K2 6442 ON THE AIR

[CJA]

Thanks to the patient assistance from Don, W3FPR K2 6442 was on the air last night (for the first time) with N7CMJ, Less of Evergreen, MT.  We initiated our contact on 2m to coordinate and then made contact on 10m and 15m.  According to N7CMJ my signal was 5/5 with 5 watts.  His frequency readout was 28.499.09 to my 28.500.  I guess that is good enough for now.  All I have left to do is install the 60m accessory and the KIO2 (looks intimidating).  

All was not perfect however.  Just a couple of problems cropped up.

1.  I am getting a flash of HiCur occasionally when I transmit.  The Current setting is at the recommended 2.0 and I was only running 5 Watts.

2.  According to N7CMJ the Elecraft mic sounded great.  Not so with my Heil Traveler Headset.  For reasons unknown, it caused a "thumping" or pulsing sound in the receiving station.  I do not know what this could be and neither did Less.  Per Heil instructions, I am using the same adapter as that used by Kenwoods.

Suggestions more than welcome on the above issues.

Again,  thanks to Don, Less and also Gary (W7GFB) for all the help getting on the air.

Chris
K7CJA
K2#6442

P.S. I am hoping to get on the MT net this AM.

[Don Wilhelm-4]

Chris,

About your Heil Traveler microphone problem:  It is only speculation on
my part, but the Traveler with the Kenwood cable may not be completely
compatible with the K2 (or K3 for that matter).
My thoughts are that the Traveler mic uses an electret element - and
that coupled with the belief that Kenwood does not apply bias to their
microphones through the AF line, but uses the +8 volt source to develop
bias internal to their microphones;  If all I have said is true (but it
does require more data) - that means that the Heil Traveler mic with the
Kenwood adapter is not suited for the K2 when it is wired for the
Elecraft microphone pinout nor for the K3.

The problem is that with the Elecraft mic pinout, pin 5 is the Function
pin for the transceiver, while Kenwood uses pin 5 for +5 (or 8) volts.  
Note that the Elecraft microphones do not use either pins 5 or 6.

With the K2, I think that situation can be fixed - just remove the
jumper from the microphone header pin 5 and try that.  If Heil did *not*
insert a capacitor in series with the AF line, then the microphone will
work fine.  OTOH, if Heil has a capacitor in the AF line, the mic will
not work with that plugging.  I really have not seen a schematic of the
Heil Kenwood cable for the Traveler microphone, but I suspect that is
where the problem is.

With the K2, you should be able to correct the situation by wiring the
microphone header for Kenwood rather than Elecraft and put the 5.6k
resistor between mic jack pins 1 and 5 (rather than 1 and 6).  That
should make the K2 usable with both the Elecraft microphones and the
Heil Traveler with the Kenwood cable.

This mic stuff is a real mess - if one wants to use a variety of
microphones, he needs to be knowledgeable about how each of the pins in
the mic plug are used to do it correctly.

73,
Don W3FPR

MTcja wrote:

> Thanks to the patient assistance from Don, W3FPR K2 6442 was on the air last
> night (for the first time) with N7CMJ, Less of Evergreen, MT.  We initiated
> our contact on 2m to coordinate and then made contact on 10m and 15m.
> According to N7CMJ my signal was 5/5 with 5 watts.  His frequency readout
> was 28.499.09 to my 28.500.  I guess that is good enough for now.  All I
> have left to do is install the 60m accessory and the KIO2 (looks
> intimidating).  
>
> All was not perfect however.  Just a couple of problems cropped up.
>
> 1.  I am getting a flash of HiCur occasionally when I transmit.  The Current
> setting is at the recommended 2.0 and I was only running 5 Watts.
>
> 2.  According to N7CMJ the Elecraft mic sounded great.  Not so with my Heil
> Traveler Headset.  For reasons unknown, it caused a "thumping" or pulsing
> sound in the receiving station.  I do not know what this could be and
> neither did Less.  Per Heil instructions, I am using the same adapter as
> that used by Kenwoods.
>
> Suggestions more than welcome on the above issues.
>
> Again,  thanks to Don, Less and also Gary (W7GFB) for all the help getting
> on the air.
>
> Chris
> K7CJA
> K2#6442
>
> P.S. I am hoping to get on the MT net this AM.
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>  

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