[Elecraft] New Crystals

[Mike McCoy]

> I intend to connect case ground wires to both sides of the CW filter
> crystals at the very bottom of each side *before* installing them. So each
> crystal will go in with two signal leads and two ground leads already in
> place.

hmm... the thru holes for the xtal ground wires are not right up next to the
xtal can. If you solder the wire close to the very bottom you might not have
enough 'play' in the wire to allow mounting the xtal flush against the
board.

Just today I finished replacing both the CS & SSB xtals. I'd put it off for
a long time (months) because I wasn't looking forward to disassembling my K2
down to the RF board. Or so I thought... blazing ahead I (fortunately)
discovered you only need to remove the bottom and one (right) side cover to
gain access to the CW xtals.

Still, because it was a 'retrofit' things are pretty darned cramped. The SSB
was tight enough to assemble in the first place... Removing the SSB xtals
was easy... replacing them *and their grounds* presented a bit of a
challenge.

After removing all the orig xtals/grounds, I decided the easiest way would
be to solder short 'stubs' of ground wire in the PCB first. After they were
all in place I then soldered the xtals making sure they were flush against
the PCB. Once everything was in place I then bent/formed the wire 'stubs'
flush against the cans and soldered them last. All in all it worked out
really well and you can't even tell any 'surgery' was done at all.

>
> Similarly, I intend to attach case ground wires to the SSB crystals very
> low on the cans and to route them to the existing ground through-holes
with
> the shortest lead lengths. Thus these crystals will have three wires on
> each prior to installation.

You might want to reconsider incorporating the CW xtal 'mod' to the SSB
xtals. At least read this first:

http://www.rt66.com/~hypoxic/K2stuff/ssbfilterquiry.html

Mike - K5PU