[Elecraft] Rig drift

[James Hammons]

An easy accurate way to evauate dirft and frequency accuracy is to use
the free program for PC's, BeaconSee.  All it requires is a connection
from the headphone jack to the line in of your soundcard.  If you are
set up for soundcard digital you are ready. This method just about
eliminates errors in tuning and zero beating WWV, and it should work
anywhere in the world.
=20
Reading the setup instructions tell you to use lower sideband and tune
1kc high.  With the K-2 it's easier to tune to the beacon using cw
mode and set the center equal to your sideband frequency eg 600cps.
Drift on SSB is not likely to be a problem anyway.  If your frequency
calibration is accurate you will see a line trace the beacons you can
hear and see. Use the plug only partway in to see and hear. If the
calibration is off the line will be above or below the center
frequency.  If there is drift the line will slope up or down as the
frequency changes.  These beacons are accurate.  Often I can hear all
of the beacons on 14,100 kc, on my 20m dipole.  After the K2 warms up
there will be a continuous line from all the beacons. =20

Most likely the line will not be exactly centered at your sidetone
frequency.  You can center it up with tuning knob and then you can try
cw reverse and various filters and modes to see how they affect the
frequency.  You will be able to see the bandwidth of the various modes
and see if the signal remains in the passband.  The advantage of
BeaconSee is the trace is over a long period of time.

It is more than worth the effort to set up BeaconSee because it can be
used to evaluate band conditions from you to the whole world.  It
gives good indication that your receive is up to snuff also.

You can simulate normal operation by attaching your dummy load and
going into tune for 10 minutes and then receive the beacon for 10
minutes.  Don't use more power than you would for digital mode eq
5watts for the base K-2.  CW and SSB do not use 100% power on average.
You will overheat the finals if you use full power and it won't
simulate CW or SSB power anyway.  If you have the 160 meter option
with the second receive antenna connector you won't have to change the
output to the dummy load by hand, but otherwise you will have to
switch to the second output or physically connect and disconnect the
dummy load.  Or you can punch in the frequency and pop over and see
how normal operation has affected operation anytime.  This is  easiest
if you mark the AF gain setting with a bit of masking tape.  You will
likely want to use Pre all the time so you can hear the weak ones.

James