K2 Purchase considered.

[Elecraft mailing list]

You sound exactly like me 20 years ago.  I built a K2 with all the options including the KPA100 but no KSB2.  They weren't all available yet when I built the K2 but as they became available they were all fun little add on projects, except the KPA100, which was a bigger fun add-on project.  Lots of toroids to wind, though bigger in the KPA100.  When I was building the K2 there was still some debugging and optimization of the design going on.  I was in the thick of it back then and have many many posts in the reflector archives.

The K2 is the by far the best radio you will assemble yourself. 15-20 years ago it was still one of the best performing radios available. And, though things have moved on,  it still performs better than many current radios and is still one of my favorite radios to use.  I've been inactive on-and off since the early '00s but I've never run into a situation where its sensitivity or selectivity was limiting; DX pileups, contests, long ragchews, no problem. (still CW only and no KSB2).

It's got a microprocessor of course, but all the signal processing and RF is analog, and done with the circuits you built; winding toroids, soldering all the discrete components, and aligning and troubleshooting it all in the end.  If it's not working great, there's probably something you need to figure out and fix.  If you study it as you go, you'll learn a heck of a lot about how radios work.
Personally, I don't find SDR, DSP, digital modes and all the wizzbang associated features that interesting.  My favorite rigs include the K2, K1, Wilderness SST, and Rockmite with Miniboots amp.   The K1 is a lot of fun and I used to use it as a nice compact rig to take along on business trips.  Too bad it's not available anymore.
There's lots of room for different interests in ham radio.
Lou W7HV
______________________________________________________________
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]