Hello all, I have ordered a basic K2 (to start with), and thought I would introduce myself.
My name is Brett, the call is N2DTS, been a ham since sometime in the 70's self educated in electronics and ham radio. When I started out, I went right to the general ticket, and my first rig was a Heathkit hw7. I had a LOT of fun with that rig and really enjoyed CW rag chews on 40 and 15 meters. I then got a Heathkit hw101, and built it in 2 days, and had had more fun. I then got into AM phone, partly because all those great old tube rigs were dirt cheap at fests, and have been on AM since, with a LOT of home brew gear, to the point I had only homebrew equipment. My homebrew receivers are sort of the same design philosophy as the K2, low noise single conversion, filter just after the mixer, high Q pre selector at the antenna input. Only I used tubes...and built them for AM reception mostly, covering 160, 80 and 40 meter phone bands (as they were before the change). I just wanted something homebrew that could receive AM signals under good band conditions, but wound up with receivers that work better than anything else I had, the modern stuff, ic735, ts440, ic756 pro, the old stuff, R390a, sx17, Scott SLRM, etc. The homebrew radio was MUCH quieter, and had much better fidelity. I sold off all the other stuff! There seems to be 2 major groups building in ham radio, the QRP and AM people. Anyway, I have been looking at the K2 since it came out. I had built an emtech for 40 meters, great little rig for a handful of parts. It was fun to build and modify. Will they ever add AM to the K2? Normally I would look into that, but the K2 is all computer controlled and I cant say I am fond of processors inside radios... Well, now the K2 is on the way, along with the rework eliminators, and guess I will have to re-learn the code, I am real rusty and have to think about some letters. I was up to a comfortable 20 to 25 wpm in the past, and used a straight key from radio shack which I still have. My favorite thing on cw was to rag chew with new people at moderate cw speeds, not sure if that has evaporated along with the code requirements for a ticket. I have some really cool QSL cards from the past, and even better memories of pounding out CW on 15 meters working a housewife in Wyoming for hours talking about the weekly rodeo, and the Pan Am clipper radio operator who sent me a QSL with the picture of the aircraft he used to operate on, etc. Great stuff! Brett N2DTS _______________________________________________ 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
