K2/100 questions?

[thomask.smith]

Hi everyone,

I've got a bunch of dumb questions so please have patients with me!

1. When doing the S meter cal do you have the 'pre-amp' on or off? 'AGC'
on or off? Why I'm asking is that the meter never seems to respond
correctly. Even when using the 50uv source it's impossible to get an S9.
It's either one segment high or low.

2. The manual calls for using a second receiver to check your frequency
and audio quality. I don't have access to a second radio and haven't
made any friends with the locals here in the UAE yet. So how can I check
my signal? I've tried asking stations on the air and no one has
responded to my questions yet. I set my frequency using a government
calibrated counter so it might be correct. I set the filters using the
'Spectrogram' (I think that's what it's called) software and a digital
storage scope computer interface. Hopefully they are correct.

3. When transmitting with SSB my external watt meter only shows 30 or so
watts. It is a cheap MFJ meter that probably only shows average output
and not peak but in CW it shows full power on all the bands. Is this
normal? I've tried the different gain settings and compression ratios.
I'm using the MD-2 microphone from Elecraft. I have noticed I'm having a
very hard time making contact with anyone. I only had 4 contacts during
a contest weekend so no one had time to comment on my signal. I know the
problem might be my 2 dipoles on the roof of the apartment building but
I have nothing else to try right yet.

Any ideas will be helpful.

Thanks,
Tom A61/WA7DET
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[Matt Osborn]

I've been through the S meter calibration often enough that I can help
question 1.

Turn the RF Gain to maximum.
Turn AGC on

Adjust R1 on the control board for a reading on U2 pin 5 of 3.8vdc.
(It can actually be 3.6 to 3.8)

Turn the AF Gain to any comfortable level.

Turn on the XG1 and set to 50uv.

Select CAL S HI from the menu.
Adjust the VFO until the S meter indicates S-9
Turn off the XG1 and the S meter should drop to zero.

Select CAL S LO from the menu.
Adjust the VFO until the first bar on the S meter flickers, then back
it off until the first bar is off.

Turn the XG1 on and the meter should read S-9, turn it off and the S
meter should drop to zero.

Repeat the CAL adjustments as needed.

I've discovered that if either CAL S HI or CAL S LO is severely out of
range, that the calibration is difficult to achieve due to flickering.
For this reason, it is important to adjust CAL S LO the first time
even if the S meter indicated zero (it may be too far past zero)

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 20:44:04 -0000, <[hidden email]>
wrote:

>Hi everyone,
>
>I've got a bunch of dumb questions so please have patients with me!
>
>1. When doing the S meter cal do you have the 'pre-amp' on or off? 'AGC'
>on or off? Why I'm asking is that the meter never seems to respond
>correctly. Even when using the 50uv source it's impossible to get an S9.
>It's either one segment high or low.
>
>2. The manual calls for using a second receiver to check your frequency
>and audio quality. I don't have access to a second radio and haven't
>made any friends with the locals here in the UAE yet. So how can I check
>my signal? I've tried asking stations on the air and no one has
>responded to my questions yet. I set my frequency using a government
>calibrated counter so it might be correct. I set the filters using the
>'Spectrogram' (I think that's what it's called) software and a digital
>storage scope computer interface. Hopefully they are correct.
>
>3. When transmitting with SSB my external watt meter only shows 30 or so
>watts. It is a cheap MFJ meter that probably only shows average output
>and not peak but in CW it shows full power on all the bands. Is this
>normal? I've tried the different gain settings and compression ratios.
>I'm using the MD-2 microphone from Elecraft. I have noticed I'm having a
>very hard time making contact with anyone. I only had 4 contacts during
>a contest weekend so no one had time to comment on my signal. I know the
>problem might be my 2 dipoles on the roof of the apartment building but
>I have nothing else to try right yet.
>
>Any ideas will be helpful.
>
>Thanks,
>Tom A61/WA7DET
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: [hidden email]
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

_______________________________________________
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