[Elecraft] Building a K2 kit ...

Sun Nov 9 20:21:03 2003

Rich,
 Congratulations on the new K2 kit, you won't be disappointed and it 
will not be that hard. I just completed my K2 with all options except 
the 100 watt amp ... in retrospect I can say this:

   1. INVENTORY all the K2 bags first, one at a time and keep the
      components from being mixed up from one bat to another. The RFa
      and the RFb bags can be mixed since you'll need all of them to
      finish the rf board.
   2. Get a good solder station with a small tip if you haven't already
      done so. The K2 spaces are not too close, but the solder bridges I
      did make were cuz my tip is a wide one compared to a small chisel
      type.
   3. Make photocopies of your printed circuit boards on both sides
      [better yet scan them in and post them on the web, if you need a
      host site to post them let me know, I can post them on my website
      for you...] this way if you have any questions about bridges or
      parts placement [polarity, etc.] you'll have a copy of an empty
      board to use.
   4. I used paper egg carton trays to keep my parts in during
      construction. I put all the 103, 102,101's, etc. parts in their
      respective bins having marked all the bins as per the inventory
      list. Took about 4 one dozen cartons to make enough spots for all
      the parts, mostly the caps ... the resistors are on a taped string
      which is nice. Some guys stick the parts in the order of assembly
      in the end of a box .... I just lump em into their separate bins
      in the egg cartons ...
   5. Take your time, come up for air every 15 to 20 minutes ... read
      very carefully each step, and in particular, steps during
      construction that may take several sub steps to finish the
      particular point you are at ... some times it is easy to mess up
      by not know all the methods and manners this kit will take during
      phases of building. Been there done that ...:)
   6. COMPLETE THE BASIC K2 WITH OUT ANY OF THE OPTIONS FIRST !!! Don't
      be tempted to build the options and add them in during
      construction... the time and effort to disassemble and modify the
      K2 with the mods is much less work than trying to align a kit that
      has been modified ...
   7. It will help to make good notes on the side of your manual as you
      go, date, time, any thoughts or problems or things that come up so
      you can go back and refer to "what did I do last," sort of
      situation ... it happens.
   8. Use this list, it really helped me in my effort, even though I
      have built many kits and scratch build projects over the years ...
      and the list members will jump right in there and help you solve
      the problems that will crop up.
   9. If you have someone there who can eyeball the work as you go along
      from time to time it can reduce the chance of the "can't see the
      forest for the trees" syndrome .....I did this and he caught a
      solder bridge I had looked right over ... (red face)  ...  don't
      be ashamed or afraid to ask questions ...
  10. Contact elecraft when things don't seem right or if something is
      missing... those folks will solve the problem ... immediately in
      most cases. They even told me that I had a part missing before I
      completed my initial inventory. You can inventory the options bags
      when you get to them ... hope this has helped some. Have fun, talk
      at you on the air... oh, and if you plan to connect to the PC I
      highly recommend the program Ham Radio Deluxe ...

  http://sysgem.decus.ch/hb9drv/HamRadioDeluxeVersion011b196.exe 

and the manual is here :

 http://sysgem.decus.ch/hb9drv/Satellites.pdf

Take care, have fun ... tty on the air...

73, de Michael Heit KD7YLA
"Real Hams do it at a high frequency"

-- 
73, de Michael Heit KD7YLA
"Real Hams do it at a high frequency"

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