[Elecraft] K2 Keying Problems

[Vic Rosenthal]

Hank Kohl K8DD wrote:
 > This afternoon I had two hams within 1000 miles on 40M listen to one
 > of my K2/100 's and Ameritorn AL-1200 running BTTW.  They could not
 > hear anything either side of the signal "after the tone went away".
 > Both of them said I was well over S9.  One was using an TenTec Omni
 > and the other was using an Icom 775 - both were most likely using SSB
 > filters.

Listeners should use a 250 or 500 HZ CW filter.  The K2's clicks do not 
extend more than about 1.5 KHz above or below the signal.  To listen for 
clicks, you need to use a sharp enough bandwidth that the main signal 
can be outside of the filter passband while receiver is still tuned 
close enough to hear the clicks.

Let me add that there shouldn't be too much hysteria about this -- yes, 
the K2 keying waveform could and should be imporved, but many modern 
rigs are far worse out of the box.

Vic K2VCO