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K2 For Club Radio?

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K0SN

K2 For Club Radio?

Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list members
who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this purpose.
I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not especially
experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.

Thanks in advance for any input you might offer.

73
Tom Hellem
K0SN
Missoula, MT
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Barry K3NDM

Re: K2 For Club Radio?

Tom,
I built a K2 to use for Field Day. I had borrowed one before
building mine to make sure of my decision; my club at the time was using
QRP on batteries for FD. I had the only good radio on site as everyone
else were running FT-817s. I could work through them, but they had
problems when I was transmitting. Unquestionably, the K2 works. My guess
is you might have some difficulty at the 100 Watt level if you are
careless with site layout, but you could be somewhat cavalier at the 5
Watt level.

I did not build the 100 Watt version, just the QRP version. My
concern was having a good receiver that would tolerate 4-6 stations
being physically close. My K2 passed that test and I can't think of a
better all analog radio. Oh yes, I sold my K2 only because I fell for a
KX3.

73,
Barry
K3NDM

------ Original Message ------
From: "Tom Hellem" <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: 5/12/2017 6:45:15 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 For Club Radio?

>Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
>used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
>events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list
>members
>who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this
>purpose.
>I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
>mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not
>especially
>experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.
>
>Thanks in advance for any input you might offer.
>
>73
>Tom Hellem
>K0SN
>Missoula, MT
>______________________________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
>This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>Message delivered to [hidden email]

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EricJ

Re: K2 For Club Radio?

In reply to this post by K0SN

It was designed to be a Field Day radio so no problem there.

It's a pretty easy radio for routine use. You might have to set up some
features via menus initially, but once set up the inexperienced ops
should have no problems tuning, band changing, mode changing etc.

A great radio.

Eric KE6US

On 5/12/2017 3:45 PM, Tom Hellem wrote:

> Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
> used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
> events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list members
> who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this purpose.
> I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
> mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not especially
> experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.
>
> Thanks in advance for any input you might offer.
>
> 73
> Tom Hellem
> K0SN
> Missoula, MT
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
> .
>

EricJ-2

Re: K2 For Club Radio?

In reply to this post by K0SN

It was designed to be the ultimate Field Day radio in the first place so
no problem there.

It's a pretty easy radio for routine use. You might have to set up some
features via menus initially, but once set up the inexperienced ops
should have no problems tuning, band changing, mode changing etc.

A great radio.

Eric KE6US
On 5/12/2017 3:45 PM, Tom Hellem wrote:

> Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
> used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
> events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list members
> who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this purpose.
> I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
> mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not especially
> experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.
>
> Thanks in advance for any input you might offer.
>
> 73
> Tom Hellem
> K0SN
> Missoula, MT
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
> .
>

Elecraft mailing list

K2/K3 AB Test (Unscientific)

In reply to this post by K0SN

I was just playing around doing some A/B test between my recently built K2 andmy K3 using the same antenna and the same speakers (Elecraft SP3 Speakers)
I really didn't notice much of difference in signal strength between the two radios.I dialed the K3's bandwidth down to 2.4 kHz and found they sounded very similar.
The K2 may not have all the bells and whistles but it's still an impressive little radio.

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RobertG

Re: K2 For Club Radio?

In reply to this post by K0SN

Tom...

I have used my K2 on three field days recently and am about to take it
on the club field day coming up. Works great. I have a K3 with KP500, so
I do have some experience comparing the two. Obviously, the K3 is the
"better" radio. That said, the K2 is really close. Added to that is the
fun of building it and the K2 mojo. It's not hard to operate, allowing
for the nested menus. The average ham can get with it pretty quickly.

Fond memories of Missoula and Montana from the 60's.

...robert

On 05/12/2017 22:45, Tom Hellem wrote:

> Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
> used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
> events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list members
> who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this purpose.
> I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
> mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not especially
> experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.
>
> Thanks in advance for any input you might offer.
>
> 73
> Tom Hellem
> K0SN
> Missoula, MT
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

--
Robert G Strickland, PhD ABPH - KE2WY
[hidden email]
Syracuse, New York, USA
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Don Wilhelm

Re: K2 For Club Radio?

In reply to this post by K0SN

Tom,

A properly aligned and calibrated K2 is a fine contest radio. The dual
function pushbuttons sometimes give operators new to it a bit of
difficulty until they get used to the TAP vs. HOLD action.

One difficulty a few operators have is that it will not tune very far
outside the ham bands. I have "repaired" several K2s where the operator
attempted to use the VFO to move from one band to another - the display
changes, but the VFO has stopped changing not far outside the ham band.
It is an easy fix - just do a Direct Frequency Entry to get it back into
the ham band.

You and your club should be aware of the various upgrades to the K2.
Although many older ones have been fully upgraded, others have not been,
so be sure to ask the owner about the upgrades and the firmware level.
At SN2560, the IF crystal set was changed to crystals specifying the
motional inductance and produce better filters. Filter alignment make
all the difference between the performance of a mediocre K2 and one that
provides top performance.
At SN3000, the boards were re-made to incorporate all earlier upgrades.
And a K2 above SN 4600 have all possible upgrades installed.
Any earlier K2 can be upgraded to the latest level with only minor
exceptions and performance will be equal to a new K2.

One situation with the KPA100 is that it is important that the antenna
must be removed (or switched to a dummy load) when it is not in use.
There is a sensitive wattmeter sitting right inside the antenna jack,
and its diodes can be damaged by a surge coming in on the feedline.
The K2 uses the output on that wattmeter to control the power out.
Damaged wattmeter diodes will cause uncontrolled maximum power which if
not corrected, can damage the base K2 PA transistors.

I believe these are considerations that your club should consider when
purchasing a used K2.

On my website www.w3fpr.com, there is a K2 Quick Reference Card that was
created by a friend of mine while he was learning all about his new K2.
You can download it and print it on a tri-fold paper for easy reference
of those not familiar with the K2. The K2 manual contains that
information, but it is included in various sections of Alignment and
Test at various stages of assembly and not combined at the end.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 5/12/2017 6:45 PM, Tom Hellem wrote:
> Our local radio club is considering the purchase of a K-2/100 to be
> used as a club radio. Its primary useage will be as a contest radio for
> events like Field Day, etc. I am looking for input from you list members
> who have experience with the K-2 as to its suitability for this purpose.
> I personally am not familiar with the radio and my concern would be
> mainly in the area of ease-of-use for those operators who are not especially
> experienced or knowledgeable in using modern transceivers.
______________________________________________________________
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Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
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