Elecraft

speaker problem

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Roland Whitsitt

speaker problem

Just when I thought my problems were over. I just won't go away folks, like a bad penny.
I was working some cw on the k2 with the headphones. After I was done, I pulled the headphones out of the jack and nothing was coming from the speaker. I got voltage from the headphone jack(that goes to the speaker), but nothing from P5 on the RF board. Headphone still works fine.
Roland in Stockton
just completed #3090
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Roland Whitsitt

Re: speaker problem

Thanks Tom, It had been working fine. Just after I unplugged the
headphones after only my 2nd qso, the speaker didn't work. Still plugged in
the board. I wiggled it, nada. Not much it could be so I've ordered a new
headphone jack. Use to, I could jumper it and it would disconnect when I
plugged in the head phones. Now when I jumper it and plug in the phones, it
don't disconnect. Also, the headphone jack seems to wiggle around inside.
The outside is stable.
Roland
K2#3090
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Hammond" <[hidden email]>
To: "Roland & Elvie Whitsitt" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] speaker problem

> Ronald:
>
> 1) NOT uncommon to mis-wire the polarity of the wire between the 2-pin
> jack (P5, I think) on the RF board and the ext. spkr jack! If mis-wired,
> the hot lead is shorted to ground instead.
>
> 2) there have been a couple reports of defective spkr jacks which don't
> re-make the audio line connection when the ext spkr plug's removed.
>
> 73,
>
> Tom N0SS
>
> At 02:23 AM 7/29/2005, you wrote:
>>Just when I thought my problems were over. I just won't go away folks,
>>like a bad penny.
>>I was working some cw on the k2 with the headphones. After I was done, I
>>pulled the headphones out of the jack and nothing was coming from the
>>speaker. I got voltage from the headphone jack(that goes to the speaker),
>>but nothing from P5 on the RF board. Headphone still works fine.
>>Roland in Stockton
>>just completed #3090
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>

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Able2fly

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Roland Whitsitt

Hmmm. The headphone jack in K2 4152 is intermittent also. I'm holding my
breath every time I unplug. Seems to be a problematic component, at least some
of them are. Maybe there was a bad batch?

Elecraft, is there a more reliable replacement?

Bill K3UJ
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Roland Whitsitt

Re: speaker problem

Funny thing is, I was thinking, (and still kinda am), that it was yet
another one of my blunders. hi hi
Roland the rusher builder
#3090
----- Original Message -----
From: <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] speaker problem

> Hmmm. The headphone jack in K2 4152 is intermittent also. I'm holding my
> breath every time I unplug. Seems to be a problematic component, at least
> some
> of them are. Maybe there was a bad batch?
>
> Elecraft, is there a more reliable replacement?
>
> Bill K3UJ
> _______________________________________________
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Dave Lowenstein

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Able2fly

Mine has a sticker saying "Made in China" on it. That pretty much tells you
about the quality. :(

Dave
N7AF

----- Original Message -----
From: <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] speaker problem

Ron D'Eau Claire-2

RE: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Able2fly

Bill, K3UJ wrote:

Hmmm. The headphone jack in K2 4152 is intermittent also. I'm holding my
breath every time I unplug. Seems to be a problematic component, at least
some
of them are. Maybe there was a bad batch?

---------------------------------------------------

Yes, that seems to have been a problematic component.

I wonder how many people who have had trouble used a large plug or plug
adapter on the phones line there?

I ask because my five-year-old K2's phone jack is FB after countless
plug-ins and un-plugs, but I may be a lot more gentler on it than most.
Instead of a large plug, I have a very small, lightweight right-angle plug
with a small, flexible wire pig-tail that goes to a large jack for the
phones connector. The pressure on the K2 jack is miniscule at best. The
large connector lies on the desk. There's only a gram or two of weight on
the connector and, since it's a right-angle connector, virtually no leverage
to amplify pressure caused by moving the phones cord around.

I used that simply because my favorite headphones are equipped with a
1/4-inch connector, and it didn't seem a good idea to use an in-line adapter
that would place considerable stress on the tip of the plug inside the tiny
jack on the K2.

Maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe not.

Ron AC7AC

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Earl W Cunningham

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Roland Whitsitt

Ron, AC7AC wrote:

"I wonder how many people who have had trouble used a large plug or plug
adapter on the phones line there?"
==========
The headphone jack on my K2 went bad (no speaker audio) early on and I
had to replace it.

The reason it went bad was because I was using an adapter to accommodate
the 1/4" (large) plug on my headset. Either this amount of weight
pulling down on the K2's phone jack, or (more likely) because the
"longer" plug (with adapter) could easily be moved sideways during
insertion/removal caused the switch inside the jack to go bad after not
very much use.

