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Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder in Massachusetts area.

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Stephenaccor

Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder in Massachusetts area.

Hello to everyone on the Elecraft Reflector. I subscribed to the Reflector
alittle over a week ago and have really enjoyed all the posts. It is good to
know that there are alot of really talented people out there who will be able to
help me if and when I get in trouble building the K2. I will be ordering my K2
in the next couple of days. I would be interested to know if there is someone
in the Massachusetts area that has a K2 that could offer some help. Boy some
of the problems I have been seeing are making me get second thoughts.

Steve Terry

W1KV
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Joe Malloy

Re: Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder in Massachusetts area.

[hidden email] wrote:

>Hello to everyone on the Elecraft Reflector. I subscribed to the Reflector
>alittle over a week ago and have really enjoyed all the posts. It is good to
>know that there are alot of really talented people out there who will be able to
>help me if and when I get in trouble building the K2. I will be ordering my K2
>in the next couple of days. I would be interested to know if there is someone
>in the Massachusetts area that has a K2 that could offer some help. Boy some
>of the problems I have been seeing are making me get second thoughts.
>
> Steve Terry
>
> W1KV
>
>

Hi, Steve, good to hear you're contemplating a K2. You shouldn't worry
about anything -- if *I* can assemble a K2 (and and K1 and a KX1!) with
success, *you* will be able to do the same. It's not for naught that
Elecraft's stance is: they won't let anyone fail. Don't worry -- and
enjoy the experience.

73,

Joe, W2RBA

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Don Wilhelm-3

RE: Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder inMassachusetts area.

In reply to this post by Stephenaccor

Steve,

You CAN successfully build a K2 - if --- 1) you can do decent soldering and
2) you can follow written instructions. Honestly, that is all that is
required. The Elecraft manuals are excellent and the parts quality is
top-notch - you will not fail if you try (ask for help if you think you need
it).

There are over 4500 K2s out there, and the 'silent majority' have had no
problems constructing their K2. What you see here on the reflector are
those who are seeking assistance with some misunderstanding or something
that 'just didn't do right'. The folks here on the reflector are available
to share their experiences and often can provide help within minutes of your
e-mail. If you follow most of the problems presented here to their
conclusion, you will find that soldering is the most common cause of
problems, followed closely by misplaced components, and third by operator
misunderstanding. Again we here on the reflector are here to provide
assistance when those situations arise. As a result, the number of problems
seen here do outnumber the successes, but if one does the counting, the
number of success stories (often untold) outweigh the problems by a large
number.

So, you really don't need someone in Massachusetts - there are hams all over
the world that will come to your aid if you have a problem, and often in
less time than it will take for a trip over to your neighbors' house.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
>
> Hello to everyone on the Elecraft Reflector. I subscribed to the
> Reflector
> alittle over a week ago and have really enjoyed all the posts. It
> is good to
> know that there are alot of really talented people out there who
> will be able to
> help me if and when I get in trouble building the K2. I will be
> ordering my K2
> in the next couple of days. I would be interested to know if
> there is someone
> in the Massachusetts area that has a K2 that could offer some
> help. Boy some
> of the problems I have been seeing are making me get second thoughts.
>
> Steve Terry
>
> W1KV
>

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Neal Campbell and Sarah Ferrell

Re: Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder in Massachusetts area.

In reply to this post by Stephenaccor

Being one of those clogging the reflector recently with cries of help,
let me put it in context.

In building the base kit I experienced only 3 problems:
I had a poor solder joint that kept me from getting the right AGC
voltage but the troubleshooting guide led me to it almost immediately.
The second problem was that I was getting less resistance than
indicated when doing the RF board. It turned out that I had a solder
connection that touched the case of one of the transistors and it
'shorted' that path out. Took me a while to find it but it was just a
small mistake, anyone would find it given a little time.
The third problem was that I mis-identified two diodes and
inadvertantly swapped them. Doing a careful inventory at the beginning
would have prevented that from happening.

The other thing I have asked for help on turned out to be me not
following the instructions properly, forgetting to take out a capacitor
when installing the SSB board.

So, 1 bad solder joint, 1 shorted solder joint, 1 parts
misidentification and 1 not following instructions. Each of them was
not hard to find and with the experts on the list, they can almost tell
you what you've done!

Do not worry about building the kit, its really easy and turns out that
its so much fun you want to keep building more!

73 de k3nc
On Feb 22, 2005, at 10:18 PM, [hidden email] wrote:

> Hello to everyone on the Elecraft Reflector. I subscribed to the
> Reflector
> alittle over a week ago and have really enjoyed all the posts. It is
> good to
> know that there are alot of really talented people out there who will
> be able to
> help me if and when I get in trouble building the K2. I will be
> ordering my K2
> in the next couple of days. I would be interested to know if there is
> someone
> in the Massachusetts area that has a K2 that could offer some help.
> Boy some
> of the problems I have been seeing are making me get second thoughts.
>
> Steve Terry
>
> W1KV
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

Craig Rairdin

RE: Looking for some help from an Elcraft builder inMassachusetts area.

> In building the base kit I experienced only 3 problems:....
> The third problem was that I mis-identified two diodes and
> inadvertantly swapped them.

My best investment was a pair of clip-on magnifying lenses that I clip on my
reading glasses when I'm building. Some of those diodes are tiny and the
writing is infintesimally small. Same for some of the capacitors.

Craig
WB0GUU/AE :-)

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