[Elecraft] Battery power requirements
I have operated Field Day with my K2 in the QRP mode and one normal car battery. No problem. I made 460 contacts so calling stations and giving the exchange maybe took 20 seconds. THat means the transmitter was on only on for perhaps 20 seconds per QSO or 8 minutes per hour. Hardly seems like much of a drain. I am going to try QRP again, but I am a realistic and it may well be that with conditions as bad as they are today, QRP might be a wasted effort. If it is too frustrating, I'm going to switch to 100 w. That means I will make more contacts that QRP and I would call CQ. My question is, Under these circumstances, can I expect the battery to last for the more or less 18 hours that I will be operating? Obviosuly, if not, buying a second battery is a not-very-expensive option. Randy W6SJ __ 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
[Elecraft] C6AWS - CQWWDX with K2/100
Had a great week in The Bahamas with my K2/100 and a Field Day type Moxon. Operated 20 meters only so I could get some sleep and made 1,500 QSO's into 100 Countries, and 30 zones. Bonefishing was good too. Ahhh, how sweet it is! Randy W6SJ ___ 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
[Elecraft] rig control
I have been able to connect my IC-756PROII to the Ham Radio Deluxe rig control software but when I hook up the K2 cable it will not connect. I use the N3FJP logging and contest programs and none of them are able to poll the rig either. Nor could I connect with N1MM. Ideas? Randy W6SJ K24878 ___ 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
[Elecraft] Birdies
I have had trouble with annoying “birdies,” notably at 14014 and 14029. I hope my experience in chasing these down helps someone else with a similar problem. I finally traced this to an interaction between the cable modem for my high speed cable Internet access and the network card on my computer. When I cut power to the modem, the birdie would stop. When I unplugged the CAT 5 cable at the computer, the birdie stopped. When plugged in and when I cut power to the computer, it was still there because when a computer is “off,” not all circuits are off, and whatever the reason the birdies were still there. I tried switching to DSL as provided by the local phone company but the problem was still there. It may well be that there are more expensive network cards that would not have this interaction but I did not want to fool around with them. I had noted that I did not have birdies while using a laptop in the shack. So I tried a cheap wireless card, similar in function to the ones used with laptops except that you plug it in to one of the slots on your PC. The birdies went away but the thing was incredibly slow, worse than a 56K modem. So I bought a more expensive Linksys wireless card with a “speed accelerator.” No more birdies and the Internet speed is consistent with high speed access. I should point out that the literature provided with this card says that the accelerator works only with machines running Windows XP. Randy W6SJ. ___ 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
[Elecraft] Fw: K2 fan pictures
Pictures of Ron's fan can be seen at http://www.savvyborrower.com/amateur.htm Click on the button on the last line Randy W6SJ Original post from Ron ZL1TW I know it will be said that the K2 doesn't need extra cooling as it will automatically turn the power down if it gets too hot, but my setup here might be of interest? I find the noise of the little fan on the K2 quite annoying, and for some time now, I have been using a computer muffin fan which I have mounted on a plexiglass plate that fits over the heat-sink fins, and is located there with a couple of keys that fit down into the fins. There is a hole cut in the plexiglass panel above the speaker, and I made up a deflector that beams the sound directly at me, rather than straight up. I found this latter appendage very handy during field day, when the K2 was being used in a tent, as tents don't reflect sound like home shacks do. Even a muffin fan can be irritating in a quiet room, and the simplest solution there was for me to use a series dropping resistor, which works fine on most muffin fans, but of course, I was stuck with a single speed fan. The solution was found when I was given a box of dead computer power supplies, and in most of them, the fan had a small PC board attached to one lug of the fan, with a thermistor that sat against the switching transistor's heat sink. As the temperature went up, the speed of the fan increased. Probably the nicest feature is that the fan runs about 1/3rd speed when everything is nice a cool and is virtually silent. I have used this setup for a while now; mounting the small PC board so the thermistor sits through a hole in the plexiglass, and in contact with the surface of the K2's heat sink. ( Burying it in a blob of silicon grease would probably be betterbut messy) The muffin fan will slightly increase in speed after extended CW use, but the mosquito like fan on the back has never come on while using this contraption. The PC board has a thermistor with a fixed resistor in series, controlling the base of a transistor ( part of a Darlington setup with 2 transistors) which directly controls the fan. Very simple. I mention this for what it is worth. I find it handy when I use the K2 to take a CW learners net where text and numbers sent at speed down to 12 - 14 wpm certainly made the K2 heat up. I also like rag chewing on the paddles, so the little fan on the back used to get a work-out. It is super simple to just lift the panel off when it isn't wanted. I don't have a web site to post any pics, but if anyone was interested I could take a low resolution digital pic and send it via EMail. Cheers...Ron ZL1TW ___ 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
[Elecraft] KAT100-1
I have just about finished the tuner and when I did the resistance checks, all the ones that are supposed to be 100 k are in the 2 k to 3 k range, except for the D3 diode measurement, which is 100 k. I'm up to 20 entities worked at 15 w wit 4784! What a hoot! Randy W6SJ ___ 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
[Elecraft] Fun
I've heard it said that building a K2 is more fun that operating. Building mine was a genuine HOOT and I'm going to get more accessories to build, but I beg to differ about the operating. In the past couple of days I've made about 25 QSO's, mostly DX, and am having GREAT FUN operating QRP - well, 15 watts. I've worked 90% of the stations I've called and am getting nice reports. With 10 different entities worked so far, DXCC is now in the sights! Worked all the JA's I could hear on 40 m in the contest this morning. One problem is that when I hit PRE/ATT button, audio is attenuated even more on PRE than on ATT, certainly not louder. Randy W6SJ ___ 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
