[Elecraft] K2 deaf on 20m, other bands OK

Sun Sep 1 11:16:00 2002

Try bypassing the relay contacts. Quickest way to see if you have a bad
relay.

Use a "clip lead" or solder a wire across the contacts.

73
Jim W7RY

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Long" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K2 deaf on 20m, other bands OK

> Hi Chris,
>
> If it's any consolation, I am having the same problem with my K2 #2078. I
have "broken in" the 20M trimmers and looked everywhere I can for wrong
components and so on. I resoldered the toroids. Nothing. I adjusted the caps
as described on the Elecraft website and so on. I can get power out on 20M
but no receiver performance on 20M. I can touch the antenna through a small
cap to parts in the 20M trimmer area and signals come right through. (See
Tom Hammond's signal tracing approach on the website too.) I am beginning to
believe I have a bad relay or something. BTW, my 30M works just fine too.
Full power out on the other bands including 30M and the receiver is fine
except on 20M. I have noticed that when switching to 20M I hear a burst of
band noise for a split second as the relays switch when the radio changes
bands to 20M but then the noise stops within .25 seconds. That is what is
making me think I might have a relay with a bad contact or some other
internal defect. The interesting thing though is that by touching the
antenna on the relay pins it works and it seems the relays are fine. This is
frustrating to me because 20M is my favorite band and I have not been able
to use the radio on 20M at all. I have also thought that perhaps the radio
needs to be reset because the relay control might be confused somehow but I
have not done that yet. Maybe that's the next step for me - then realignment
of the radio.
>
> That's about all I have to offer. Not much help here but thought I'd let
you know you're not the only one in this particular boat.
>
> Best regards and 72/73,
>
> Ed Long
> WA4SWJ
> Peoria, AZ
>
> -
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Christoph Rheker
> Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 3:21 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Elecraft] K2 deaf on 20m, other bands OK
>
> Hallo friends,
>
> I am having an issue with my K2 on 20m which
> I finished a few days ago.
>
> It's very unsensitive on 20 only, stations that are S9
> on my Kenwood are only S3 on the K2. Also they
> sound much weaker. When I connect my antenna
> there is also no atmospheric background noise,
> even when Pre-Amp is on.
>
> It is only 20m that is affected, 10m is even
> better than my Kenwood.
>
> 30m is also OK. Since 30m uses the same band-pass
> and low-pass filters as 20m I think the filters
> are OK. I checked C19-C25 and C197-C203 and all
> is fine. Also re-soldered L18-L20.
>
> I could not find the place where the signal is lost
> with my little Oszi. But maybe I am looking at the
> wrong place.
>
> Another strange thing on 20m is: The Power Output
> goes down a lot and the band end. When the K2 is
> adjusted per the book on 14,100 kHz I get abt
> 15W there. But on 14,300 kHz I get a few watts
> only! As if the band-pass filter is very narrow.
>
> Hmmm.
>
> I am a little clueless now. But it is a rainy
> Sunday, so plenty of time for fixing bugs :-))
>
> Many thanks for ideas and 73,
> Chris, DL4YAO
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list: [email protected]
> You must be a list member to post to the list.
> Postings must be plain text (no HTML or attachments).
> See: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Elecraft Web Page: http://www.elecraft.comGet more from the Web.  FREE MSN
Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
>
>
> --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
> multipart/alternative
>   text/plain (text body -- kept)
>   text/html
> The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
> or had an attachment. Attachments are not allowed.
> Please post in Plain-Text only.---
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list: [email protected]
> You must be a list member to post to the list.
> Postings must be plain text (no HTML or attachments).
> See: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Elecraft Web Page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>