[Elecraft] "discovering" Elecraft (LONGISH)

[Peter Halpin]

Hi all,

To get away from all the pointless bickering about what constitutes a "real"
K2 here's how I discovered Elecraft.

A couple of years back I heard about the K2 at the G-QRP Club's yearly
convention in the UK: at that time there were even rumours that there'd be a
6m transverter to match it. That got me really interested as I was chasing
6m QRP DXCC at the time. Unfortunately the integrated transverter never
materialised but my 6m QRP DXCC did, so I let things rest. Then a friend of
mine - Klaus DL8MTG - came to visit and brought his K2 with him. I was very
impressed by the all-round quality of the thing, and decided that if I ever
had the spare money I'd build one. Last year I had a close encounter of the
nastiest kind with bowel cancer, and after an emergency operation followed
by chemotherapy I really needed something to help me get my concentration
and dexterity back to normal. I was able to persuade my Boss (bless her!)
that building a K2 would be really therapeutic, so I ordered a basic QRP K2
with all the bits except the KAF2 - that came later. Building it was great
fun and helped restore quite a bit of concentration and got my fingers
working again. My nervous system had taken a whack from the chemo and
winding all those lovely toroids got them loosened up a treat - well, that's
my story and I'm sticking to it.

One of the problems when it was all built was "what next?". I fancied trying
something on a smaller scale but then the KPA100 was announced. As I'd never
in my life built anything capable of producing more than about 15W it seemed
a good idea to try this as an exploration of the possible. Anyway, to cut a
long story short, it all works. Then the ********* (insert expletive of your
choice) at Elecraft decided to present the KAT100. Oh dear: how do I
convince The Boss that I need to splurge even more cash? To make matters
worse I had just been told that the ****** cancer was back and had nestled
in my liver - just how do you justify building something you may not even
get a chance to build, let alone use? But Jeanette responded
characteristically and said as I can't take it with me, I might as well
enjoy it while I can. So there you are: I now have a K2 for QRP work, with
the KPA100 option should I ever feel that I need it.

Having a full-option K2 is a privilege: I'd be very happy with it without
the optional KPA100, but I certainly don't feel that a K2 with a KPA100 is
somehow "worth" more or less than one without. It'd be as silly as saying
that a K2 with an SSB option isn't a "real" K2! Most of us know that the
REAL challenge with QRP is using 'phone modes, although I can assure you
that it's not nearly as difficult as some people would have us believe. So
here's a challenge to all of you: get out there and work a single-band DXCC
in (95%) SSB and earn some REAL bragging rights :-) Have a look at
http:www.halpin.tomaatnet.nl/dxcc.jpg  to see what can be done.

The moral of this story is twofold: Do what you can while you can - and it's
not what you do that really counts in the end; it's the style with which you
do it.

145, Pete  PE1MHO - G7ECN - M3ECN  K2 #2768 (with optional KPA100
capability)