Since then I've used a headset with a 1/8" (small) plug with my K2 and
the problem has not repeated.

73, de Earl, K6SE
K2/100 #2622
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Trev - K6ESE-2

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Dave Lowenstein

I wonder if there is a better quality Switchcraft, etc. equivalent?

Trev - K6ESE
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Lowenstein" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>; <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] speaker problem

> Mine has a sticker saying "Made in China" on it. That pretty much tells
> you about the quality. :(
>
> Dave
> N7AF
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] speaker problem
>
>
>> Hmmm. The headphone jack in K2 4152 is intermittent also. I'm holding my
>> breath every time I unplug. Seems to be a problematic component, at
>> least some
>> of them are. Maybe there was a bad batch?
>>
>> Elecraft, is there a more reliable replacement?
>>
>> Bill K3UJ
>> _______________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Post to: [hidden email]
>> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
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>> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
> _______________________________________________
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Kevin Rock

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Ron D'Eau Claire-2

I was using a small phone plug but it still failed after about a year. I
use headphones most of the time so never took out the plug for the entire
time. When I was going to use the speaker I found the jack had failed.
There are so many headphones around the house with 1/8 plugs that I would
never need to use an adapter. I think it was a bad batch of jacks.
Kevin. KD5ONS

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 14:49:40 -0700, Ron D'Eau Claire
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Bill, K3UJ wrote:
>
> Hmmm. The headphone jack in K2 4152 is intermittent also. I'm holding my
> breath every time I unplug. Seems to be a problematic component, at
> least
> some
> of them are. Maybe there was a bad batch?
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Yes, that seems to have been a problematic component.
>
> I wonder how many people who have had trouble used a large plug or plug
> adapter on the phones line there?
>
> I ask because my five-year-old K2's phone jack is FB after countless
> plug-ins and un-plugs, but I may be a lot more gentler on it than most.
> Instead of a large plug, I have a very small, lightweight right-angle
> plug
> with a small, flexible wire pig-tail that goes to a large jack for the
> phones connector. The pressure on the K2 jack is miniscule at best. The
> large connector lies on the desk. There's only a gram or two of weight on
> the connector and, since it's a right-angle connector, virtually no
> leverage
> to amplify pressure caused by moving the phones cord around.
>
> I used that simply because my favorite headphones are equipped with a
> 1/4-inch connector, and it didn't seem a good idea to use an in-line
> adapter
> that would place considerable stress on the tip of the plug inside the
> tiny
> jack on the K2.
>
> Maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe not.
>
> Ron AC7AC

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Stuart Rohre

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Earl W Cunningham

It is a good idea to use a pigtail adapter if one is going from a small jack
on a radio to a larger jack for legacy headphones that you prefer.

Simply create a plug, pigtail of suitable audio flexible cable, and a jack
to accomplish the transition without an adapter putting heavy weight onto
the radio jack.

Allow enough length for the adapter to be supported on the operating table
surface.

In line jacks might be hard to come by. However, a suitable protective boot
can be fashioned over a conventional large jack with shrink tubing. Use as
many sizes as you need to adapt from the back of the jack down to a smaller
size for strain relief contact with the cable, telescoping one piece into
another.

Such adapters have allowed me to use 1950's high sensitivity military
headphones on the most modern radios, with good results.

I have done microphone adapters the same way, to switch from one brand of
radio to another without changing the mike plug. A quarter inch jack will
fit the body of some electronic push button switches that have a rectangular
box structure that fits behind a rack panel. Just unscrew the switch guts,
and use the box for the jack. The shrink tubing trick closes the back of
the box as well.

Stuart
K5KVH

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Bruce Bowman-3

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Roland Whitsitt

Hi Roland-

I just got thru replacing the headphone connector on #4793 which died
after only 2 months service. My Heil headphones have a mini-plug, so I
don't use a mini-to-1/4" phone plug adapter. There are too many K2s
working without incident to say the connector is a flawed design, but it
wasn't encouraging to get a peek inside after removal from the RF Board.

