There's been several good points made about my K2 internal 2m transverter project...here's a bit of my thinking about why I went the way I did:
(1) Using an alternate transverter (VE3SYB) - I did consider the Transverters Unlimited board from the Ukraine to potentially give me more output, but in any case it would require some modification to reduce the output from several watts to 100 mW. In the end, since I had acquired the quasi-DEMI transverter at a flea market already, I decided just to go with it. I think it would be pushing the state-of-the-art in high-level mixer technology to make a mixer which would directly take ~ 1 watt in and produce 100 mW out at 144 MHz, without either pre-attenuation or post-amplification, but it might just be possible. (2) Using the K60XV transverter interface (W3FPR) - I thought about that option and eventually decided against it, primarily because of the extreme sensitivity of the K60XV output to RF signals getting into it and causing the K2 receiver to shut down (an odd quirk of the circuitry and firmware). Using a modified version is an interesting possibility which didn't occur to me - maybe enough space could be freed up to build a filter or buffer amp on the original board to fix that problem! I do have a K60XV in my other K2 which I have used with good results on 50/144/222/432 MHz, but it does require an external filter on the output RF jack to prevent weirdness from happening when other nearby transmitters are active! (3) K1WHS interface (K1WHS) - I suspect this is much the same as what DEMI made for a while before the K60XV came out (and it was much cheaper than the K60XV, too). N2CEI was nice enough to give me one after they stopped producing them. I tried it but decided I missed the full Elecraft-style front panel RF power control which it did not support. I recall Dave telling me years ago that the K2 made a pretty good IF radio, so it's been in my mind since then! I can confirm that I too get a group of strong birdies near 145.1 MHz, but as I am using 144.1 MHz as my IF this is not a problem for me. (4) Internal 630m transverter (KE6US) - sounds like a great project! For 2200m, maybe not, as one might want better frequency accuracy in such a narrow band than the K2 can provide. 73, Steve VE3SMA ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
