Today I decided to recalibrate my K2 using a very accurate 10MHz source, as well as replacing C31 in the KPA100 (Rev. D) to bring it up to the latest Rev. E.
After leaving both the 10MHz source and the K2 turned on all day to stabilise, I made a start but the first problem encountered was that the filters were just too darned good and wouldn't let me find zero-beat. Plenty 10MHz signal was available and the S-meter lit up with a full line of li'l green apples, but as zero beat was approached, both the S-meter reading and audio dropped out of sight. To get round this problem, I altered the LSB widest filter (2.4kHz - OP 1) down in frequency and found a healthy S-meter reading could be maintained. The low beat note could both be seen (highest LED flickering in time with the beat) and heard as a slow rise and fall in background noise. Unfortunately, I was distracted by an artefact that appeared only when an SSB filter was selected with no antenna connected. There was a crackling/crunching sort of noise that was not present on any CW setting or filter. During the hunt for the culprit, I found that if a finger was dabbed on the cathode of D4 (DSB output from BM to xtal filter) the problem cleared up. Also, if a finger was dabbed on T2, the problem went away. Further finger-dabbing along the xtal filter was unhelpful as I was acting as an antenna. Soldering was checked and re-done but the problem remained, so D4 bit the dust and was replaced with a new 1N4148. No improvement. Ah well, time was passing, so I thought I'd return to the calibration task. No problems were encountered and the task was completed successfully. CAL PLL was followed by a CAL FIL where the adjusted LSB filter was returned to its previous setting and all other filter settings were moved around before restoring them to their original settings. I noted the last digit of the BFO frequency had decremented by 1 in every case. After this, I was pleased to note that the nasty background noise previously heard when SSB was selected had disappeared, so I'm thinking it was an artefact caused by everything warming up and drifting. Now I shall check tomorrow to see if the artefact has moved and is present when the rig is cold. Changing C31 in the KPA doesn't appear to have made any difference to its operation, so what was it for? The PA's power output reading still tends to jitter around by +/-10% or so when running into a high quality 50 ohm dummy load. 73 DaveL G3TJP _______________________________________________ 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
