft] A suggestion Hi, I'd like to offer some thoughts to a certain segment of us who have built a K2 or K1 or who are considering doing so. If you've EVER taken even ONE electronics course, please do not read this! OK, now that it's just us non-electronics guys (and ladies) we can talk. By profession, I'm a CPA, and the only thing electronics related that I get involved with in my field is that sometimes the adding machine doesn't work. But I'm also a ham, been one since 1964 when I was in high school, and always enjoyed "making radios and watching them work". Now, because it's just us, I can tell you that I never really understood what the heck was going on inside those things but, back then at least, that was OK, I built it and it (sometimes) worked! Don't get me wrong now, 99.9% of the electronics educated hams I've run across over the years have been very helpful and patient with my questions. It's just that I've felt very much in strange territory when talking to these types. They don't realize it, but when they start talking about Q factors or pi-networks, my eyes glaze over. I really, really want to understand it, and believe me I've tried, it's just that my brain can't process any of it. In fact, about the only pi-network I can comprehend is run by Mrs. Smith's. And they might as well be talking about Q-tips as Q factors. My first transmitter was a Heathkit DX-60, which I built. As I said, I was a kid and I didn't know that Heath was a good company, or any of that. I built it because it was cheaper than buying a pre-built job and I had time on my hands. So I put it together, it caught on fire, I fixed it and before I knew it I was running 75 watts into the final amplifier (whatever that meant) on the novice bands. Did I learn anything from this building experience? Well I kind of knew that a smoking rig was not a good thing, even before I started. I guess I learned what a resistor looked like and that if you put a screwdriver between the positive lead of that big shiny electrolytic capacitor and the chassis, you could scare the heck out of your mother. This may sound blasphemous, but Heath really didn't do a very good job of teaching me why the rig worked, just that if I followed the steps and was careful, it most likely would work. (The fire was the result of a wiring error made by my not following the instructions carefully.) Meanwhile, his friends in technical school were leaving this future accountant in the dust when it came to understanding why we were able to actually communicate with someone 500 miles away (the bands were REALLY dead in 1964). Over the years that followed, life started happening to this ham and while I was able to do the minimum required to keep my license active, I certainly didn't do anything to enhance my knowledge of electronics. About ten years or so ago, maybe more now, I picked up a ham radio magazine ("Ham Radio", as a matter of fact), and the sparks started to fly again (yeah, I know). So I did all kinds of justification and went out and bought an almost-top-of-the-line transceiver made by one of the big names in our hobby. I was amazed at how easy things had become. I just pressed a button and my rig was tuned. No more dipping the meter (whatever we did that for) or worrying about blowing the final out (that I knew about - $6.00 for a new one was about the same as a bowling date with Susie down the block, back in '64). I was talking to Europe, South America and all of the United States. They even gave us a few more bands to use while I wasn't paying attention! Then one day, the new transceiver didn't work properly. So I unscrewed about 117 screws of various sizes, took one look at what was going on inside, sized things up, jiggled the red wire and replaced 114 screws ('why did they give extras?', I thought), and shipped it off for service. Fortunately, it was still on the warranty and it *only* cost me forty bucks for shipping (both ways, I guess). I got it back and it worked - well kind of. It worked if I plugged the CW key into the headphone jack and the headphones three-quarters of the way into the key jack. Of course, the external speaker was no longer grounded to the rig so it had to be jury-rigged. I called the repair guys and they said they would fix it and I should send it right back, but they couldn't pay for shipping. Another $40.00, I don't think so. Now, this is a personal thing and everybody is different, but around this time, I started to feel like I wasn't really a ham. I might as well have been talking on the telephone as over the airwaves, for all I was doing from my personal input. I think not being able to fix the rig, really awoken me to this fact of life. I didn't want to stop being a part of the hobby again, but I wasn't really happy with what I was doing. I still wanted to "make radios and watch them work" just as always. And I guess fixing them when they stopped working, as well. I built a couple of small things and had a modicum of success, but even then, I felt I was just assembling parts. Then came along the "Elmer-101" project on the qrp-l e-mail list. I tried this and had a ball! I never had a contact, with the rig, but the guys moderating the project, were absolutely great! (Yeah, those IEEE types do have a purpose, after all). As I built the little qrp rig, step by step, they explained what was going on, what changes to the circuit would do, and even why certain components were chosen over others. This was the first time I ever knew what I was doing. "Pretty neat, for an accountant", I thought. I'm not sure of the timing, but I started to hear about the Elecraft K2 and thought, "I can build that!, and once I do I'll have a rig that I can fix and modify". But the price made it something that wasn't to be taken lightly, in the event I was getting in over my head. Once I found that if I messed things up, they would fix it for about a hundred bucks (at the time) I thought "heck that's about what it was costing me to ship the other rig all over the place", so I was sold. Well, I built the K2 and the instructions were thorough, but man, all I was doing was assembling again, and I really didn't know what was going on. These electronics guy mean well, but they really can't help it. Once they start to say something like "The K2 receiver is a single-conversion superhet, utilizing double-tuned bandpass filters on each band and down-conversion to a low I.F. (4.915 MHz)." It's like they are saying to me "you mean to tell me you took Suzie down the block bowling when you could have spent that $6.00 on a new final?" Well, yeah I did. Anyway the K2 works, the guys at Elecraft walked me through the very minor problems I had in building it. But here's where I am now with it, and I offer this as a suggestion, to you, if you can relate to what I've been saying so far: I get pretty good signal reports when working CW so I'm pretty satisfied that the transmit side of the rig is working well. However, I've read that the K2's receiver is a very, very good one. It must be, just look at the statistics for it on the Elecraft web page (yeah, right - and then we'll discuss quantum physics in Medieval times). So how do I know if it's working well or not? Well, I brought my K2 to a meeting of our club and one of the guys compared his signal to mine, on the same antenna, and they both sounded the same. I could be satisfied with this comparison, this guy is 'one of them' and certainly knows what he's talking about. But my K2 sounds about the same as my other rig (the one that has all the frequent flyer miles). This could be a good sign or a not so good sign. Well, I've decided to use the information provided in the trouble shooting section primarily to find out about the rig, to see if its working up to snuff and maybe even learn a bit about electronics in the meantime. The section (in the K2 manual, I'm guessing the K1 has a similar section) on trouble shooting is pretty straightforward. To see if the receiver is working properly, the Elecraft guys show you how to build a probe to measure RF voltage and how to build a simple signal generator. With these two very simple to build items, you can actually trace a signal from the antenna to the speaker (something, for this accountant which is comparable to tracing the origins of the universe - always heard about it but never really did it!). The steps tell you along the way (sometimes, anyway) what a high or a low reading might indicate, how it effects performance and of course how to fix it. Cool! There is a similar section for the transmitter. So I've been poking and prodding under the cover and so far, no fires, not even a meaningful spark to impress my wife. Maybe the K2 is at its optimum level (I can't believe I did everything right with a million parts, though), if it is good for me, if not, I'll find it and fix it, then it'll be really good for me. In closing, I think that the technical expertise on this list is absolutely phenomenal and a great resource for the rest of us. Based upon, what I recall as a very high level of participation in the qrp-l "Elmer 101" project, I'll venture to say that there are a lot of us 'accountants' out there that might be a little shy in the midst of all this wisdom. Let's give them a chance to help us, they really want to. We built our K2's and K1's, let's get to know them! Tom McCulloch WB2QDG K2 s/n 1103 I may run qrp but I've got a Higher Power! ++++++++++++++++++