[Elecraft] Newbie needs frequency counter advice, please...

[David Steere]

Elecrafters,

I'm a brand new ham with a brand new K1, about to fill the air with 
beautifully handcrafted 5 wpm CW (I wish...).  But, before I transmit 
anything, I would dearly love to assure myself that all my careful alignment 
has indeed resulted in an accurate transmit frequency for each of the K1's 4 
bands.  It's probably safe to assume that a properly built and aligned K1 
will be accurate, but I would like to make sure.  And, it only seems 
reasonable that an accurate instrument for transmit frequency measurement 
might also be useful in further amateur radio work.  To that end, I have the 
following questions:

- What other procedures besides transmit frequency measurement
   might a frequency counter be useful for?
- What accuracy/stability/resolution/sensitivity should I look for?
- What additonal features, if any, should I look for?
- Will I need to refinance my house to afford a useful instrument?
- Can anyone offer specific brand/model recommendations?

I've read through the Elecraft archives and found one encouraging 
recommendation for the handheld Elenco F-2800, together with some helpful 
techniques for using it, but this seems to be all I can find.  With such a 
dearth of frequency counter discussion, I wonder if I'm about to buy an 
instrument that I might not really ever use enough to justify its cost.

Thanks for any advice.


  - Dave Steere, KG6OSK

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail