The K2 L31 "Debate": 10uH v.s. 12uH

[MikeH-3]

Hello Fellow K2 Owners:

I recently finished my K2 (4661) and it works great. My kit came with
the 10uH L31, which I did install, however Elecraft sent me the 12uH
L31 to swap in order to bring the PLL Reference Oscillator range up
from 9.4kHz to something closer to the 9.8kHz  range. As we know, the
official advice from Elecraft is that a range down to 8.8kHz is
acceptable. So I assume that Elecraft sent the 12uH part so that I
could make the swap if I felt better doing so. Or perhaps it's just
that opinions on what is an acceptable range vary.

So my question is this: what performance gain would I get by using the
12uH part instead of the 10uH part that is currently installed? Yes, I
could just make the swap and see for myself, but too often I've found
that the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage to be a good one (at
least for this less technically inclined ham). Maybe when the radio has
a few more miles on it, I'll go ahead and make the change to L31 to see
what happens, but for now I'm tempted to just keep things as they are
unless there is a compelling reason to make the change.

Mike NR7F

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[wayne burdick]

Hi Mike,

The advantage of obtaining the desired PLL reference oscillator tuning
range (9.8 kHz or more) is that the K2 will then maintain perfect VFO
tuning linearity down to and below 160 meters -- usually well into the
AM broadcast band (1400 kHz or so on K2s I've tested). The broadcast
band is a lot of fun to explore at night ("AM DXing" they call this).

Have fun,

Wayne
N6KR



On Mar 28, 2005, at 9:24 PM, MikeH wrote:

> Hello Fellow K2 Owners:
>
> I recently finished my K2 (4661) and it works great. My kit came with
> the 10uH L31, which I did install, however Elecraft sent me the 12uH
> L31 to swap in order to bring the PLL Reference Oscillator range up
> from 9.4kHz to something closer to the 9.8kHz  range. As we know, the
> official advice from Elecraft is that a range down to 8.8kHz is
> acceptable. So I assume that Elecraft sent the 12uH part so that I
> could make the swap if I felt better doing so. Or perhaps it's just
> that opinions on what is an acceptable range vary.
>
> So my question is this: what performance gain would I get by using the
> 12uH part instead of the 10uH part that is currently installed? Yes, I
> could just make the swap and see for myself, but too often I've found
> that the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage to be a good one (at
> least for this less technically inclined ham). Maybe when the radio
> has a few more miles on it, I'll go ahead and make the change to L31
> to see what happens, but for now I'm tempted to just keep things as
> they are unless there is a compelling reason to make the change.

---

http://www.elecraft.com

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