[Elecraft] FD Report

[Richard Lim]

Well folks, K2 #3232 had her first field day. She made a generally good
impression with the club members, but there were a few snags.

I was recruited to be part of the 20m Phone team.  Typically we have been
the workhorse band for points and after last year's weak showing I was not
going to have mud in my face again!  I was running the K2 twins 100w to a
Hexbeam at 35ft (great antenna!!).

First off, let me say that 100% of the club members who came by could not
take their eyes off of the K2!  EVERYONE it seemed had heard of it but few
have worked with one or even seen one in person.  After the initial "sex
appeal" wore off, people commented on how good the K2 sounded VS the many
other rigs at our FD.  The real icing on the cake was how well the K2
handled the QRM issues typical of field day.  I even sneaked down to the CW
portion to show off the K2 in her natural element!  WOW is what I kept
hearing.  I also got great audio reports as the K2 with its compression at
3-1 really got out.  So far so good!

I did have a few little problems.  The "hot PA" error message kept coming up
(3-5 times) despite a warm, not hot, to the touch heatsink.  I checked the
CAL TPA and she was reading 255C.  NO WAY!  I have had this problem before
at the home QTH and posted the problem on the list, but it seems others who
have had the problem have not found the solution either.  Any comments from
Eric, Wayne, Gary et al?

Second problem I had which was rather embarrassing is that the K2 "locked
up" towards the end of FD today.  Can't understand what happened, but she
just locked up and I had to pull the power mains and restart.  It did not
help as I had to put away the K2 and pull out a backup rig to finish field
day (ouch to the ego!!).  I just got home and had to repower several times
before she would start up normally again. Anyone on the list have this
problem?  I'm afraid it has to do with the KDSP2 as I have one of Kyle's
beta test new firmwares to correct the earlier bug in the KDSP2 firmware.
I'm not sure all bugs are worked out yet.

Overall, I still LOVE my K2 and she had a good first showing, but I'm glad
that I had a backup rig.

73 all and hope someone on the list can shed some light on these issues.

Rich

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73 DE KQ9L K2/100 #3232