The K2 can compete with the big boys.
Locked
 
|
Had my trusty DRAKE TR-7/R7A, 1978 THE DRAKE 7 LINE WAS TOPS The combo
transceiver with the rare R7A weighed in about $4000. Everything was optional. I did some side by side performnce checks. The sensitivity issue is very complicated. The tR-7 does not use a pre-amp at all before the mixer. This gives a dissapointing .5uv instead of .15uv the K2 spec. I often bypass the pre-amp to get a drake sound out of the K2. I did pump the RX audio from the K2 into the drakes audio amp and larger speaker. Amazing The 2 RX's had a low noise floor. Do your self a favor. Bypass the 14db rf amp. Then get an amplified speaker(5w AMP..15w SPEAKER) for your K2 at home. With the 1,8khz filter on SSB, you too will have audio of the big rigs. One of the uses I have for my newly odered T1 was to match my K2 rf output at 1 watt. I would then have the TR-7's overbuilt 250W+ input amp, be the '"mouth piece'' The later TR-7's always had two blank RCA connectors, They must have known some ham would put them to use. _______________________________________________ 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 |
RE: The K2 can compete with the big boys.
|
|
Interesting comparisons!
After the K2/100 combo was released, I always considered the K2 one of the "big boys" - just not one of the "really, really expensive boys" Hi! The K2 is at its best with the pre-amp off below 15 MHz unless it's hooked to a really low-gain antenna like a short whip. The K2 has wonderful dynamic range, so adding the preamp usually doesn't hurt so one would notice. Indeed, sometimes I turn it on on 80 meters to bring some impulse noise up high enough for the noise blanker to react to it. But the preamp does nothing for the sensitivity on the lower bands when hooked to any sort of decent antenna. The test I use is whether the noise floor jumps up when I hook on the antenna. If it does, adding the preamp will do nothing except reduce the dynamic range by about 20 dB. What I can hear is limited entirely by the external QRN. The K2 was designed for low current consumption so some ops have added an external amplified speaker, especially when using the K2 in a noisy environment. 99.9%% of my operating is with the phones so I never notice any shortage of eardrum-rattling gain. Even on it's internal speaker, it is too loud for me in the shack. $4K for the Drakes huh? I always liked their gear but I'd rather have the $2,800 or so that I didn't spend by getting the K2. Tnx for the input! Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of [hidden email] Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 3:53 PM To: [hidden email] Subject: [Elecraft] The K2 can compete with the big boys. Had my trusty DRAKE TR-7/R7A, 1978 THE DRAKE 7 LINE WAS TOPS The combo transceiver with the rare R7A weighed in about $4000. Everything was optional. I did some side by side performnce checks. The sensitivity issue is very complicated. The tR-7 does not use a pre-amp at all before the mixer. This gives a dissapointing .5uv instead of .15uv the K2 spec. I often bypass the pre-amp to get a drake sound out of the K2. I did pump the RX audio from the K2 into the drakes audio amp and larger speaker. Amazing The 2 RX's had a low noise floor. Do your self a favor. Bypass the 14db rf amp. Then get an amplified speaker(5w AMP..15w SPEAKER) for your K2 at home. With the 1,8khz filter on SSB, you too will have audio of the big rigs. One of the uses I have for my newly odered T1 was to match my K2 rf output at 1 watt. I would then have the TR-7's overbuilt 250W+ input amp, be the '"mouth piece'' The later TR-7's always had two blank RCA connectors, They must have known some ham would put them to use. _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
