[Elecraft] crystal oven question

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

It begs the question: Is the oven needed? 

Why did you plan to buy one? I suspect that the basic XV50 without the oven
will be as stable (or more so) than almost any 6 meter rig you'll find out
there. And, with the XV50 you do have an adjustment that you can use to
'tweak' the xtal oscillator to put it dead on frequency if a few Hz is all
that important. 

I know that, in discussions with the designer, the oven was added for the
small percentage of people who felt they needed it, but it wasn't made a
basic part of the kit on purpose. It's an added cost, power drain and
complexity that few ops would want or need.

You mentioned having an MFJ-9406. MFJ makes no comment about its stability
or mentions whether a crystal oven is even available. The MFJ receiver is no
where near the standards of the Elecraft XV50/K2 combo performance, as you
guessed. MFJ claims a 1.5 dB noise figure compared to Elecraft's < 1 dB.
Also the 9406 has a fixed 2.5 kHz I.F. filter (at -6 db) where with the
Elecraft you get all the flexibility of the selectable K2 filters.

I am a little biased, I'll admit. I worked on the XV project writing the
assembly and operating manual, and I was very impressed with the care and
concern focused on making the XV series transverters very high-performance
machines that few, if any, of the competition could match. 

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
Thanks for the information. Wow, I would have never guessed that the oven
would use so much current. It is an order of magnitude greater than I was
figuring.

And I hadn't thought about bringing out battery power either.

This really makes me think twice about the transverter. I have an MFJ-9406 6
metre transceiver, and perhaps should stay with that. Although, I would
expect the K2/XV50 combination to have far better performance.

I was thinking of permanently attaching the XV50 to the bottom side of the
K2. I figured I would leave a little air space between them for cooling the
K2 finals by mounting spacers where the feet of the K2 are. Bolt the XV50
lid to the spacers if possible or use some metal strips on the sides.

I really wish that the K2 had 6 metres built in or as an internal option. A
K6XV rather than a K60XV. Be nice to have an antenna tuner on six as well

Darrell