Posted by
omehegan on
Oct 07, 2010; 7:38pm
URL: http://elecraft.85.s1.nabble.com/K2-Debugging-low-transmit-power-tp5601987p5612747.html
Last night I aligned all the bands, first on receive and then on
transmit. On 10m, when doing the receiver pre-alignment, I couldn't seem
to detect any audible change in signal level as I adjusted L12 and L13,
which worried me. But when I did the transmitter alignments I had no
trouble getting 2 watts on 10. I just had to tune L12 almost all the way
into its can. I don't think I checked to see if I was getting 10 watts
out on all the bands when I set the K2 to that level, so I'll do that
tonight, but it looks like I'm all set! Thanks for all your help Don,
and I'm happy to hear that the errata will be updated to clarify this. I
thought, "A diagram would really solve this problem," so I'm glad to
hear that's exactly what will be added. My friend said, "This is what
makes the K2 and Elecraft so great. They are constantly updating the kit
and the manual. You are building on the shoulders of a thousand
frustrated hams!"
I do have one curiosity question and one comment about this procedure.
The question: First I did the receiver pre-alignment, and then I went on
to the transmitter alignment. Both sections include these sentences:
"Switch to 20 meters (14100 kHz). Set C21 and C23 to their mid-points."
Then they have you adjust L8 and L9 on 20, then on 30, and then they
have you go back to 20 and adjust C21 and C23. My question is, should
the _transmitter_ alignment steps say to set C21 and C23 to their
mid-points? This would seem to undo the adjustments to them that you
make in the receiver pre-alignment section. Is this a mistake in the
manual or am I misunderstanding the procedure?
The comment: during the transmitter alignment procedure, I was confused
by the fact that I was setting the K2's power to 2 watts, and then
adjusting things in tune mode that would have the rig showing as much as
10-12 watts on its wattmeter. I didn't understand if I was supposed to
be just adjusting to see exactly 2 watts, or to see the maximum power.
And when I adjusted for maximum power, exited tune, then entered tune
again, I would see closer to 2 watts. A quick Google search turned up
this recent email thread:
http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@.../msg102763.html Of
course it had a helpful response from Don Wilhelm, so I felt better and
went on my way :) I would suggest that this information somehow be
codified in the manual for future builders, because to me it wasn't
intuitive that I was setting the K2 for 2 watts, and then seeing it hit
10+ as I went through the alignment steps.
On Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:41:09 -0400, Don Wilhelm <
[hidden email]>
wrote:
> Owen,
>
> Go through the transmit alignment for the bandpass filters before
> declaring another problem.
> Most K2s will have some power reduction on 12 and 10 meters, but if
> your 10 meter power output is greater than 10 watts it is OK.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
--
Owen B. Mehegan (
[hidden email])
"He is a dangerous mixture of sophistication and recklessness which
makes one anxious about his influence on other boys."
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