[Elecraft] Beyond the K2, Part 1 of 3

[k6se@juno.com]

Ed, K6SDW wrote:

"I'm not a big fan of S meters but this would be embarrassing for me if
my 
ham pals saw it just sitting there!!"
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I loaned my K2/100 to a friend a while back to try with his new Alpha 99
amp (his rig did not have adjustable tx output).  He returned it the next
day saying that it worked fine with his new amplifier, but he didn't like
the K2 because the S-meter was stingy.  This was embarassing for me and
surely was the loss of a potential Elecraft customer.
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"...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.... 

...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.....

is this normal for the K2?"
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It is with my K2 (#2622).  It seems that the setting of R1 on the control
board is a trade-off between S-meter senstivity and I.F gain.

It would be nice if someone would come up with a mod to increase S-meter
sensitivity without increasing the AGC.

73, de Earl, K6SE