Well it only took 10 years but I finally did the "fine carrier balance"
adjustment on my K2. I never did it when I built my K2 in 1999, since
the "dead zone" in R1 on the ssb board seemed to be 0 during the coarse
balance adjustment. In addition I've gotten several unsolicited
compliments on my audio over the years. So what prompted me to finally
do the adjustment?
About a year ago I installed the Elecraft "bandwidth modification
kit", to the SSB board, mainly to get a few more hz view in digital
modes (WSJT in particular). When I did the mod, I re did the coarse
carrier balance and noted the same lack of a "dead zone" in R1. So I was
satisfied all was well.
But a few weeks ago I got a negative comment on the audio from one (out
of 181 qso's) during the ARRL VHF sweepstakes. I noted it, but ascribed
the comment to the $0.50 mic element in the homebrew boom mic I built
just prior to the contest (a boom mic and a foot switch make life easier
during a contest).
But yesterday I worked K5D with ssb using my usual mic (a D-104) and he
made a comment on the audio too (though he also said he or I was
mistuned). Well that motivated some action on my part. It took about
20-30 minutes to dig my old SX-117 out of the bowels of my son's closet,
and for the first time ever, performed the fine carrier balance on the
K2 ssb board using the SX-117 as a monitor.
I was surprised to find that I could easily suppress the carrier by an
additional s-unit inside that "missing dead zone" on the pot. But self
monitoring of my audio using the SX-117 before and after the balance
adjustment, using both the boom mic and the D-104 made no difference in
the audio. To my ear it sounds fine, with little if any distortion.
Maybe the poor audio reports were just a fluke, from two stations
operating in "contest mode", not looking to make any receiver
adjustments at their end.
Anyway, I learned something: the fine carrier balance adjustment
actually can improve carrier supression, which may benefit me if I ever
upgrade to a high power K2. And now after 10 years, all the alignment
steps of the K2 have been completed!
73,
Lenny W2BVH
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