[Elecraft] Loss of sidetone...

Sat Apr 20 04:03:00 2002

K0PQ wrote:
>My K2 has developed a problem which escapes my efforts to fix:  In short,
>I've lost all sidetone!
 I had this problem when I was doing the stage one tests on my K2 - it was not the
source switching set up in the menus which was correct (I tried both settings) and no
sidetone waveform was coming out of the micro.  I never found the reason as it was
working normally next time I powered up and has not reappeared.  It struck me as some
sort of software problem though.

>Another spooky symptom--likely unrelated to the sidetone issue--is that the
>upper HF bands (10-12-15-17-20 m), where I spend most of my time have been
>REALLY spooky-quiet lately.

There is a major solar storm in progress at the moment - the bands have been awful
since mid week and totally dead this morning, not expected to improve till next week.
I shall spend the time finishing my KAT2 and working on 136kHz.

This week's ARRL letter below gives the details

73s Dave G3YMC
K2 #2498
[email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.dsergeant.btinternet.co.uk

**************
Extract from ARRL Letter Vol 21 No.16

Solar sage Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Average daily
sunspot number was up slightly and the average solar flux was down a
couple of points this week, but the big news was the high geomagnetic
activity. On Wednesday the planetary A index was 41, and K indices over
several reporting periods were six, which is very high. The high latitude
College A index was 73, and the College K index reached 7.

On April 15 at 0400 UTC a full halo coronal mass ejection blasted away
from the sun. At 1100 UTC on April 17 energy from that coronal mass
ejection struck Earth's magnetosphere, triggering a geomagnetic storm.
Several hours earlier another coronal mass ejection left the sun, and
effects from it may be felt on Friday or Saturday.

On Thursday the prediction from the US Air Force was for a planetary A
index of 40 on Friday, 50 on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. It also shows
solar flux bottoming out for the short term around 170 on Sunday or
Monday, then rising above 200 after April 29.

With a predicted geomagnetic storm this weekend, expect particularly bad
propagation over polar paths, conditions worsening for higher latitudes,
and some transequatorial propagation--but only because that may be the
only HF propagation available, not because TE propagation (signals
crossing the equator) is enhanced during geomagnetic storms.

Sunspot numbers for April 11 through 17 were 235, 263, 257, 236, 243, 172
and 137, with a mean of 220.4. The 10.7-cm flux was 197.4, 211.9, 226,
210.3, 203.3, 195.7 and 193.5, with a mean of 205.4. Estimated planetary A
indices were 13, 13, 14, 13, 7, 10 and 41 with a mean of 15.9.