Elecraft

K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

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G4BUE

K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?

I took the plunge last Sunday and sold my UK main station
transceiver, a Ten-Tec Omni VI, and have replaced it with one of my
K2s. I am now an all Elecraft K2 station at both my UK and at my
Florida QTHs (SO2R in Florida and shortly SO2R in the UK).

The only thing I miss with the Omni is the external VFO control (Ten-
Tec model 301) and wondered if anyone has built an external VFO for
the K2?

Perhaps one of our technically minded members on the Reflector can
tell us if it would be possible and/or very difficult to build such a
control for the K2, possibly from Elecraft spare parts?

I found a short thread in the Reflector Archives in July 2000 about
it but without any firm conclusions.

I didn't realise just how much I have come to use and depend on the
external VFO of the Omni, especially in contests, until operating
without it this week!

73 de Chris, G4BUE

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VR2BrettGraham

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

G4BUE asked:

>Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
>
>I took the plunge last Sunday and sold my UK main station
>transceiver, a Ten-Tec Omni VI, and have replaced it with one of my
>K2s. I am now an all Elecraft K2 station at both my UK and at my
>Florida QTHs (SO2R in Florida and shortly SO2R in the UK).
>
>The only thing I miss with the Omni is the external VFO control (Ten-
>Tec model 301) and wondered if anyone has built an external VFO for
>the K2?
>
>Perhaps one of our technically minded members on the Reflector can
>tell us if it would be possible and/or very difficult to build such a
>control for the K2, possibly from Elecraft spare parts?
>
>I found a short thread in the Reflector Archives in July 2000 about
>it but without any firm conclusions.
>
>I didn't realise just how much I have come to use and depend on the
>external VFO of the Omni, especially in contests, until operating
>without it this week!

If you don't go too far & keep the lines clean, it will work. You
need to switch between the two encoders, however.

Looks like the V- lead of Z1 is used to implement dial lock, so
the external knob can have its own local lock & you only need
to deal with the two encoder lines & power, if K2 encoder's
lock is used as trigger for enabling & switching to external
encoder. If encoder isn't plugged in, K2 still stops tuning when
locked - seems easy... probably forgot about something. ;^)

73, VR2BrettGraham

73, VR2BrettGraham

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Andrey Stoev

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

In reply to this post by G4BUE

Chris,

If you have a computer close by, you could use a remote control software -
there are few good ones...including Ham Radio Deluxe or the one by Elecraft
and you can use Power Mate from Griffin Technology as your VFO knob -
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/.
It is USB device and comes in aluminum and black metal finish, look very
neat!. You can even configure the driver to perform specific key strokes,
while rotating or pressing the encoder.
You can even attach the Finger Dimple which Elecraft sells.

73s
Andrey E. Stoev

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Page" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 3:45 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

> Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
>
> I took the plunge last Sunday and sold my UK main station
> transceiver, a Ten-Tec Omni VI, and have replaced it with one of my
> K2s. I am now an all Elecraft K2 station at both my UK and at my
> Florida QTHs (SO2R in Florida and shortly SO2R in the UK).
>
> The only thing I miss with the Omni is the external VFO control (Ten-
> Tec model 301) and wondered if anyone has built an external VFO for
> the K2?
>
> Perhaps one of our technically minded members on the Reflector can
> tell us if it would be possible and/or very difficult to build such a
> control for the K2, possibly from Elecraft spare parts?
>
> I found a short thread in the Reflector Archives in July 2000 about
> it but without any firm conclusions.
>
> I didn't realise just how much I have come to use and depend on the
> external VFO of the Omni, especially in contests, until operating
> without it this week!
>
> 73 de Chris, G4BUE

>

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Weymouth Walker

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

Corrected Link (I think) ...

http://griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/index.php

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrey Stoev" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>; <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 6:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

> Chris,
>
> If you have a computer close by, you could use a remote control software -
> there are few good ones...including Ham Radio Deluxe or the one by
Elecraft

