I had my first full bore outing with my pair of K2/100s in SO2R mode. They
did an amazing job of not bothering each other when transmitting on adjacent
bands. I augment band separation with a pair of I.C.E. 419 automatic band
filters, but the K2s do most of the work themselves. It is particularly
impressive when you look at my antenna system which consists of phased
tri-band quads at 75 and 40 feet, a 2 element 40M yagi at 80 feet, a 2
element 40M quad at 60' fixed northwest and an 80M dipole at 70'. The K2s
allow me to transmit (CQing) on one band of my quads while listening (search
& pouncing) on adjacent bands of the same quad.at the same time. I've even
cranked up an amp to test putting 1KW on 20M with no interaction, except for
the direct harmonic, on 15M or 10M in any combination. This was
particularly useful on Sunday in ARRL SS CW when pickings are slim. When
transmitting on 40M, I can hear hash on 20M plus or minus the second
harmonic, but signals are still copyable. I just CQ high on 40M (7030 or
higher) and tune below 14060.
Anyway, Elecraft has moved me up a level in the competition or at least help
me stay even with the newer technology flooding the market. Being able to
ignore high power stations planting themselves within 200 Hz or less of my
CQ frequency really makes the stress much lower over the 30 hours when you
are dead tired. In the low power category (150W), I managed 1025 QSOs in
all 80 sections (if the North Dakota wasn't a pirate) in a rough year for
SS. The K2s performed great. I did find an intermittent power fluctuation
that I'll need to fix before SSB weekend. Oh well, gotta have something to
play with, right?
CUL,
Bob K5WA
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