[Elecraft] K2 #3218 is alive and on the air!

[Bob Solimeno]

I am having one heckuva good time with my K2.  I started (as a first
time builder) with the inventory on 2/11/03 and completed the "Finishing
Touches" on p.77 on 2/21/03.  I don't feel like I rushed the assembly,
but admit that I was so very eager to have my K2 working that (against
some very good advice to the contrary) I did stay up late.  I only had 2
real mistakes on my part.  The first (really dumb) one was installing P1
on the SSB board into one side of the pin connections for the U1 socket.

After recovering from that boo-boo the rest of the SSB board build went
OK - or so I thought.  I made 1 CW contact on 80 meters and one SSB
contact on 75, then last night made a phone contact on 20 and then
shortly
afterward noticed that the audio dipped severely, Pressing the RF/ALF
key during this period indicated that the SSB board was not installed.
Checked the menu for SSBA and found the dreaded ---- on the display.  I
immediately went to a search of the reflector archives (Thank You so
much Martin!) and found a post by Wayne back in 1999 advising Bob KI7MN
to measure all the voltages on the ICs.  Well out came my multimeter and
I found that there was 0 V on pin 1, 6.08 V on pin 2, ... I better write
this stuff down.  OK, again 0 V on pin 1, 6.08 V on pin 2 ... and I
"accidentally" jumpered pins 1 and 2 with the probe and the audio
instantly came back, then died again after about 30 seconds.  Hmmm,
checked the schematic and pin 1 "should be" 6 V.  Out comes my loupe
(which helps my almost 43 year old eyes see the detail) and #@#$%% darn
it I didn't solder pin 1 to the board.  Ergo dumb mistake #2.  Maybe I
should have heeded the wisdom of the reflector and gone to bed a bit
earlier.  Alas, my eagerness to get on the air overwhelmed me but with
all of the information available to me at my fingertips, here, I
corrected the problem and I absolutely love my K2.

I look forward to the QSO party on the 8th and 9th!

73  Bob KC2JAV  K2 #3218