K2 screws rust in a marine environment. It took mine about 6 months aboard
Arcadian. I bought round head 4/40 stainless screws. They were one inch
long.
I bet you wondered what those threaded holes were for in your connector
crimper pliers.
The 4-40 one worked just fine for shortening
Well, gosh. I thought all this was about people like me.
3 years ago I decided we wanted email on our boat while in the islands.
To me this meant HAM. Getting the equipment, setting up the boat, trying to
learn the stuff and the 5 wpm looked pretty daunting from the outside.
What if
the Kick discussions responding to my question about why caps would fail
in the low-band filter relay firing circuits on my K2/KPA100 have been very
interesting.
That there could be such a kick was not a surprise to me so much as that it
could be so enthusiastic. Don Wilhelm reports
Carl,
It appears that my K2 is the only one in the universe to have experienced
this problem. We don't really know what caused the problem, but it may have
been due to vagrant high-voltage under the heat sync resulting from unchecked
ESD. Since the two failed caps must have been the weak
Felow Elecrafters,
I have just replaced the second-to-fail .01uF cap on the KPA/100 low band
filter relay circuitry of #5087. In this case, C13. Failure is a partial
short which allows that relay pair (k3 and k4) to close even though U2 hasn't
so
ordered. Symptom that this has happened
From: Don Wilhelm w3fpr at embarqmail.com
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2: KPA 100 Capacitor Specification?
To: Jferg977 at aol.com
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: 49D61D67.3030607 at embarqmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
John,
I have never found one
Ron,
your experience is similar to mine. Your snaps are identical to the ones i
heard before I did what I describe next. There is a lot of history to the ESD
problems on Arcadian
?and yes, in some conditions, you could hear the zaps all over the boat.
The precautions are much more recent. I
I was able to pick up the beginning of the net at 1800z and got a light but
workable signal here in Marathon, FL. Another net or maybe a 3 party-qso was
already in progress on 14316 and I had to listen between their louder
conversation - an interesting one too. I didn't get the qsy to
The manual refers to C12- C22 etc as ,01uF (103) 5% 50V mono capacitors.
The ones supplied in the kit are labeled (DELTA sign) 103k and X7R50. Doesn't
the K suggest that these are actually 10% capacitors.
in this context, what does MONO mean?
Or am I missing something here?
73,
There have been a series of repairs to my KPA100 and the KAT100. I have
realigned the KAT100 as per the manual. It brings the SWR down to 1:1 on 40
and
20 meters and 1.2:1 on 80. But on 17 meters, I'm getting 2.3:1 where I used
to get more like 1.1:1. Do I need to redo the alignment or
KPA100 repaired and reinstalled with good tx reports on 40 meters. usual
replacement of a couple of diodes and the 1N5711s after an ESD hit. I know, I
know, it should be disconnected but I have another fix (800 microhenry
inductor across antenna and ground) which will be installed today
I can see that this question has been asked in the past, but appears not to
have been answered. Can Elecraft share, assuming it has one, its list of
Mouser part numbers for the K2 and its options?
I feel that Elecraft must lose money on parts orders which come its way, and
I would just
Hi,
that is exactly the reason I would use a socket. this K2 lives on a boat
and is connected to a 23 foot whip and a seawater grounding system and when
it's working is astonishing. problem is from time to time I forget to
disconnect antenna when I'm not using radio and it gets fried by
If I install an IC socket for U2 on my KPA100, will there be any adverse
effects? Don't ask why I would want to do this. I would have to admit to
more
than the usual stupidity.
73 AI4TOJohn Ferguson M/V Arcadian
**Looking for simple solutions to your real-life
Is there any reason to choose one specification over another for the
1N5711's which are found in the KPA100 and KAT100? The ones currently being
shipped
appear to be GTE's vs whatever the kits came with in 2006.
