Slight K2 Drift When on PSK31

[Les and Lynn]

I have now operated K2 S/N 4751 for about a month and everything seems to
work pretty good. I am mainly a PSK and RTTY operator and I would like to
know if others have had the same experience about the K2 with PSK.

The narrow band width with PSK requires a stable radio. I see sporatic cases
on receive where a station transmits a "waterfall" line and then stops to
receive a signal. When the station restarts transmitting again, the K2
receiver has drifted about 1/3 the width of the average waterfall line. This
drift (10-20 HZ I think) requires me to reclick on the waterfall line to
recenter the cursor so Digipan 1.6 can continue to decode the "waterfall
line" information. Last night , I got a similar report on transmit as well.
The effect appears sporatic. Right now, this is an bother - not a fatal
defect, BUT my old ICOM 706MIIG never exhibited this drift . So has anybody
seen this effect before. Obviously, CW, SSB and RTTY seem unaffected by this
drift.

* Is this drift normal for the K2?

* If not, can I reposition the thermal sensor card (i.e., tilt it slightly)
to get better performance?

* Also, at what power levels do most people run a barefoot K2 in PSK? (I get
slight heating of the heat sink (~100F) and I am thinking that the heat
effects the PLL)?

73,

Les WA3SGZ

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[Leigh L. Klotz Jr WA5ZNU]

Les,
I don't know if this is the problem you are seeing, but it might explain
some of the issues, and perhaps something else is causing the others.

The filters aren't always at the same offset.  Did you perchance use FL1
and then switch to a narrower filter?  The K2 always transmits on FL1 so
if you recenter at FL2 or narrower you will be transmitting with an
offset, so tmaybe tuning at FL1 and then unchecking NET in your PSK
software (or using RIT on the K2) is the way to go.

Personally, I hope that a future K2 firmware upgrade includes an extra
VFO offset that can be used to correct this annoying problem.  It seems
like a pair of "auto-RIT" settings for each filter would solve it.

73,
Leigh.
On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 3:36 am, Lynn and Les wrote:
> I have now operated K2 S/N 4751 for about a month and everything seems
> to
> work pretty good. I am mainly a PSK and RTTY operator and I would like
> to
> know if others have had the same experience about the K2 with PSK.
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[NR5A]

I have ran across the same problem but I don't think its the K2. I believe
its a software thing. When running the Digipan program click on Options and
make sure AFC and Snap are not checked. When I did that it pretty much went
away for me. Like I said I don't think its a K2 problem but would like to
see comments on this also.

Jerry - NR5A - South Dakota
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn and Les" <[hidden email]>
To: "Elecraft@Mailman. Qth. Net" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 4:36 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Slight K2 Drift When on PSK31


> I have now operated K2 S/N 4751 for about a month and everything seems to
> work pretty good. I am mainly a PSK and RTTY operator and I would like to
> know if others have had the same experience about the K2 with PSK.
>
> The narrow band width with PSK requires a stable radio. I see sporatic
cases
> on receive where a station transmits a "waterfall" line and then stops to
> receive a signal. When the station restarts transmitting again, the K2
> receiver has drifted about 1/3 the width of the average waterfall line.
This
> drift (10-20 HZ I think) requires me to reclick on the waterfall line to
> recenter the cursor so Digipan 1.6 can continue to decode the "waterfall
> line" information. Last night , I got a similar report on transmit as
well.
> The effect appears sporatic. Right now, this is an bother - not a fatal
> defect, BUT my old ICOM 706MIIG never exhibited this drift . So has
anybody
> seen this effect before. Obviously, CW, SSB and RTTY seem unaffected by
this
> drift.
>
> * Is this drift normal for the K2?
>
> * If not, can I reposition the thermal sensor card (i.e., tilt it
slightly)
> to get better performance?
>
> * Also, at what power levels do most people run a barefoot K2 in PSK? (I
get

