[Elecraft] Field Day report

[Robert McGwier]

I hope many of you who did Field Day worked us at W2GD. 
We had Elecraft K2's on the 2A and a IC-703 on the
GOTA station (N4HY).  We had a Steppir Beam on 10-20 
(15 meters surprised us with a nice opening and accounted
for 1/7 of our QSO's).  We had a Steppir Vertical on
the GOTA station to aid in the isolation (vertical vs
horizontal) and it did help.  Along with wire beams
on 80/75 and 40 meters, we did very well with
just under 15 QSO's and several hundred in bonus points. The
K2 was excellent.   SSB stinks as a QRP mode on FD and we
had only 141 QSO's inclusive of the 100 we did on GOTA
(N4HY).

Lastly,  Gary at Elecraft is second as a major resource of
help behind the existence of the internet and this
exploder.  I had a weak receiver problem (finishing the
radio at the last minute).  It was working but deaf.
Gary said it is one of 3 things and the problem was 1st
in his list.   I would hope that in the future,  Elecraft
could STANDARDIZE on the transformers,  Red wire was ALWAYS
holes 1 and 2, and green wire is ALWAYS 3 and 4.  After
having several that way, the T7 comes along and is the
opposite.  I was not careful and put it in backwards!

The other gotcha for me is reading what to do with the
4.7 pf on the back edge stuck in as a hole filler where
a three pin jumper goes.  I would change the instruction
manual to read:  If looking from at the RF board from
the front panel side, then left pin is 1 and right pin 3,
solder the capacitor into holes 1 and 3.  I put it in the
pins near the OUTER EDGE, misinterpreting the instructions.

The story of discovering this is pretty funny.  After Gary
helped me fix the T7 problem,  it was clear that signal coming
through the mixer were much louder. The "birdie" at 7000 Hz
used in the initial alignment was much louder and easier
to do the alignment of the can.  However, the radio was
still deaf at the antenna (signals heard but REALLY weak).
8640B set to -40 dBm to produce an S9 signal.   I decided to
inspect the bottom side of the board again, grabbed the
radio on its back edge, and almost blasted my ears off as
the receiver came to life.  I actually dropped it.  I then
ran my finger along the back edge until the receiver came
to life and then discovered the 4.7 pf in the wrong pins!

Great transceiver and a fun kit.  I look forward to putting
the 160,  60 meter, and DSP in to finish.

Bob
N4HY