I had thought that the frequent frying of these diodes on my k2 was due to
As I was unsoldering the failed headphone jack from its little peninsula, I
thought how unusual it was for a part which may need to be replaced from time
to time to actually be easy to get at. The K2 is such a joy to build, own,
and operate, and even repair.
This is one more really neat
I'm having trouble with hi-current shutdowns at higher power settings on all
bands below 20 meters (30,40, and 80) . 20 meters and above work fine.
I bought and built a W1 wattmeter which when connected to the notebook is
really neat. output watts shown on W1 are a bit lower than shown on
suspecting that R33 is shorted, is a resistance measurement across the
R33/RFC3 pair meaningful, or do I need to disconnect one end of R33 in order
to
get an accurate reading of its resistance?
John Ferguson AI4TO
**It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms and advice on AOL Money
Comrades,
Where does the info for the SWR display on the k2 come from when you are
tuning the kat100? seems as though the kat100 tunes itself with built-in
bridge
and the k2 does it's own measurement to derive what you see on the screen.
This means that it's up to the kat100 to get it
I just recovered from the wild goose chase instigated by a parted ptt
connection within the RS mike plug which I installed on the old Icom VHF mike
which
I've been using quite effectively on K2/100 5087. Can anyone recommend
another plug which has a more extended spring or flexible tube to
Comrades,
The speaker switch in the earphone jack on my k2 has quit. Has anyone found
a stouter replacement for J2?
73 AI4TO John Ferguson M/V Arcadian
**Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.
Comrades,
Thanks for all the ideas on what to do with the earphone jack. I conclude
that no more robust jack is available that will fit. I switch from a headset
to a cable to feed a very nice laptop based dsp cw terminal program (written
by AG4ND) and so need to change the plug at least
You could also try West marine which is where I got the RG8 I use on the boat.
John Ferguson AI4TO M/V Arcadian
** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
___
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
I have what seems to me to be a strange condition with my k2100 and
kat100. I have an Antenna on ANT1 and nothing on ANT2 on the KAT100.
On 20 meters only, receiving phone USB, say 14300, if I switch from
Antenna 1 to Antenna 2, there is no discernable difference in
sensitivity or volume.
Dave,
This seems a good idea. I had forgotten that some experienced mariner
once wrote that he left all his electronics on all the time - in
stand-by mode where possible and that this had considerably lengthened
their lives. My current plan is to take the K2 apart and very closely
inspect
Bill,
I'm having exactly the same problem. If you look back a couple of
days, you'll find Don Wilhelm's advice on the subject.
I have this problem on cooler days with my K2/100-KAT100 which lives on
a boat. Info80 to start and then everythings ok in say 20 seconds.
My plan is to iosolate the
K2 Colleagues,
My boat-board (alas, 36 feet does not make a ship) K2/100 with KAT100
gives me info80 displays on chilly damp mornings. It will step through
the bands but it takes two taps to do it, one to change the band and
then another to get rid of info80 and get the frequency display.
I
Hi Trevor,
FWIW, I regularly transmit ssb at 100 watts with battery ( 8 golf carts
series/parallel) voltages reported by k2 as low as 11 volts. I think
it will transmit well down to 10, maybe lower. I did hear a lot of
whining one time when I'd messed up a connection and was attempting to
Elecrafters,
I've finally licked the RFI Problem on my marine K-2 installation.
After fussing with all of the things that people suggested on the
Reflector, I blundered into the actual cause. It seemed as though it
had something to do with the microphone since I'd get RFI on transmit
when I
Comrades,
The KAT100 Manual suggests that if a control cable between the tuner
and the K2 needs to be longer than about 2 feet, it may need to be
better shielded. My continuing struggle with RFI, in a system where
the 23 foot veritcal whip antenna feed and rfi ground meet at the rear
of the
From: Don Wilhelm [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K2 Power Calibration
To: Cathy James [EMAIL PROTECTED], elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Adding either the KAT2, KPA100 or KAT100 options will include a proper
Comrades,
First, many many thanks to everyone who helped me puzzle through the
construction (alignment issues) of the kits and what I imagined to be
rfi problems with my antenna/counterpoise installation. Finally, we've
caught all the stupid things I did (at least the ones which had
Once again, I throw myself on the mercy of the wizards of K2.