> slight heating of the heat sink (~100F) and I am thinking that the heat
> effects the PLL)?
>
> 73,
>
> Les WA3SGZ
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>

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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Not an Elecraft rig in sight, but here's a new music video promoting Ham
radio that was produced and filmed in Denmark (It's in English). Needs
RealPlayer.

http://www.hamband.com/html/video.html
 

Ron (Forget the champagne and give me a safety belt!) AC7AC


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[EricJ-2]

I agree, Jerry. I don't use my K2 for PSK. I use my xtal-controlled PSK20,
and I have the exact symptoms as Les. I'll try your tip next time I'm on.
Which may be awhile. I have been deeply immersed in PICs and SPICE (for
unrelated reasons) and haven't been on for more than 2 or 3 QSOs since the
end of April!

Eric
KE6US

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of NR5A
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 10:45 AM
To: Lynn and Les; Elecraft@Mailman. Qth. Net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Slight K2 Drift When on PSK31

I have ran across the same problem but I don't think its the K2. I believe
its a software thing. When running the Digipan program click on Options and
make sure AFC and Snap are not checked. When I did that it pretty much went
away for me. Like I said I don't think its a K2 problem but would like to
see comments on this also.

Jerry - NR5A - South Dakota
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn and Les" <[hidden email]>
To: "Elecraft@Mailman. Qth. Net" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 4:36 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Slight K2 Drift When on PSK31


> I have now operated K2 S/N 4751 for about a month and everything seems to
> work pretty good. I am mainly a PSK and RTTY operator and I would like to
> know if others have had the same experience about the K2 with PSK.
>
> The narrow band width with PSK requires a stable radio. I see sporatic
cases
> on receive where a station transmits a "waterfall" line and then stops to
> receive a signal. When the station restarts transmitting again, the K2
> receiver has drifted about 1/3 the width of the average waterfall line.
This
> drift (10-20 HZ I think) requires me to reclick on the waterfall line to
> recenter the cursor so Digipan 1.6 can continue to decode the "waterfall
> line" information. Last night , I got a similar report on transmit as
well.
> The effect appears sporatic. Right now, this is an bother - not a fatal
> defect, BUT my old ICOM 706MIIG never exhibited this drift . So has
anybody
> seen this effect before. Obviously, CW, SSB and RTTY seem unaffected by
this
> drift.
>
> * Is this drift normal for the K2?
>
> * If not, can I reposition the thermal sensor card (i.e., tilt it
slightly)
> to get better performance?
>
> * Also, at what power levels do most people run a barefoot K2 in PSK? (I
get

> slight heating of the heat sink (~100F) and I am thinking that the heat
> effects the PLL)?
>
> 73,
>
> Les WA3SGZ
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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>
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>

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[Mike Markowski]

Just for another data point, I use AFC when running my PSK software with
no tracking problem.  I use gMFSK (a linux app), which actually supports
a good number of modes despite its name.  So there's at least one K2/100
running PSK31 without the problem, making it even more likely that
you're seeing a software quirk.

Mike  AB3AP

EricJ wrote:
> I agree, Jerry. I don't use my K2 for PSK. I use my xtal-controlled PSK20,
> and I have the exact symptoms as Les. I'll try your tip next time I'm on.
> Which may be awhile. I have been deeply immersed in PICs and SPICE (for
> unrelated reasons) and haven't been on for more than 2 or 3 QSOs since the
> end of April!
>
> Eric
> KE6US
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[k7nhb]

This "drift" is discussed in the ReadMe file of one of the PSK
programs (WinPSK, MixW, TrueTTY, etc.). If both have snap and/or AFC
and the sound cards are "off"  a little, then one slowing creeps up
the band as each station adjusts to the other.

A protocol was suggest were only one party used Snap and/or AFC. If
the K2 is solid in other modes, I'd say this is a soundcard
(calibration?)/software issue.

73,
Paul
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