[Elecraft] K2 #3457 first impressions

[Andy Bullington]

After frying the button IC with a slipped probe and a couple other first =
time kit builder type foul ups, I got my K2 on the air! My other rig is =
a Ten Tec Omni V which, to my surprise, is in semiretirement at this =
point.
     In the last 3 or 4 days I've worked all sorts of stations with 10 =
watts and an 80 meter loop and have generally had a blast. I love the =
way the receiver SOUNDS and, although I miss the sharpness of the Omni =
xtal filters, I've gotten quite used to the filter arrangement on the =
K2. In addition, I have ordered the DSP option.
    This has got to be the best CW rig ever. With the no relay QSK, and =
flexible spotting,sidetone parameters I have a very different rig than =
the Omni. I do wish there was a way to assign a different QSK time to =
one of the PF buttons for one button switching. I like a slower QSK time =
when ragchewing. But thats a tiny quibble.(maybe there's a way to do =
this that I haven't yet figured out)  I have a problem with power line =
noise at this QTH but, although its still there, it has much less edge =
than with the Omni. On the Omni there are times when certain bands are =
almost unusable, even with the noise blanker. I haven't gotten around to =
installing the K2 noise blanker yet because the noise is not nearly as =
annoying on the K2. And at this time of terrible propagation I'm stunned =
at the DX I'm hearing on this rig.
     LOVE the keyer on the K2....my outboard keyer for the Omni is a =
Logikey K3, a very good keyer, but I must say, I lke the one in the K2 =
at least as well.
     The only shortcoming with this great little radio ( and its a =
SERIOUS one) is that I can't seem to tear myself away from it, thereby =
running the danger of completely annoying my wife. (if you think that's =
a joke, its because you don't know my wife)  I have never been =
particularly interested in QRP but I'm finding that the 10 watts I've =
been running, with VERY few exceptions, is enough to get almost everyone =
I've called.(and yes, I know that 10 watts is not real QRP)  I really =
couldn't be more impressed.  Without a doubt building this kit has been  =
the most satisfying thing I've done since I got my ticket last year.=20
    And if anybody out there is nervous about building this kit, take =
note: if I can do it (a 52 year old musician with essentially No =
experience building ANYTHING) ANYBODY can do it.
                            Andy W1AWB
Plus the Elecraft support is the absolute best.


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---