[Elecraft] Grounding & Receivers

[Tree N6TR]

> Two questions: I find a lot of info on the K2's receiver being very 
> good.  Is the K1's receiver just as good?

No.  But that really depends on what attributes you are looking for.
For many applications, they can be considered the same.  For maybe 
one or two, the K1 is a better receiver.  However, the K2 has so many
more features, it is hard to compare them.

> What types of grounding do most use on the K2?  I want to be able to 
> operate from second story and grounding is a problem with higher 
> powered rigs...does the K2 have this problem?

I made the first answer short to make up for this one.

This depends on what you perceive your grounding problem to be.  The
short answer is that grounds are really independent of what type of
radio you have.  One radio isn't going to "need" a ground more than
another.  

However, if you are feeling that you need a ground because you don't 
like getting RF burns - then the answer could be yes since the K2 
(being a QRP radio) will probably not generate enough RF to create
a burn...  although in the right circumstances, it still could.

Your antenna has a lot more to do with your ground situation.  I once
operated from an apartment - and probably experienced similar problems
to the ones you are having.

It is not essential to have a ground for your radio.  Most "proper" 
antennas provide their own ground reference if you will, and there
should be no current wanting to flow from your radio to ground.  

But, you probably don't have a proper antenna in an apartment.  To
solve this problem, you will need to describe your antenna configuration
and what bands you are trying to operate on.  Hopefully, with this
information, some suggestions could be made about changes that would
help eliminate your ground "problem".

From a simple perspective, you might think about quarter wave wires to
act as ground stubs for the frequencies you are trying to use.  If you 
are using a simple wire out the window, then these become the other half
of your antenna - and the radio is sitting at the feedpoint.  Quarter
wave wires are about 256/frequency (in MHz) feet long.  They will work
for odd multiples (one for 40 meters will work for 15 as well).

73 Tree N6TR
tree@kkn.net