K2 Alignment, etc. What don't I get?

[Fred (FL)]

When I built K2 # 54xx last May 2006, I had high
hope of eventually sending the completed K2 back into
"Elecraft's Service Dept" and having it aligned and
checked over by the experts.  I would have been
willing to spend that extra $$$.

But - Elecraft Inc. said NO.  At which point I came to
believe that Elecraft Inc. has no service dept.  

Sounds like a good opportunity, for us 5800+
K2's alone - to offer this professional factory
service.  I've often felt - should the 4 or 5
experts on the email list - ever drop out or
go away, we'd be left fully on our own!  Possibly
the K2 email list archives - would helm us through
these troubled waters.  Or other experts would
surface.  

Luckily, my K2 build came thru with flying colors,
and with the help of Spectrogram - even the filter
setup, went seemingly well.

But the notion, that "many K2's are out there in
poor alignment and in poor performance shape" - is
a little scarey.

Do you remember the Heathkit Color TV Kits?  It was
a handfull to build, and it too even had its own
test and alignment circuits inside.  I don't recall
what Heathkit's position was on Service Department?
(Benton Harbor, MI)

Happy New Year,
Fred, FL



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com 
_______________________________________________
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

[johnny-52]

Hi Group,

Happy New Year!

Although I cannot consider myself as an Elecraft expert, I have already
built 10 K2 plus numerious modules.  The merit of K2 is that it does not
require laboratory type of equipment to calibrate and align.  I think this
has been repeatedly mentioned by other Elecraft experts here.

All you need is to closely follow the manual in calibration.  With the
advancement of technology, good quality frequency counter can be obtained
at a very cheap price say US$100.  You would need it for frequency
calibration.

Other than the frequency counter, you will need a Power meter to peak the
filters.  Any power meters will do a fine job because you need a relative
reading only.  I have recently bought an advanced LP100 meter from Larry
Philip.  Upon recalibraton of my K2, I do not see any major difference from
the past.

For alignment of BFO, the spectrogram is a very handy tool and easy to
operate.  Again, you do not need expensive equipment. Even you do not use
the spectrogram and just follow the suggested settings in the manual, the
result is not bad at all.

To conclude, I do NOT feel there is a need for factory alignment service.  
In fact, the design criteria is to avoid calibration using laboratory type
equipment.


73

Johnny Siu VR2XMC


From: "Fred (FL)" <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 Alignment, etc. What don't I get?
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:55:27 -0800 (PST)

When I built K2 # 54xx last May 2006, I had high
hope of eventually sending the completed K2 back into
"Elecraft's Service Dept" and having it aligned and
checked over by the experts.  I would have been
willing to spend that extra $$$.

But - Elecraft Inc. said NO.  At which point I came to
believe that Elecraft Inc. has no service dept.

Sounds like a good opportunity, for us 5800+
K2's alone - to offer this professional factory
service.  I've often felt - should the 4 or 5
experts on the email list - ever drop out or
go away, we'd be left fully on our own!  Possibly
the K2 email list archives - would helm us through
these troubled waters.  Or other experts would
surface.

Luckily, my K2 build came thru with flying colors,
and with the help of Spectrogram - even the filter
setup, went seemingly well.

But the notion, that "many K2's are out there in
poor alignment and in poor performance shape" - is
a little scarey.

Do you remember the Heathkit Color TV Kits?  It was
a handfull to build, and it too even had its own
test and alignment circuits inside.  I don't recall
what Heathkit's position was on Service Department?
(Benton Harbor, MI)

Happy New Year,
Fred, FL

_________________________________________________________________
与联机的朋友进行交流，请使用  Live Messenger;
http://get.live.com/messenger/overview 

_______________________________________________
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

[Arie Kleingeld PA3A]

First of all: HNY guys and may 2007 bring all good to you.

I'm not a super experienced builder but I've done a few things here and
there.
If you are able to build an Elecraft K2, then you simple must be able to
do the alignments. Alignment is not the difficult part. Just do it.

Getting the right parts in the proper places and solder everything right
without any damage; that's the challenge.
I'm reading this reflector for about6 months now and have learned a lot
about the K2 this way. IMHO nearly all the messages are about faulty
components, right components in wrong places, solder blobs etc. Problems
with alignments are mostly traced back to a small mistake during the
building of the kit.

Therefore I think the problem is not the alignment of the K2, it is
faultfinding. Question is if one would like to send a not aligned (or
better not alignable) K2 to one of the experts of this group for
alignment? I'm afraid it will come down to faultfinding. (Again my
humble opinion).


73,
Arie PA3A



-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] Namens Fred (FL)
Verzonden: zondag 31 december 2006 17:55
Aan: [hidden email]
Onderwerp: [Elecraft] K2 Alignment, etc. What don't I get?


