[Elecraft] K2 Birdies

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Hi  K2ers,

Has anyone got any comments to make about internally generated birdies in
the K2?  I have only just had a look at what my K2 produces because during a
QSO with a JA on 40m Long Path a few mornings ago, who was playing chicken
at 7.0000 plus gnat's eyebrow, I was getting constant QRM - unkeyed
carrier - and  he was weak weak. Much blue smoke about guys who dont use
dummy loads. Brain finally arrived and remembered a comment in the manual
about a weak birdie at 7 Mhz. So, put a dummy load on the K2/100 and indeed
QRM was from the birdie. So went looking for other birdies in case K2 needed
re-alignment. I found:

Scratching noises at 3524 and 3572  as tuning was varied (all freqs are to
nearest kHz)
Plop and constant  at 3590   (sounds like a PLL locking and then letting go
as tuning knob is moved)
A good plop at 3990            (PLL only holding for a small shift in
tuning)
Healthy one at 4000               ( to be expected)
Twins at 7000
Twins at 10.170
Twins at 14.171
A good plop at 14.350
S9 Plop and constant at 14361  (grateful that it is out of band)
Twins at 18.172
Twins at 28.000
Good plop at 28.277
Single carrier at 29.483

Have not done any number crunching yet, but I suspect that the "Twins" have
something to do with  +/- 4 Mhz oscillators +/- something else. The "plops"
worry me a bit. Dont want to plop on transmit. All the birdies that are
in-band are strong enough to cause "QRM".

Are these birdies found in all K2s, or have I not got something properly set
up?

73,       Geoff  GM4ESD