> and you can use Power Mate from Griffin Technology as your VFO knob -
> http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/.
> It is USB device and comes in aluminum and black metal finish, look very
> neat!. You can even configure the driver to perform specific key strokes,
> while rotating or pressing the encoder.
> You can even attach the Finger Dimple which Elecraft sells.
>
> 73s
> Andrey E. Stoev
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Page" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 3:45 AM
> Subject: [Elecraft] K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL
>
>
> > Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
> >
> > I took the plunge last Sunday and sold my UK main station
> > transceiver, a Ten-Tec Omni VI, and have replaced it with one of my
> > K2s. I am now an all Elecraft K2 station at both my UK and at my
> > Florida QTHs (SO2R in Florida and shortly SO2R in the UK).
> >
> > The only thing I miss with the Omni is the external VFO control (Ten-
> > Tec model 301) and wondered if anyone has built an external VFO for
> > the K2?
> >
> > Perhaps one of our technically minded members on the Reflector can
> > tell us if it would be possible and/or very difficult to build such a
> > control for the K2, possibly from Elecraft spare parts?
> >
> > I found a short thread in the Reflector Archives in July 2000 about
> > it but without any firm conclusions.
> >
> > I didn't realise just how much I have come to use and depend on the
> > external VFO of the Omni, especially in contests, until operating
> > without it this week!
> >
> > 73 de Chris, G4BUE
>
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

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N8LP

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

In reply to this post by G4BUE

You might want to look at the IQ-VFO or DDS daughtercard from AmQRP,
http://www.amqrp.org/.

Larry N8LP

Chris Page wrote:

Bruce Bowman-3

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

re: IQ-VFO... unfortunately amqrp.org announced they are sold out of the
kits and won't be getting more.

Bruce NM5B

> You might want to look at the IQ-VFO or DDS daughtercard from AmQRP,
> http://www.amqrp.org/.
>
> Larry N8LP
>
>
>
> Chris Page wrote:
>
>>Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
>>

N8LP

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

Try the DDS daughtercard then, it may be more available because it is newer.

Larry N8LP

Bruce Bowman wrote:

>re: IQ-VFO... unfortunately amqrp.org announced they are sold out of the
>kits and won't be getting more.
>
>Bruce NM5B
>
>
>
>>You might want to look at the IQ-VFO or DDS daughtercard from AmQRP,
>>http://www.amqrp.org/.
>>
>>Larry N8LP
>>
>>
>>
>>Chris Page wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
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>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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>
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>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>.
>
>
>

Mark J. Schreiner

Re: Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

In reply to this post by G4BUE

They sold out a while ago on the first run of kits. A couple of months later I checked and they had gotten another set of kits put together. I think in the meantime you could still get the bare circuit board and then order the individual parts, mostly from Digi-Key and/or Mouser. It isn't one stop shopping that way, but it was certainly a good way to do it until waiting for the next batch of full kits to come out. I haven't checked the site to see if they have "partial kits" or "PWB only" available yet.

I think the DDS project is pretty cool. Mine went together and is working. I was working on it just before I got the K2 kit, so the DDS project got put in a box and set aside for now. I'm hoping to find time to pull it out again sometime. Planning to integrate it with a KK7B R2 and maybe with the T2 eventually as well. The DDS Project is not necessarily a full finished kit like Elecraft but is really just a building block for additional homebrew work.

72/73,

Mark, NK8Q
K2 4786

>From: Bruce Bowman <[hidden email]>
>Date: Thu May 05 10:38:17 CDT 2005
>To: Elecraft Mail List <[hidden email]>
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

>
>re: IQ-VFO... unfortunately amqrp.org announced they are sold out of the
>kits and won't be getting more.
>
>Bruce NM5B
>
>> You might want to look at the IQ-VFO or DDS daughtercard from AmQRP,
>> http://www.amqrp.org/.
>>
>> Larry N8LP
>>
>>
>>
>> Chris Page wrote:
>>
>>>Has anyone built an external VFO for the K2, please?
>>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>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

G4BUE

Re: K2 EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL

In reply to this post by G4BUE

Yes I did Paul and that is why I sold the Omni ....!!

73 de Chris, G4BUE

On 5 May 2005 at 6:46, Paul Gates wrote:

> Did you ever check the k2 against your Omni.. receiver??? What was the
> result?

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