Bruce

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roland & Elvie Whitsitt" <[hidden email]>
To: "elecraft" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:23 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] speaker problem

Just when I thought my problems were over. I just won't go away folks,
like a bad penny.
I was working some cw on the k2 with the headphones. After I was done, I
pulled the headphones out of the jack and nothing was coming from the
speaker. I got voltage from the headphone jack(that goes to the
speaker), but nothing from P5 on the RF board. Headphone still works
fine.
Roland in Stockton
just completed #3090
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Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Kevin Rock

The switch in my headphone jack fell apart within a few months even though
the jack body was still firmly in place. I do use a small right angle plug
plus quite long light weight leads to an inline 1/4in jack, and seldom
unplug the headphones. IMHO the jack is too close to the AF gain control,
so my headphone jack is going to be moved to the back leaving, a hole in the
front panel for a LED - blinking about something. I'll look for a better
quality jack.
73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

On Friday, July 29 2005, Kevin KD5ONS wrote:

>I was using a small phone plug but it still failed after about a year. I
>use headphones most of the time so never took out the plug for the entire
>time. When I was going to use the speaker I found the jack had failed.
>There are so many headphones around the house with 1/8 plugs that I would
>never need to use an adapter. I think it was a bad batch of jacks.
> Kevin. KD5ONS
>

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Ron D'Eau Claire-2

RE: speaker problem

Geoff, GM3ESD wrote:

The switch in my headphone jack fell apart within a few months even though
the jack body was still firmly in place. I do use a small right angle plug
plus quite long light weight leads to an inline 1/4in jack, and seldom
unplug the headphones. IMHO the jack is too close to the AF gain control,

---------------------------------------------------

AHA! You've uncovered another variable in the equation. As a certified O.T.
CW operator, I set the AF gain at a level just below where the audio channel
noise is apparent in the phones and control the volume of signals with the
RF GAIN control!

So my fat fingers never crash into the phones plug although I have pinched
one between the AF GAIN and RF GAIN often enough to understand the problem.

Personally, I've daydreamed about moving the RF gain to the RIT/XIT knob
position. Since I use SPLIT I do all my tuning - xmit and rx separately -
with the big knob.

That way I'd never have to mess with those close-spaced little knobs over on
the left while operating...

Ron AC7AC

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Kevin Rock

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2

Hi Geoff,
When you find a replacement could you please list it and its part
number on the Reflector? I would like to replace mine with one that is
far more sturdy so it will last longer than it did the first time.
73,
Kevin. KD5ONS

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 01:11:29 +0100, Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> The switch in my headphone jack fell apart within a few months even
> though the jack body was still firmly in place. I do use a small right
> angle plug plus quite long light weight leads to an inline 1/4in jack,
> and seldom unplug the headphones. IMHO the jack is too close to the AF
> gain control, so my headphone jack is going to be moved to the back
> leaving, a hole in the front panel for a LED - blinking about something.
> I'll look for a better quality jack.
> 73,
> Geoff
> GM4ESD

Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Ron D'Eau Claire-2

Ron, AC7AC wrote:

AHA! You've uncovered another variable in the equation. As a certified O.T.
CW operator, I set the AF gain at a level just below where the audio channel
noise is apparent in the phones and control the volume of signals with the
RF GAIN control!

So my fat fingers never crash into the phones plug although I have pinched
one between the AF GAIN and RF GAIN often enough to understand the problem.

Personally, I've daydreamed about moving the RF gain to the RIT/XIT knob
position. Since I use SPLIT I do all my tuning - xmit and rx separately -
with the big knob.

That way I'd never have to mess with those close-spaced little knobs over on
the left while operating...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Confession time I suppose, I do use CW as well as SSB <g>. When operating
CW I use the AF gain and RF gain controls as you use them, an O.T's. habit
perhaps, and also use SPLIT to do the tuning in both modes, except when
hunting around a band. I cannot recall using RIT nor XIT with the K2.
Moving the RF gain to the RIT / XIT knob position makes a lot of sense to
me.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

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Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Kevin Rock

On July 30, 2005, Kevin KD5ONS wrote:

> When you find a replacement could you please list it and its part
> number on the Reflector? I would like to replace mine with one that is
> far more sturdy so it will last longer than it did the first time.

-----------------------------------------------------

Hi Kevin,

Will do, but as all the small jacks with built in switches that I have seen
look quite flimsy, I just might go whole hog and put in a 1/4 inch jack on
the rear panel..I prefer the headphone leads to be out of the way anyway.
Just thinking about it.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD

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Peter Linsley

Re: speaker problem

In reply to this post by Bruce Bowman-3

On 29 Jul 2005 at 17:25, Bruce Bowman wrote:

> I just got thru replacing the headphone connector on #4793 which died
> after only 2 months service.

The jack in my K1/4 failed after a week or so - 4 years ago. I assumed it was my
clumsiness and have been using it jury-rigged since. I must get round to replacing it
sometime ..........

73

Peter Linsley, G3PDL

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