When I built K2 # 54xx last May 2006, I had high
hope of eventually sending the completed K2 back into "Elecraft's
Service Dept" and having it aligned and checked over by the experts.  I
would have been willing to spend that extra $$$.

But - Elecraft Inc. said NO.  At which point I came to
believe that Elecraft Inc. has no service dept.  

Sounds like a good opportunity, for us 5800+
K2's alone - to offer this professional factory
service.  I've often felt - should the 4 or 5
experts on the email list - ever drop out or
go away, we'd be left fully on our own!  Possibly
the K2 email list archives - would helm us through
these troubled waters.  Or other experts would
surface.  

Luckily, my K2 build came thru with flying colors,
and with the help of Spectrogram - even the filter
setup, went seemingly well.

But the notion, that "many K2's are out there in
poor alignment and in poor performance shape" - is
a little scarey.

Do you remember the Heathkit Color TV Kits?  It was
a handfull to build, and it too even had its own
test and alignment circuits inside.  I don't recall
what Heathkit's position was on Service Department?
(Benton Harbor, MI)

Happy New Year,
Fred, FL



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com 
_______________________________________________
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


_______________________________________________
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

[Chris G3SJJ]

I agree Arie. I think the issues are more concerned with a lack of
confidence in people's construction abilities. If you believe you have
assembled it to a high standard then you will have confidence that you
can align it correctly. Fault-finding can also be daunting but there is
considerable assistance available on this Reflector.

Perhaps the other point to make is that it is sometimes difficult to
believe that having assembled such a complex looking set of boards with
so many components, alignment can be so simple.It is easy to make your
self believe that there must be other more technical things to do to
male it work properly!

I do have some receiver spec issues but will post those separately.

Chris G3SJJ  (K2/100 5545, 160m plus SSB)



Arie Kleingeld PA3A wrote:

> First of all: HNY guys and may 2007 bring all good to you.
>
> I'm not a super experienced builder but I've done a few things here and
> there.
> If you are able to build an Elecraft K2, then you simple must be able to
> do the alignments. Alignment is not the difficult part. Just do it.
>
> Getting the right parts in the proper places and solder everything right
> without any damage; that's the challenge.
> I'm reading this reflector for about6 months now and have learned a lot
> about the K2 this way. IMHO nearly all the messages are about faulty
> components, right components in wrong places, solder blobs etc. Problems
> with alignments are mostly traced back to a small mistake during the
> building of the kit.
>
> Therefore I think the problem is not the alignment of the K2, it is
> faultfinding. Question is if one would like to send a not aligned (or
> better not alignable) K2 to one of the experts of this group for
> alignment? I'm afraid it will come down to faultfinding. (Again my
> humble opinion).
>
>
> 73,
> Arie PA3A
>
>
>
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: [hidden email]
> [mailto:[hidden email]] Namens Fred (FL)
> Verzonden: zondag 31 december 2006 17:55
> Aan: [hidden email]
> Onderwerp: [Elecraft] K2 Alignment, etc. What don't I get?
>
>
> When I built K2 # 54xx last May 2006, I had high
> hope of eventually sending the completed K2 back into "Elecraft's
> Service Dept" and having it aligned and checked over by the experts.  I
> would have been willing to spend that extra $$$.
>
> But - Elecraft Inc. said NO.  At which point I came to
> believe that Elecraft Inc. has no service dept.  
>
> Sounds like a good opportunity, for us 5800+
> K2's alone - to offer this professional factory
> service.  I've often felt - should the 4 or 5
> experts on the email list - ever drop out or
> go away, we'd be left fully on our own!  Possibly
> the K2 email list archives - would helm us through
> these troubled waters.  Or other experts would
> surface.  
>
> Luckily, my K2 build came thru with flying colors,
> and with the help of Spectrogram - even the filter
> setup, went seemingly well.
>
> But the notion, that "many K2's are out there in
> poor alignment and in poor performance shape" - is
> a little scarey.
>
> Do you remember the Heathkit Color TV Kits?  It was
> a handfull to build, and it too even had its own
> test and alignment circuits inside.  I don't recall
> what Heathkit's position was on Service Department?
> (Benton Harbor, MI)
>
> Happy New Year,
> Fred, FL
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com 
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>
>  

_______________________________________________
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

[Leigh L. Klotz Jr WA5ZNU]

I try to compare my K2 to others when I get the chance.  This helps show
up flaws that wouldn't otherwise be apparent.  For example, imine wasn't
as "quiet" as had been reported by others, and I traced the problem to
my having damaged the mixer on installation.

The MDS was fine, but something (the modulation products from other
signals perhaps) were causing a harsh noise.    The DSP also started
workiong better, as it had always had more noise to contend with.

The funny thing is that I had ordered a replacement mixer (not a cheap
part!) but since it looked difficult to remove, had put it off, because
the MDS test was ok.  It was the compare-and-listen test that told me
something was wrong.

Leigh/WA5ZNU
_______________________________________________
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