[Elecraft] Yet another testimonial to Elecraft's customer service

[dmaliniak@penton.com]

It's a story that's been told before but I have to tell it again...
Elecraft customer service is second to none.

After installing the BFO and PLL upgrades in K2 #265, I suddenly found my
frequency display to be way out of whack when it had been on the money
before. WWV was zero-beating at around 10006 and 15008 kHz. The digital
beacons at the bottom of the 30-meter band were now at around 10107 kHz.
Uh-oh.

No amount of tweaking C22 would help. It just didn't have the range to
correct a 6-kHz error! Scott sent replacements for C22 and X2 on the
control board. We thought maybe the 4-MHz oscillator was the culprit but in
the end, it wasn't. I went over the mods a few times and if something was
wrong, it wasn't showing up.

Many, many e-mails exchanges with Gary and Wayne ensued. I finally
discovered, after Wayne suggested I check them, that the varactors (D16 &
D17) in the PLL circuit were the wrong types. I replaced them and
everything calibrated fine. So the problem proved to be an error I made in
the rig's original construction. My PLL range was way too low and it turns
out that v.2 firmware must see a high PLL frequency of at least 12095 kHz,
which I was not getting with the wrong varactors in the circuit. Installing
the correct ones brought the range up to where it should be. The problem
would never have turned up until I ran CAL PLL, which I hadn't since
upgrading the firmware some time ago.

The point of the whole story is how Elecraft stuck with me and helped me
pinpoint the problem. They worked with me (and my extremely limited
troubleshooting skills and test equipment) until I was able to find and
repair it on my own. I just wanted to say "Thanks!" in public to Elecraft
for all the help.

72,
David, AD2A
Glen Rock, NJ