[Elecraft] Thinking out loud again...

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Allegedly, back then when sending ham equipment to MIR, one of of the
few tests to be certified were dropping the unit from the table and
checking if it still worked.

Ma"No I don't do that to my K2"rio

-- 
Mario Lorenz                          

I haven't been involved with things slated to fly in space since the
1960's, but back then for the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo programs "drop
tests" were one of the most rigorous physical tests that equipment
slated to fly had to survive. One that I recall was something like a 1
meter (about 3 foot) free-fall onto hard concrete: WHAM! 

Even worse than those were the "shake tests" which seemed a bit extreme
until we saw the data on what it was like to ride a Saturn into orbit. 

Maybe they've gotten more "sophisticated" since then and now use a
billion-dollar machine to administer the "WHAM!" 

With its lack of interconnecting wires and loose-hanging parts, I
suspect that a K2 would survive the physical stress tests very easily.
Now, how to make a 160 meter trailing wire antenna "trail" in the vacuum
of space, or prevent a corona discharge from the tip of a whip antenna
when cranking the power up to 100 watts are other issues that might take
a little more thought.

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289