[Elecraft] Outstanding Help from Elecraft Tech. Support

[Roger Marrotte]

I just want to thank Gary Surrency for his fantastic help.  I've had my K2
for a year or two and it's been working great, until a week ago, when the
transmit function died!  I looked at the radio for a few days, tried
transmitting a few times, and finally got out the manual, opened the radio
up, scratched my head for a while, decided I had to build the RF probe,
couldn't find the parts envelope for the probe kit, ordered an RF probe kit
from QRPp International Radio Club, then found the missing RF probe kit
envelope that came with the K2, built the probe, read the trouble shooting
section of the manual, scratched my head some more, tried to do some of the
checks described in the manual and got no where fast.  I've build a lot of
kits but have never had to trouble shoot anything.  Boy was I getting
frustrated.  But then I got smart and emailed Elecraft and Gary and I
exchanged a few emails.  His replies were fast and right to the point. The
radio was fixed in no time.  The problem was my fault.  When I built the
radio a long time ago I forgot to solder one of the leads on Q3 on the
control board.  Some how it's worked all this time like that.  I can't say
enough about Gary's help.  He lead my by the hand and made it easy.
Hopefully I've learned something from the process.  While trouble shooting
the problem I found a second unsoldered joint on the external speaker jack!
Too many long nights having too much fun to stop building the kit.  Last
night I tested the rig by answering a YB1 on sideband and he came back to
me!  I did have to crank the power all the way up to 15 watts.  Now that
everything is working so well again, I'm really thinking about the 100W
option and the new tuner when it comes out.

Roger, W1EM