[Elecraft] K2 impressions on Field Day

[Andy Bullington]

Well first of all I couldn't bear to take my precious newly finished K2 =
out to the field in question yesterday so I contented myself by working =
some cw from the FT100 in our RACES van. We had a G5RV up about 100 =
yards from the ocean and there was a huge amount of activity on 20 meter =
cw. Not to hurt anybody's feelings who has an FT100,  and to be honest, =
I didn't spend enough time on it to really form an unbiased opinion but =
I found it not to be a great CW radio. Strong adjacent signals would =
obliterate whoever I was trying to work and zero beating was not as =
simple as pushing the spot tone button. I was also not impressed with =
the receive sound on CW. I would imagine this is a much better SSB rig =
and I guess thats what it was designed for.
      Later on, at home, I decided to crank back the K2 and see if I =
could make any contacts with 5 watts in that hullabaloo. I  came away =
pretty impressed. in a short time I made 24 contacts on 80, 40 and 20 =
meters using 5 watts to an 80 meter loop 30 feet high. I might have =
failed to make 1 or 2 contacts of all the stations I called. On receive =
the K2 was nothing short of spectacular. In NO case did I ever lose a =
contact because of a strong nearby signal. On 20 meters I was able to =
work Texas easily as well as Arizona and Oregon. In short, I had a whale =
of a good time. All on 5 watts.  All I can say is....man, what a radio!
                                             Andy W1AWB K2#3457


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