That's $4000 in 1978 dollars... probably less than a K2 in today's
dollars. I wish I still had my TR7... in retrospect, it was probably my favorite rig ever, and that includes a lot of rigs from Collins, ICOM, Kenwood, TenTec, etc. It was also one of the few I've had (besides the K2) that you could actually work on. My second rig now is a TS850S, which I liked until it started falling apart... and in areas of the circuit that can't be accessed while the rig is operating. I decided it was cheaper to buy the K2 than fix the TS850S... and now I have a rig that I can always fix. The things that sold me on the K2 were repairability, RX performance, this reflector and the Elecraft people. I can say the same thing about the SteppIR reflector and people... hopefully more small companies like these two innovative ones with hands-on owners will dominate ham radio in the future... that's also one of the reasons I liked Drake. Larry Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: >Interesting comparisons! > >After the K2/100 combo was released, I always considered the K2 one of the >"big boys" - just not one of the "really, really expensive boys" Hi! > >The K2 is at its best with the pre-amp off below 15 MHz unless it's hooked >to a really low-gain antenna like a short whip. The K2 has wonderful dynamic >range, so adding the preamp usually doesn't hurt so one would notice. >Indeed, sometimes I turn it on on 80 meters to bring some impulse noise up >high enough for the noise blanker to react to it. But the preamp does >nothing for the sensitivity on the lower bands when hooked to any sort of >decent antenna. > >The test I use is whether the noise floor jumps up when I hook on the >antenna. If it does, adding the preamp will do nothing except reduce the >dynamic range by about 20 dB. What I can hear is limited entirely by the >external QRN. > >The K2 was designed for low current consumption so some ops have added an >external amplified speaker, especially when using the K2 in a noisy >environment. 99.9%% of my operating is with the phones so I never notice any >shortage of eardrum-rattling gain. Even on it's internal speaker, it is too >loud for me in the shack. > >$4K for the Drakes huh? I always liked their gear but I'd rather have the >$2,800 or so that I didn't spend by getting the K2. Tnx for the input! > >Ron AC7AC > > > > 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 |
|
|
In reply to this post by WA2JJH
Hi All,
What are the most popular bands for slow QSO's, Would I be correct in assuming 80 and 40 meters ? I'm a newbie with CW so I go very slow and have just made contacts ( a different radio) on them. The used radio I purchased has the 4 band board install, but has extra 2 band board is for 80 & 15 meters, any one want to trade me for 80M & 40M ? :-) Whats the reason with the 4 band board doesn't do 80 meters ? Bob KC8IPQ _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
I hear LOTS of slow cw on 20 meters. And I haven't met a cw op yet that
isn't happy to QRS, including rabid contesters. Eric KE6US -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of ROBERT PHILLIPS Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 6:57 PM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K1 Popular Bands Hi All, What are the most popular bands for slow QSO's, Would I be correct in assuming 80 and 40 meters ? I'm a newbie with CW so I go very slow and have just made contacts ( a different radio) on them. The used radio I purchased has the 4 band board install, but has extra 2 band board is for 80 & 15 meters, any one want to trade me for 80M & 40M ? :-) Whats the reason with the 4 band board doesn't do 80 meters ? Bob KC8IPQ _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 |
Re: The K2 can compete with the big boys.