Just finished KPA100, did all of the sequential tests, got the right
numbers, did the alignment routines, buttoned it up and now it works
just like it did before - quite well until I enage the amplifier by
going to 12 watts. Then
I kept the dialogues addressed to my rfi problem off the reflector
because I thought them too OT. I was delighted with the ideas many of
you suggested and will work my way through them. I have a tough
problem with proximity of everything due to ham shack in small boat.
I'm a bit sorry
I'm having problems with rf interference when attempting to transmit.
I have a list of possibilities which don't need exposure here, but I do
want to know if the K2 with the rear cover it comes with with all of
the unfilled openings can allow rf into a place where it could be a
problem?
In the midst of configuring k2 5087 to work with an old Icom vhf
microphone (succeeded) the lcd display has developed a tic with the
veritcal bar which closes the 0 (or any other digit for that matter) on
the right side such that 7268.00 looks like 7268.0C. It appears that
finger pressure
I received my call sign from FCC yesterday( KI4NGH) for my new General
license - a big deal for this 63 year old. I got the old vhf mic to
work using the 10k resistor from the 5 volt source to the AFF line on
the mic, and was able to do a qso on 7 watts on this morning's waterway
net from
During my late, somewhat unlamented career, I hired architects and
engineers. At some point I started asking interviewees what was the
dumbest thing they ever did in construction and what did they do about
it. I wouldn't hire anyone who hadn't done something dumb and in some
cases I even
Comrades,
Would it be better to concoct a really solid ground adapter to attach
directly to the pl-259 output connector on the KAT-100 rather than
using the lug provided? I ask because this will be a marine
installation feeding a 23 foot whip with an RF ground ground using all
the metal
1. I would like to characterize a completed T-4 binocular transformer
assembly to see if I really understand it. If I have it wrong, please
straighten me out.
the binocular core has two through-holes. when the wiring is done
according to the instructions, there will be two passes of wire
Comrades,
What a great kit! as well as a great manual! I'm up to end of second
stage of construction - where you can start listening on 40 meters and
I was astonished at what I could hear even with the goofy antenna I
threw up on the upper deck of our boat (qth?).
But I do have a question.
Thanks,
It's good to know how to do this for sure.
I was otherwise astonished by how closely my k2 tracked the numbers in
the manual. If memory serves, I hadn't built anything electronic in at
least 20 years.
-Original Message-
From: Don Wilhelm [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL
Comrades,
I reviewed the archives and couldn't find any recent experience with
the k2 and pactor. Does anyone in this group have current expereince
which they could share with me. I was alerted to the possibility that
the Pacxtor modem is very fussy about frequency drift. Is that an
issue
Hoping this isn't too far afield, I think someone mentioned that the
anaylzer he/she uses was
capable of seeing near field effects and indicating the cumulative
results in its display. Does this
mean that an analyzer could be used to position a vertical in a complex
environment (such as
the
Comrades,
what I was wondering was whether an analyzer would help me locate and
tune an antenna on my boat. I was hoping to find out whether it would
see the capacitance and other effects of several of the large metal
structures above deck. I was hoping that I would be able to move the
Comrades,
I wanted to thank each of you who advised me on the merits of starting
code with straight key or paddles. I greatly appreciated the quality
of your comments. It's astonishing how much compassionate intelligence
is focussed at this reflector. Thanks again. john ferguson
Comrades,
I'm working on my code to get my licenses soon. I will want to do CW with the
k2 I will buy and build on board our trawler. 1st mate and CFO watches
expenses like a hawk and will catch me if I (gasp) buy two things which appear
to do same thing. You can't hide much from her on the
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