[Elecraft] Beyond the K2, Part 1 of 3

[Eddy Avila]

Interesting problem Bruce....I did some "playing" tonight and what I 
discovered is that with the AGC turned off my K2 does indeed have plenty of 
audio output, enough to blast me out of the shack and get yelled at my the 
xyl...HI!! But when I engage the AGC my output drops a lot especially on the 
upper bands but still plenty of output for the shack, but not mobile 
service!!

So....I started messing with the AGC voltage setting and honestly I really 
liked the AGC action and audio output with mine set at 2.9v which is way 
lower than what Gary at Elecraft recommends....that's the good news, the bad 
is that my S-meter is totally useless....I mean worse than you can image. 
Now, I not a big fan of S meters but this would be embarrassing for me if my 
ham pals saw it just sitting there!! I know what I did was move the AGC 
action more close to no AGC and hence little or no S-meter....

So...Gary sez to put the AGC setting on U2 pin 5 at 3.85v which I now have 
and my S-meter works great again...lot's of AGC action but now total overall 
output has gone way down.....to really get some output I now need to turn 
off AGC.....so,

is this normal for the K2? Or, do I have some "issue" with my receiver that 
still not resolved in my SN 3345??

I guess I'll bug Gary one more time for his opinion!!

73...ed






>From: "Bruce Thompson" <brucet622@attbi.com>
>Reply-To: <brucet@santechconsulting.com>
>To: "'Eddy Avila'" <k6sdw@hotmail.com>
>Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Beyond the K2, Part 1 of 3
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 20:45:37 -0600
>
>You're not the only one Ed.  The last time I posted a message about low
>audio, I got lots of direct replies very similar to yours saying the
>same thing.  Nothing much happened out of Elecraft.  We'll see if they
>respond this time.
>
>I'll post anything I find about the audio issue.  I know there are new
>chips to replace the audio amplifier in the K2 that are supposed to be
>better but I haven't had the time to look into them yet.
>
>73,
>
>Bruce
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Eddy Avila [mailto:k6sdw@hotmail.com]
> > Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 8:04 PM
> > To: brucet@santechconsulting.com
> > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Beyond the K2, Part 1 of 3
> >
> >
> > I second the your opinion about audio output....mine is
> > plenty good for in
> > the shack but would never make it mobile in my truck!!! I
> > sent my thoughts
> > to Elecraft but they thought I had a receiver
> > problem....which I may still
> > have but I doubt it
> >
> > May be just old ears? But, my ICOM 751A WILL BLOW you outa
> > the room at 1/2
> > to 3/4 volume, albeit with distortion!
> >
> > 73...ed
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >

> > >
> > >Expanded Audio Capabilities
> > >
> > >One of the weaknesses of at least my K2 is the ability to pump out
> > >enough volume in a mobile environment to understand the
> > other station
> > >given the background noise.  The old adage that, "You can't
> > work 'em if
> > >you can't hear 'em" applies.  I don't know if it is
> > something with my
> > >particular rig/truck/antenna/mountains combination but there
> > are many
> > >times I can tell a station is there but I can't turn up the
> > volume high
> > >enough to understand what is being said (SSB if you hadn't
> > figured it
> > >out).  I've made just about every mod possible but I still
> > have to do
> > >things like pump the audio into the car stereo to get it
> > loud enough.
> > >I've documented and posted the steps I've followed to try to improve
> > >the situation.  Basically I have to run full RF gain, full, AF gain,
> > >with the preamp on, (after it was modified for even more


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