[Elecraft] #3716 Here

[Terry Schieler]

Hi again everyone.

Well, old #3716 is starting to look like a real K2 radio.  Two quick (well,
com'on, you really wouldn't read them if I said they were long and wordy
now, would you?) questions for the group.

Question 1:
I have completed all the Alignment and Tests Part II successfully on pages
57- 59 of the manual.   Upon reassembling the boards and powering up the rig
to perform the Part II tests, I noticed that I now get a constant S-Meter
reading of about a 5 on all bands with no antenna.  It may vary slightly,
but it's pretty much a solid 5 bars on the LED meter for the most part.
Last I remembered when I aligned the S Meter, I had no LED bars lit in the
powered up but standby mode and RF gain at a max.  Was that because I didn't
really have a "receiver" at that point?  Or, is there a problem.  Most rigs
I've owned, have little or no S meter reading without an antenna.  I hear
receiver noise on every band.  7.000 mHz seems to have a "signal" or tone of
some sort that sounds different than the other bands.   All test procedures
produce the required results at every point in the testing.  And, no smoke!

Question 2:
I purchased my K2 with the SSB and a few other add-on modules at the same
time.  I went ahead and built the SSB adapter during the early stages of the
K2 Construction (it was one of those rainy weekends where I just had the
need to "accomplish" something).  Everything in the K2 manual seems geared
to finishing the K2 as a CW only rig, then adding the SSB adapter later.
Now it seems that I might have been better off to install the SSB adapter at
some earlier point to avoid having to desolder and remove all the other
jumpers and unnecessary components not used with the SSB adapter.  Maybe the
K2 doesn't align per the book if it is built with the SSB adapter installed
earlier?  But, I could envision a point in the construction manual that
would say "If you already have it and plan to use it, build and install the
SSB adapter now".

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

73,

Terry, W�FM