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used K2 Alignment

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K4JQV

used K2 Alignment

Hello;

While I am generally thrilled with my new K2 (not built by me) I feel she is in need of an alignment touch-up. The rig used to have all the bells and whistles but now is CW only with no tuner, SSB, etc. It is pretty much on with alignment but not exactly. The one thing that definately bothers me is one filter width - 700hz - causes the received signal to change in pitch. The other settings leave it unchanged. Also, I'm never on a "cardinal" freq when I work people - and I'm sure some of them are on whole frequencies - like 7.030.0 or 14.050.5. I'd like to get this thing closer. How best to proceed?

I'm looking in the manual but I'm now a little afraid. I have ordered the 2 required probe kits for alignment but do not have the serial interface. Any ideas on how long this process will take and whether or not a neophyte should worry about rendering the rig useless?

73;
Jacob K4JQV

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: used K2 Alignment

Jacob,

You can do the alignment just fine. If it is mostly dial calibration
and filter alignment that concern you, take a look at the K2 Dial
Calibration article on my website www.w3fpr.com - that article also
covers the filter alignment. If you do not have Spectrogram or some
other audio spectrum analyzer, download it and use it to give you the
easiest method of determining your actual filter width, shape and its
positioning in the IF passband.

If the pitch shift continues after the filter alignment, then there may
be something stuck in the EEPROM - clearing it may require a Master
Reset - but before you do that, download the A to B upgrade instructions
from the Elecraft website because it contains a nice set of labeled
blanks where you can record your menu settings. Record ALL the menu
settings before doing the Master Reset and restore them afterward. The
reset puts your filters and everything else back to the defaults.

If you want to do a complete alignment of that K2, you may want to
download the extract of the K2 manual that I have on my website too - it
is the Rev E manual with the assembly steps removed leaving the
alignment information intact. Note that the manual instructions will
give you workable filters, but they are not optimized - use the
instructions in the Dial Calibration article to optimize the filters.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/15/2011 2:13 PM, jacob chambers wrote:
> Hello;
>
> While I am generally thrilled with my new K2 (not built by me) I feel she is in need of an alignment touch-up. The rig used to have all the bells and whistles but now is CW only with no tuner, SSB, etc. It is pretty much on with alignment but not exactly. The one thing that definately bothers me is one filter width - 700hz - causes the received signal to change in pitch. The other settings leave it unchanged. Also, I'm never on a "cardinal" freq when I work people - and I'm sure some of them are on whole frequencies - like 7.030.0 or 14.050.5. I'd like to get this thing closer. How best to proceed?
>
> I'm looking in the manual but I'm now a little afraid. I have ordered the 2 required probe kits for alignment but do not have the serial interface. Any ideas on how long this process will take and whether or not a neophyte should worry about rendering the rig useless?
>
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ny4g

Re: used K2 Alignment

In reply to this post by K4JQV

Jacob

The high bands may be difficult to pre-align without a signal generator. I speak from experience from building SN 7105. I thought I had something wrong with my soldering when I discovered the rig deaf and dumb on 10 and 12 meters when all it was was a poor job of alignment using atmospheric noise. A friend who had a signal generator helped me discover that the soldering was fine, I just had not peaked the bandpass filters on alignment. He had a signal generator to help me do a first pass alignment. I obtained an XG3 and realigned the entire bandpass filter section and also aligned the S-meter for S9 at 50 microvolts. It can be done with sensitive ears but it is iffy.

Others can voice their opinion but I found the XG3 to be a worthwhile tool to have.

NY4G

> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:13:25 -0800
> From: [hidden email]
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [Elecraft] used K2 Alignment
>
> Hello;
>
> While I am generally thrilled with my new K2 (not built by me) I feel she is in need of an alignment touch-up. The rig used to have all the bells and whistles but now is CW only with no tuner, SSB, etc. It is pretty much on with alignment but not exactly. The one thing that definately bothers me is one filter width - 700hz - causes the received signal to change in pitch. The other settings leave it unchanged. Also, I'm never on a "cardinal" freq when I work people - and I'm sure some of them are on whole frequencies - like 7.030.0 or 14.050.5. I'd like to get this thing closer. How best to proceed?
>
> I'm looking in the manual but I'm now a little afraid. I have ordered the 2 required probe kits for alignment but do not have the serial interface. Any ideas on how long this process will take and whether or not a neophyte should worry about rendering the rig useless?
>
>
> 73;
> Jacob K4JQV
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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K1FFX

Re: used K2 Alignment

I was able to use Elecraft's N-gen wideband noise generator (available on the mini-module
page at Elecraft's website) together with Spectrogram to pretty handily do most of the
alignment. I was at the alignment stage late last year when 15 meters and above were
pretty much dead here in New England and so some sort of signal generator was needed ....
the N-gen was just the thing (fairly inexpensive and very easy to build). It's also a great
tool (with Spectrogram) for setting filter widths. I have since acquired an old HP signal
generator, so I can now accurately set the S-meter ... but I operated happily for almost a
year setting the S-meter according the instructions in the K2 manual ... not very accurate,
but also not crucial to my operation. I did the dial calibration using the N6KR method
that Don has on his web site. I recently (with the HP signal generator) re-did the calibration,
but I found that I already was within a few hertz using the method described at Don's site (!).

- Bruce

Bruce Rosen
K1FFX
K2/100 6982 KSB2 KAT100-1 KAF2 KIO2

Don Wilhelm-4

Re: used K2 Alignment

The N6KR method for accurately setting the 4 MHz reference oscillator is
very accurate because it compensates for all variables except for any
error in tuning to WWV (or other standard frequency station).
I use Spectrogram to show me when the 500 or 600 Hz tones are being
received at the right audio frequency - and also the once per minute
1000 Hz tone. Those with perfect pitch can do it by ear, but I do not
count as one of those fortunate people. Choose 15 MHz WWV over 10 MHz
for reduced error - the sunspot cycle has improved to the point where I
now can reliably receive 15 MHz WWV at my QTH.

You can see the entire procedure on my website www.w3fpr.com. Just look
in the left column for the K2 Dial Calibration article.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/17/2011 5:28 PM, K1FFX wrote:

> I did the dial calibration using the
> N6KR method
> that Don has on his web site. I recently (with the HP signal generator)
> re-did the calibration,
> but I found that I already was within a few hertz using the method described
> at Don's site (!).
>
> - Bruce
>
>
> -----
> Bruce Rosen
> K1FFX
> K2/100 6982
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/used-K2-Alignment-tp6997545p7006107.html
> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> ______________________________________________________________
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>