[Elecraft] Re: general coverage (was: Sprint Summary)

[Mark J. Dulcey]

Wayne Burdick wrote:
> 
> It's not quite accurate to say that the K2 has "no" general coverage. On
> each band, you can tune some distance above and below the ham bands--in
> some cases well over 1 MHz. It's true that the band-pass filters will
> begin to roll off just outside the ham bands, but quite good reception
> of most of the popular short-wave band segments is possible. You can
> tune in AM signals using LSB or USB.

I concede your point. It is indeed possible to listen to quite a bit of the HF spectrum with a K2. On my radio, broadcast stations sounded terrible until I did the 2nd Xfil mod; they're much better now.

Those bandpass filters are another way in which the K2 design differs from most recent transceivers. My understanding is that most recent designs use only low-pass filtering, plus (in some cases) a switched-in 1.8 Mhz high-pass filter to guard against overload from nearby AM broadcasters. The bandpass filters improve the rejection of out-of-band signals, helping to prevent front end overload, but they do decrease sensitivity outside the ham bands. Fortunately, shortwave broadcasters usually have HUGE signals, so it doesn't hurt too much.
 
> You can
> even do some high-AM-band DXing, as the K2 will tune typically to as low
> as 1300 kHz when set for 160 meters.

Mine goes out of lock somewhere around 1500 kHz, so I don't get to listen to as much of the AM band as you do.

> One significant missing segment was 5 MHz, but this will be addressed by
> the future 60-meter option, which will be usable receive-only even if
> the FCC doesn't authorize a ham band here. At that point you'll be able
> to copy WWV at 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz on your K2.

The recent objection from the NTIA puts the fate of 60 meters in doubt. I still think something will happen, though it may take longer than we had hoped, and we may get a smaller band segment than originally envisioned.

Let's just hope they don't move the proposed band to include 4.915 MHz. The K2 will never be able to cover that frequency effectively (well, not without a modification far more extensive than planned), because it would be right on top of the IF.