K2 Headphone Jack and Internal Speaker

[Zac Brown-2]

A few days ago, I plugged in some headphones to my K2 and noticed that
the internal speaker didn't immediately cut out.  I wiggled the
headphone plug around a bit inside the jack, and after a second or so,
the internal speaker turned off.  Yesterday, when I plugged my
headphones in, the same thing happened - plugging in the headphones no
longer causes the internal speaker to turn off. And this time, wiggling
the headphone plug had no effect.

I took off the front panel and reheated the leads to the headphone jack,
thinking maybe one of them was not making good contact.  That didn't
seem to fix anything.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Zac
KD5IEF
K2 4907

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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Zac, KD5IEF asked:

A few days ago, I plugged in some headphones to my K2 and noticed that
the internal speaker didn't immediately cut out.  I wiggled the
headphone plug around a bit inside the jack, and after a second or so,
the internal speaker turned off.  Yesterday, when I plugged my
headphones in, the same thing happened - plugging in the headphones no
longer causes the internal speaker to turn off. And this time, wiggling
the headphone plug had no effect.

I took off the front panel and reheated the leads to the headphone jack,
thinking maybe one of them was not making good contact.  That didn't
seem to fix anything.

Any ideas?

----------------------------------------------

The headphone jack has developed a bad internal switch. You need to replace
the jack itself. Replacements are available from Elecraft.

I've had that problem with the mini jacks on other equipment over the years
and decided it had do to with lateral stresses placed on the jack by the
plug being wiggled around in normal use; when the phones cord is tugged a
bit or, worse, if an adapter is used so there's a fairly heavy plug assembly
stuck in the jack.

So I went to a right-angle miniplug with a pig-tail that has a jack on it.
That way there's virtually no sideways motion or stress placed on the jack.
One experience doesn't prove the case, but my six-year-old K2/100 still has
the original jack in spite of a lot of action plugging in the phones and
removing them.

Ron AC7AC


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[Paul - VE1DY-2]

Hi Zac,

My first headphone jack lasted 3 days!  My second, about 2 weeks!

I took two of these jacks apart and exactly the same problem.  The
slide switch at the back, breaks in two pieces and the contact is left
to fend for itself... it doesn't fare well.  Mine stopped the audio
going to the speaker both times.  In the other position, like yours,
it won't stop the audio.  The sliding contact is very delicate.

I am pretty sure what happens to these sliding switches is too much
heat when installing,  and that makes them brittle.  The last jack I
installed, I just barely tacked the three terminals in the back, and
cooled each off as quickly as possible.  So far so good.

No matter what happens to the sliding switch, the headphones will
continue to work.  If the audio to the speaker quits, you just need to
solder across the two pins used.  The third doesn't do anything, so
all three can be jumpered.  To stop audio to the speaker, unplug it.
This is just the temporary fix until the new jack arrives.

If anyone wants to see the inside of this jack, I can e-mail them a
picture.  If everyone wants to see the inside of it, I will put it on
my web page.

73, Paul  -ve1dy-
--
K2 - 5678
KX1 - 523
www3.ns.sympatico.ca/ppike


On 10/20/06, Zac Brown <[hidden email]> wrote:

> A few days ago, I plugged in some headphones to my K2 and noticed that
> the internal speaker didn't immediately cut out.  I wiggled the
> headphone plug around a bit inside the jack, and after a second or so,
> the internal speaker turned off.  Yesterday, when I plugged my
> headphones in, the same thing happened - plugging in the headphones no
> longer causes the internal speaker to turn off. And this time, wiggling
> the headphone plug had no effect.
>
> I took off the front panel and reheated the leads to the headphone jack,
> thinking maybe one of them was not making good contact.  That didn't
> seem to fix anything.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Zac
> KD5IEF
> K2 4907

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