Elecraft K2 S/n 01432...LIVES.!!

[Andy Cunningham-2]

Yes' Sir'ee....!

You read that correctly...!   As of today 23rd April 2005... "... Elecraft
K2 S/n 01432..".... LIVES..!!

Bhoy's... !  You CANT...even begin to know how I feel today...!  This, for
me, has been only the 3rd most happiest times in my entire life..!  The
1st...passing my driving test in 1983, ...first time around....with a "hand
controlled" car....  The 2nd.... Passing my "Ham Ticket"...after 18
months.... 12 HOURS A DAY...constant studying of the "Manual"...and all
other literature involved.. .....
and the 3rd... " The Birth Of My Elecraft K2 S/n 01432..."...!

Oh..!  Yes...!  ..... as the man himself.... Mr Elvis Aron Presley ...sang
about many, many a time in my room at home... "....I Got My Mojo Working..."
.... And BOY IT FEELS GOOD..!!
Now I KNOW...what all the talk has been about on the reflector, HF Bands,
magazines....etc for the last 5 years of my life...

What a truly "Monumentous" occassion happened here today...!  Some of you
guy's will remember earlier in the week, where I posted to the reflector...
that there had indeed been a "hiccup" in the construction of my "Baby"...
... with the "Alignment & Test Past II" section of the manual, and I was
admittedly strugglin' with the "way of the manual", shall we say, ..not
knowing wether I was actually doing the correct proceedure for alignment on
the 40M Band...(in and around Page 50)...

Well... Once Again... my dear friend, "mentor"...and...close friend John
Ross GM1BSG...has again (...keep readin' John..!) "Saved The Day"...  From
the outset of the beginning of the construction of "K2 S/n 01432"
(...yeah..I know..its layen in a cupboard toooo... long..!)... John has been
an absolutley monumentally oustanding "rock" for me throughout all of
this... the man is a pure genius...a fantastic friend, shoulder to cry
on.... the whole shootin' match...  When others all around me, constantly
said, "..you'll never do that Andy...your not good enough...".... John...
helped me "rise above it all"...with his kind words, determination, and
sheer bloody-mindedness,... telling me that he "Knew...!  that I could do
it.." ...I thought he was lying or just sayin that to help me along,...but
today, it all fell into place..and now I beleive him...Without HIM...I CAN
say, that I would still be "scratching my head" on this one, with the only
thing to do "backtrack" through the manual...which we did to a certain
extent, but nothing like I would have needed to do on my own if he were'nt
here..

Today, we connected up some "Serious" test equipment, I'll leave John to
explain the finer points of that.... and quickly found the "problem"...

What Was I Hear Y'all Say...??   In a word....

ME..!!!!.........

Dumb-%^&*...!  here had "forgotten" in my wisdom, to include a couple of
very important componants during the last few pages before puttin her
together for the "Big Smoke Test"...!  R39 and another componant...on the
back left-hand-side of the "RF Board"...which of course, allowed me to
"tune" the various filters, even for 40m...but was stopping the rig from
receiving ...ANYTHING !! on 40m...
a quick read of the schematic (by John..!) and a scan of the board, brought
this to our attention....    Where I "..hastily made a quick retreat to the
kitchen...! " ...and I'm NOT joking...!!  How "small" once again did I feel
for the 2nd time this week.??  Another "small" problem that I seemed to have
had, was with some "switching" of the 40m filter,....this turned out to be
Toroid "T5" or "T6" which I had "orientated" in the wrong direction..!
making it act, kinda like a "choke" or "attenuator" (or so john
explained..!) this was b.a.d.  ... as you can imagine, attenuating, so to
speak the signals on 40m...

Must have been one of those moments of madness, ...where I had visited other
rooms in the house for a moment and forgotten on returning where I was
at...or perhaps what I was "partaking in" at the time...

I've learned my lesson for sure...

But it did "raise a few eyebrows..... and ...temperatures..! " I can tell
you, when John found out what had happened.... infact,..he has made sure
that I NEVER apply for a job at his satellite business, where they undertake
the fabrication of satalite receivers, LMB's etc etc...EVER..!!  (...aye
John..?)