|
|
In reply to this post by N8LP
On Mar 12, 2005, at 8:02 PM, Larry Phipps wrote:
> That's $4000 in 1978 dollars... probably less than a K2 in today's > dollars. I wish I still had my TR7... Unless I am misunderstanding what you mean, I think you went the wrong way with the dollars...$4000 in 1978 is about $12,000 today. _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
In reply to this post by Bob P-2
In a message dated 3/12/05 9:58:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[hidden email] writes: > What are the most popular bands for slow QSO's, Would I be correct in > assuming 80 and 40 meters ? I'd think so, but don't rule out 20 and 30 meters too. The main thing is to pick a band with stable propagation at the time you're operating, because a slow CW QSO is going to take a little while. > > Whats the reason with the 4 band board doesn't do 80 meters ? > A 4 band board can do 80 meters - but then you can only do 3 bands. A 2 band board switches between two sets of coils and capacitors - so you can choose any two bands. The 4 band design uses the same coils on more than one band by switching in different padder capacitors. But there's a limit on the frequency range. The coils needed for 80 meters are such high inductance that they can't share with 40 meters, and 40 meter coils are too low inductancer to share . All other K1 coils can share with the next-higher band. But the separation between 80 and 40 is too great (percentage separation, not MHz) 73 de Jim, N2EY _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
In reply to this post by Bob P-2
It would certainly be nice if Elecraft would offer an option to build up the
4-band filter board into a simple 3 band filter board, covering 80 / 40 / 30 meters. There are some who would be very interested in that. 73, Don WA9TGT / Donnie Garrett / Muncie, IN ARCI #6447, ARS #1717, AmQRP, ECI-QRP #001 K2 #3186, K1 #1806, SW-30+, DSW II - 40 LDG Z-11 Auto Tuner, 102' CF Zepp using glass doobies! Visit the "ECI-QRP" web site at: _http://qrp.ke9v.net/_ (http://qrp.ke9v.net/) WA9TGT / Donnie Garrett / Muncie, IN ARCI #6447, ARS #1717, AmQRP, ECI-QRP #001 K2 #3186, K1 #1806, SW-30+, DSW II - 40 LDG Z-11 Auto Tuner, 102' CF Zepp using glass doobies! Visit the "ECI-QRP" web site at: http://qrp.ke9v.net/ _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
[hidden email] wrote:
> It would certainly be nice if Elecraft would offer an option to build up the > 4-band filter board into a simple 3 band filter board, covering 80 / 40 / 30 > meters. There are some who would be very interested in that. > > 73, Don Don, I seem to recall some discussion at the time the 4-band board was introduced that it couldn't be made to accept 80m components without sacrificing 1 of the other bands, ending with a 3 band board, and that sort of defeated the purpose of the board. Maybe I'm just dreaming it up, though; you have been forewarned! 73, Joe, W2RBA _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
In reply to this post by Bob P-2
In a message dated 3/13/05 10:53:19 AM Eastern Standard Time, [hidden email]
writes: > It would certainly be nice if Elecraft would offer an option to build up > the > 4-band filter board into a simple 3 band filter board, covering 80 / 40 / 30 > > meters. There are some who would be very interested in that. > I'd be interested in an 80/40/20 meter K1, for Field Day. However, one thing that truly amazes me about Elecraft designs is the "add-on" ability, for accessories that didn't exist when the original product was designed. 73 de Jim, N2EY 73 de Jim, N2EY _______________________________________________ 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 |
|
|
I bought the K1 just after the 4 band board was introduced. The choice of bands was
a wise one as 40/30/20 meters active and an option for 17/15 on top band. I chose 15 meters as it is more active generally and you need it for "Sprint" and any type of contest activity! I work a lot of 80 meters and missed THAT band! Recently, I opted to get a two band RF board and modify it for 1.8 and 3.5 Mhz coverage. Elecraft has all the parts except the crystal which I ordered from ICM. "Next K1 project" will be another 2 band board for maybe 17 and 10 meters (10 meters not being standard!) If it works, I'll have 160-10 meter coverage except for 12 meter band. Best QRP portable rig I have ever used for what's in it! 73, Sandy W5TVW ----- Original Message ----- From: <[hidden email]> To: <[hidden email]>; <[hidden email]> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 12:00 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K1 Popular Bands | In a message dated 3/13/05 10:53:19 AM Eastern Standard Time, [hidden email] | writes: | | | > It would certainly be nice if Elecraft would offer an option to build up | > the | > 4-band filter board into a simple 3 band filter board, covering 80 / 40 / 30 | > | > meters. There are some who would be very interested in that. | > | | I'd be interested in an 80/40/20 meter K1, for Field Day. | | However, one thing that truly amazes me about Elecraft designs is the | "add-on" ability, for accessories that didn't exist when the original product was | designed. | | 73 de Jim, N2EY | | 73 de Jim, N2EY | _______________________________________________ | 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 | | _______________________________________________ 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 |
«
Return to Elecraft
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |