[Elecraft] I'm too old to remember

[Don Wilhelm]

Carter,
The K2 will show the carrier frequency in SSB mode (although only the audio
passband is transmitted) - I have a suspicion that your friend is tuning
your signal so that your voice sounds 'normal' to him which would give him
the impression that your carrier frequency is something other than the
actual carrier frequency that the K2 is generating.
(This is the 'real world' situation with suppressed carrier transmission in
that the receiving operator must tune to a frequency that makes the signal
sound 'right' to him).

You did say that your K2 shows the correct frequency in CW mode, so there is
nothing wrong with the K2 frequency displaying relationships.

What you should change is the relationship of the SSB filter passband and
its associated BFO - this is the BFO frequencies associated with the SSB
mode FL1 position (two BFO frequencies actually - one each for USB and LSB).

May I suggest that you transmit into a dummy load and receive your K2 SSB
signal with the TS-440.  It would be best to record the audio output rather
than trying to listen to it real time.  If your voice sounds too bassy, you
should move the BFO further away from to the filter passband edge and
conversly, if it is too high pitched, move the BFO closer to the filter
passband edge.  Using Spectrogram can make this task easier to observe -
with a widebnd noise source as the K2 input (do not use a signal) you can
see the passband move to a higher (or lower) frequency as you adjust the
BFO, but you can accomplish the same thing by moving the BFO frequency one
or two counts at a time and re-trying the process until your voice sounds
correct.

73,
Don W3FPR






----- Original Message -----

> I was surprised when my friend told me that my K2/100 (s/n 678) was off
> frequency when we chose to meet up on 18.132 MHz. I rarely use SSB, and
> no one else has told me I was off frequency when I'm operating on CW.
>
> So I checked HIS frequency with my old and trusty Kenwood TS-440s.  Sure
> enough HE was dead on frequency as compared to my TS-440s.
>
> So now I'm concerned that my rig won't be up to snuff for Field Day. And
> I can't remember how to make sure everything is set correctly.
>