A quick change around of the toroid, a solder of the 2 componants that I had
ommited to install...  BANG..!   There they were....signals 5-5, 5-7, 5-9
...all on 40m CW..!!

Fanfare Plays In The Background...!  Oh..! Joyess Moment...! ...and nearly
tears of happiness all around....

SO..! Glad to say that K2 S/n 01432.... is now receiving stations on 40m
CW...Boy Its Good..!..   Still got a couple of problems to sort out,... Like
WHY..the S-Meter is still sitting at S3 of constant... when there is nothing
to be heard on the band...or any stations on a particular frequency....
Suppose I'll come across why later in the manual... perhaps a "tweak" still
to be done...??  Also "not sure"..why I can't resolve LSB on 40m too good...
certainly not clear enough to make any sense of..?  Again...I guess I will
find the answer later on... just thought I'd be able to hear as usual at
this stage on LSB...

For all you guy's...who "were" following my "Mission" of the construciton of
the radio on my website... I have to apologise most sincerley, as I have
tended to neglect that part of the progress report latley..this is due to
many thing, ...the house refurbishment (which still is'nt finished..!) ..and
also..the fact that I have been concentrating on gettin her up n running so
much here in the shack, that time has been against me for updating my
website...  I guess that y'all having the various reports on the reflector
has kinda kept you up-to-date anyway... but I will try and post a few things
on the website when I can...

What a tremendous day for sure... y'all know what I mean, when I say, what
the "feeling" is like, when you turn on your radio and hear stations for the
first time...!?  Theres not a word can describe it... nothing like it... is
there..?

Thanks also must go out to all the folks who over the past year or so, have
answered the sometimes silly, mundane, and obvious "pleas" for help from
myself here on the reflector also... Don Wilhelm... is another man, who
without his gentle, calm guidance, I would have been lost on several
occassions during construction.....a quick e-mail to him,....within
minutes... problem(s) solved..!  I've just never had people in my life like
John, Don, and the rest of you guys before..... this too good..

Sorry for the bandwidth guys...I hope that you all can manage to "feel" what
I am feeling at this very moment, I KNOW,..that this will go on for a long
time to come.....and it will take me a few days to "come back down to
earth".... But Hey..! In the meantime... I'm sure gonna enjoy my "High"..!

THANKS EVER SO MUCH WAYNE and ERIC....All The Folks At Elecraft...for giving
me the chance to realise my boyhood dream since the age of 12 years old,
..of putting together my own "Fully Loaded All Mode Superhet HF
Transceiver".....you guys have lifted "The Joys Of QRP"..beyond a level of
anyones expectations,...its a Joy, a Pleasure..and above all...an Honour to
own and operate one of the, ...if not "the" most outstanding QRP HF
Transceivers ever to have been introduced to the amateur radio
fraternity.... if not The World..

Thanks For The Bandwidth Guys...apologies that it has been such a long
one...  Now back to construction of the rest of K2 S/n 01432.... wish me
luck..!

Now..! to find space here in the shack for that new 800 watt Elecraft "cloud
warmer"...!  My eyes are peaeed...my ears listenin...

Andy
[hidden email]          "...I Just See It.!.."  John A. Ross
(RSD Communications circa 2004)
A.R.S.
GM0NWI QRP                                       "..It is vain to do with
more....             "A Dis-Orientated Kiwi...
"K2 S/n 01432 Soon To Be On-Air"                    what can be done with
less..             In The Northern Hemisphere..."

GQRP No.9576
QRP-L No.2165
ARCI No.10561
Central Florida DX Association (CFDXA)
Alaska QRP Club No.190
Flying Pigs QRP Club No. FP#-1061
ICQ No.31899603

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[Paul Bruneau]

On Apr 22, 2005, at 10:04 PM, Andy GM0NWI wrote:

> Still got a couple of problems to sort out,... Like WHY..the S-Meter
> is still sitting at S3 of constant... when there is nothing to be
> heard on the band...or any stations on a particular frequency....
> Suppose I'll come across why later in the manual... perhaps a "tweak"
> still to be done...??

