[Elecraft] K2 Alignment Sequence:

[Don Wilhelm]

Joe and all,

The use of a single signal source for aligning L34 is important since that
adjustment is (at least used to be) set for the best signal to noise ratio
rather than simply adjusted for a peak.  The peak is very broad and may not
be easy to discern by ear (an analog meter is useful to observe the peak -
and Spectrogram can be used to advantage in noting the difference between
the noise floor and the signal peak).  The 7 MHz birdie is a good source -
that birdie is more apparent  with the antenna disconnected.

As far as the bandpass filters go, I generally prefer a single signal for
peaking any tuned circuit because it keeps me from tuning the circuit on
some secondary (and faulty) response.  I don't know if there is a
possibility of secondary responses from the K2 bandpass filters, but as a
generalization, I shy away from attempting to align such circuits with a
wideband source.

As Earl (K6SE) has pointed out - the best way to align the bandpass filters
is during transmit because the changes are much easier to see.  In the
general case I would recommend that they be roughly aligned for receive
first.  Since the original question was re-aligning an already working K2,
going directly to the transmit alignment for the bandpass filters is the
most expedient.

73,
Don W3FPR


----- Original Message -----
> >
> > The bandpass filter alignment and the L34 alignment are independent and
can
> > be done at any time.  These should be done with a single signal source
> > rather than a wideband noise source.
> >
>
> Can you tell us why a single signal source is better in this case?