[Elecraft] It's quadruplets!

[Steve Holton]

Quadruplets? Well not exactly - but I do have a pair of K2 "Twins" i.e. 
Fully loaded K2 + KPA-100/KAT-100 in an EC2. To me best of both worlds. 
Portable qrp rig with battery ready to hit the road and a qrp/100watt 
station in the shack.
This month I added the KAT/100 and EC2 to K2 #2646 + KPA-100 I had gotten 
at Dayton and completed in June, and to K2 #2843 I had started in November.
With one notable exception and two very minor exceptions everything 
basically ran as built out of the box. The minor notes were an "equivalent" 
RTC chip in the first KAF2 that turned out to be in a batch that Elecraft 
got that weren't quite equivalent enough, and the second KIO2 had a 
non-oscillating crystal - both quickly diagnosed and parts replace thanks 
to Gary and Scott.
The "notable exception" was the base K2 #2843 which went seem to attract 
all the bad mojo for the entire setup. It was from the Henry Ford school - 
you could have any power out as long as it is 19.1 Watts.  Gary really hung 
in there with me 'til we finally drove all the bad mojo out. As usual we 
eventually met the enemy and it was me. I had failed to solder one joint in 
the ALC path, but finding it lead us on several detours and other 
mysteries. Along the way the PLL ref. osc. stopped, and I learned that the 
Freq. Ctr. input transistor Q9 is ESD sensitive. I never did fix the PLL 
ref. osc. - it just started running again!@#! but did find the missing joint.
Several weeks later I returned to ensure that we were getting enough output 
on all bands before testing with the KPA-100. I was getting occasionally 
normal power out, mostly minimal power out.....I learned that when you 
remove the KSB2 put C167 Firmly in J11 not tentatively so it's 
intermittent!@#! and also that one can fry R50 very easily when probing 
Q6.  But along the way to that "learning experience" the PLL ref. osc. 
stopped again. After discussion with Gary I installed the BFO/PLL mods, and 
the PLL ref. osc. started up again but not in such a way to be 100% 
convincingly that it was the immediate consequence of the mod. However - 
knock on wood - the rig seems to be running just fine.

Many thanks are due to Gary and Scott at Elecraft for their outstanding 
support!
Also to Tom N0SS and Lyle KK7P for their help as well as everyone on this list.

While frustrating at times in the midst of debugging, I got outstanding 
support, have two great rigs and l gained an amazing amount of knowledge. I 
really feel I understand much of how the rig works and have learned more 
"theory" and "practice" of electronics than  I could have imagined.

73
and see you on the air,
Steve Holton N1NB