Andy, your writing style is very interesting and fun to read and your
energy level is inspiring! (and your . key on your keyboard must be
tired!)

I also have that same S meter issue on my #4818 which is in the middle
of its receiver alignment (is it the way it is supposed to be I
wonder??)

And as I turn down the RF gain, the S meter climbs and climbs until it
is all lit up. I don't know if that is the way it is supposed to be or
not.

But congratulations on getting to hear stuff on 40m!

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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Paul, Andy and all,

It is not unusual for the S-meter calibrations to change from those initial
settings that were made when you had only the Contol board and the Front
Panel boards complete.  Now that you have a full receiver, you should re-do
the CAL S LO and CAL S-Hi calibration to straighten out the S-meter.

The manual does not specifically state it, but those initial settings are at
a point where you are becoming accustomed to working with the menu
parameters, and may not be the final settings required.  Since this question
crops up from time to time, it would be a good addition to the manual to put
in a step indicating that re-calibration of th S-meter may need to be done
after the full receiver is built and all filters aligned.

Yes, the S-meter will climb when the RF Gain is lowered - that is normal
behavior.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> > Still got a couple of problems to sort out,... Like WHY..the S-Meter
> > is still sitting at S3 of constant... when there is nothing to be
> > heard on the band...or any stations on a particular frequency....
> > Suppose I'll come across why later in the manual... perhaps a "tweak"
> > still to be done...??
>
>
> I also have that same S meter issue on my #4818 which is in the middle
> of its receiver alignment (is it the way it is supposed to be I
> wonder??)
>
> And as I turn down the RF gain, the S meter climbs and climbs until it
> is all lit up. I don't know if that is the way it is supposed to be or
> not.
>
> But congratulations on getting to hear stuff on 40m!
>
>

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[Kevin Rock]

That is the main reason I do not use the S meter to give someone a signal
report.  I leave the AF gain cranked up and use the RF gain to adjust
volume.  It gives me a better chance at digging folks out of the noise
level.  Thus the S meter on my rig just gives me a fun light to watch
while I am on the air.  I should really turn it off but it is much like
watching the needles bounce in my antenna tuner.  Keeps me company in the
shack :)
    73,
       Kevin.


On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 22:58:52 -0400, W3FPR - Don Wilhelm
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Yes, the S-meter will climb when the RF Gain is lowered - that is normal
> behavior.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR


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[Tom Hammond-3]

At 09:29 PM 4/22/05, Paul Bruneau wrote:
>And as I turn down the RF gain, the S meter climbs and climbs until it is
>all lit up. I don't know if that is the way it is supposed to be or not.

Most S-Meters digital or analog act this way... as the RF Gain is
DEcreased, the S-meter INcreases in level... it's a function of the AGC
voltage, which is an INVERSE function.

73,

Tom   N0SS

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[Paul Bruneau]

On Apr 23, 2005, at 7:16 AM, Tom Hammond wrote:

> At 09:29 PM 4/22/05, Paul Bruneau wrote:
>> And as I turn down the RF gain, the S meter climbs and climbs until
>> it is all lit up. I don't know if that is the way it is supposed to
>> be or not.
>
> Most S-Meters digital or analog act this way... as the RF Gain is
> DEcreased, the S-meter INcreases in level... it's a function of the
> AGC voltage, which is an INVERSE function.

Thanks Tom and Don-

It makes sense that relatively speaking as you turn down the RF gain,
the signals that still come through must be stronger so I guess the S
meter compensates to try to give an accurate idea of the strength.

The only other rig I have ever used, the HW-8, has left me ill-prepared
for all the goodies that the K2 is about to spoil me with, so most of
my questions are pretty basic. Thanks for the guidance!

I will definitely re-calibrate my S meter next time the radio is
together.

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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Another way to look at it is to consider that when you adjust the RF gain
manually, the more you need to turn down the gain, the stronger the signal
must be. So the S-meter reads higher, reporting that the signal is stronger.


The 'automatic gain control' just does automatically what you can also do
manually with the RF gain control.

Ron AC7AC


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