[Elecraft] XG1 Observations

[Donald Nesbitt]

Finally got around to putting the XG1 together.  Easy to do and appears to
work great.  Have not tried it yet on any other rigs but here are a couple
of notes about my K2.  No "high-test" equipment used for this little test -
just the rig, spectrogram, dvm and the xg1.  Be advised that I made little
or no attempt to provide for all the variables involved, etc, etc. - just a
little "test" and messing around.

NOTES:

S meter setting for S9 = 50 microvolts was easy - noted that I'd had
previously set it such that 50 microvolts produced an S9+15db +/- sig.  No
wonder my "meter" was so active and liberal!  I set it after about a 45 min
warm up - as per the "book" - 7040 cw 700hz  preamp on.  I have the DSP unit
and put it in the bypass mode for setting and checking.  Checked the S meter
on 14080 and it was down one "bar" - (about 7db down on the second harmonic
according to the book) on 21120 still just the one bar down from the "S9"
bar (according to the "book" - about 14db down for the 3rd harmonic).

I did a simple run using Spectrogram to get a better idea of just how many
db each "bar" represented.  Noted that with the 1 microvolt steady signal
supplied by the XG1 (agc off, etc) that turning the preamp off reduced the
signal by about 14 db +/- and the attenuator reduced it by another approx.
14 db +/-. While obviously a pretty gross measurement, it seems that each
"bar" represents somewhere in the vicinity of 14 db so the lack of an
additional drop of a "bar" when going to 21120 is not too surprising.

MDS level was measured as -142 dbm with preamp on and -138 dbm with preamp
off on 7040 using the setup noted in the manual - wonder if this is typical
on 40?   On 20 meters, results were a disappointing -131.8 dbm with the
preamp on and -123 dbm with the preamp off.  Actually I'm not too surprised.
With no antenna or other connections to the K2 except for the power supply,
and the preamp set either on or off or even with the attenuator off, I have
always noted what appears to be some sort of internal frying noise around
14035 +/- and to a lessor degree around 14080.  I'll have to put the qrp lid
on with the internal battery and check this again.  Might even move the rig
to some other place as this particular area is extremely plagued with a wide
variety of strange noises.  Additionally, I'm right in a major lobe of an AM
broadcast station that is strong enough to show up on my car remote, etc,
etc! I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has noted some
frequency "areas" with similar "noise" (not the chirps or birdies - but a
staticky noise)  evident without the antenna, etc, etc.

Great little gadget!  Hummmm - has anyone made a qrppp contact with it yet?
(hi hi)   73 es gud dx  --don n4hh K2/100 #2028