Hey Scott, Maybe you *should* put that unopened kit on e-bay! You could instead buy another rig that is a true black box. One that you can't get inside of to fix and one that has a lower reliability rate. Something less mature with more issues. And you'd get to spend more money in the process!
Sarcasm aside, I understand your concern, but remember, this reflector is like the Dr's waiting room. If you hang out there you'll soon believe that every one is sick. What you see here is the list of Elecraft stuff that people are having problems with. Nearly all of the "I'm having problems" posts are self inflicted issues. Cold solder joints, poorly prepared toroids, parts inserted wrong, assembly instructions skipped, settings wrong, etc. There are MANY people and even some idiots like myself who were able to build the K2 with no issues. Worked right the first time and is still going strong. How strong? Strong enough that it has replaced the IC-735, TenTec Omni V, Kenwood TS-830s as my only rig. A couple of thoughts: 1. Rework Eliminators - these are great. Many of the K2 options require a small mod to the K2. If you don't want to do those mods, get the Rework Eliminators. With RE, you do all the option mods at the time of initial build. Then when you add options later, you indeed just plug them in. Sweet. 2. Prewound Toroids - Another fabulous thing. Toroids can be awk to wind and tin. If not properly tinned, problems with the kit go up. For a fair price, you can buy toroids already wound and tinned and they're a thing of beauty to boot. Small price to pay for a first class construction job IMHO. As to Elecraft building Junk, while their stuff isn't perfect (surprise!), it is pretty darn good. The K2 has the benefit of being a well established design with a lot of miles under it's belt. There have been several minor upgrades to the rig and what we're buying today is a refined, tried & true rig that has fabulous RX and TX performance and far fewer issues or rough edges than many new commercially built rigs. No key clicks on TX, no major issues on RX, no need to do HW reset when the rig locks up, no problems with the keyer stealing cycles away from the DSP, etc. - Keith N1AS - -----Original Message----- I ordered my K2 before I joined this forum, and now that I did, I am thinking maybe I shouldn't have ordered it. It hasn't been delivered yet. Is everyone having trouble with them as it sounds on this froum? Why is it necessary for all the modifications that are being done to them? What's all this about completely removing RFC10 from the KPA100? Did Elecraft do a bad job of designing this thing? I just ordered the basic unit plus the noise blanker, and was planning on adding the kpa100, and the KSB2 ssb unit later. I had the understanding that these two options were plug in boards, but it sounds like a rebuild to add anything. I have always hesitated to take components out of a circuit board because there is a good chance that damage to the board might occur. Will a new kit that I just ordered four days ago need modifications, and if so, how will I know what modifications I will need to do? Would someone please tell me why I shouldn't put this thing up for sale on Ebay in the unopened box? Thanks Scott N5SM _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
