To sell or upgrade?

[Steven Pituch]

Hi all,

I am the proud owner of K2 #402 (1.04d - 1.02), with KAT2, KSB2, and KNB2.
I have recently done some tests comparing this rig to some of my other rigs.
The K2 of course won.  So now that the K2 design has matured, I would like
to get more options like the 100 W amp, the bigger auto tuner, and the DSP
unit.

So I have been learning about eBay, and PayPal etc, and have started to sell
some of my other equipment to help pay for this.

Now I am thinking whether I should upgrade my K2 #402, OR possibly sell it
and build another one.  I do like building, but frankly wouldn't feel good
taking a significant loss on it.  So this brings up two questions.

1)
If I keep K2 #402, which I think is in perfect condition, is there any
significant PERFORMANCE disadvantage to upgrading this earlier version and
then adding the KPA100, KDSP2, and KAT100?  I guess if I went this route I
could sell the KAT2 and reduce the overall cost of this endeavor.  The only
disadvantage I see is cosmetic since I would be soldering the parts on the
board sort of in a dead bug fashion as most of the upgrades to the Rev. A
board are done.

2)
Is it really worth it for me to sell K2 #402?  I figured I put about $900
dollars into it.  I'm thinking that I couldn't get anywhere near that if I
tried to sell it.

After reading the upgrade material I am leaning towards keeping #402, but
still would like to hear from the list.

Thanks for the input.

Steve Pituch, W2MY/5
Corpus Christi

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[Steven Pituch]

Hi all,

I did some research.  The last two K2s on eBay sold for a 30% discount based
on their estimated original cost.  That's quite a loss.

It seems that the evolution of the K2 design has been such as to avoid
obsolescence of earlier serial numbers, making it, so far, a timeless and
incredible design.

So it looks like I will be keeping #402, and will start the basic upgrades
soon.

Thanks all for the input.

Steve Pituch, W2MY/5





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[Mike S-8]

Just a quick report.

Tom did a great job putting together these new kits and they work great. The small size of the SMT board allows it to easily fit between the K2 control and front panel boards. I used a bit of sticky back Velcro to mount mine.

I think he's just about out of kits, but still has boards available if you want to order parts yourself and put one together. This is a great beginner project for learning how to deal with surface mount devices. Tom chose to use one of the larger device sizes available (1206), which makes it relatively easy (0402's are tricky).

If this is your first time trying SMT, and you're going to try this, I recommend that you order some extra components (they're pretty cheap). Although Tom recommends soldering the XR2211 IC first, I'd recommend you do it last - after you've had some experience with soldering SMT. It's much easier to recover from an error on a 2 terminal device than on a 14 terminal one.

More info from Tom at http://www.n0ss.net/ or mailto://[hidden email]

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