[Elecraft] T33C DX-pedition: comments from a member

[Martin]

Hello elecrafters,
just received some comments from Gregor, DF2IC.
He asked me to put it on the reflector, so here they are:

T33C, a K2 DX-pedition

As most of you already know, the T33C DX-pedition was using K2/100's for 
all modes. We had 8-9 K2/100's running 24hrs for two weeks, three for 
SSB, three for CW, two for the Digital modes and one for the Pactor 
link to ZL. The K2's are property of the individual operators and most 
were built by them. All had S/N > 3000. The climate on Banaba is hot, 
about 30 degrees Celsius day and night, the humidity is quite high too. 
The three operating sites had no air-condition, the sky was often 
cloudy and we had some rain and a severe thunderstorm. The CW and SSB 
K2/100's were set to 50 Watts output, sufficient to get about 600-800 
Watts output on all bands from our ACOM amplifiers. Each transceiver  
had a laptop computer, running CT for logging and the usual CT cables 
for keying.
Most operators did not need to be convinced that the K2 is indeed a fine 
radio and not "just a kit". In the end, all agreed that the K2 is 
perfectly well suited for a DX-pedition. Here are some reasons why:
- The K2 is leightweight. We all carried our K2's in our hand luggage.
(try that with an FT-1000MP). Just in case, that our container with the
main equipment, had not arrived in time, we would still have been able 
to go to Banaba and do a downscaled operation.
- The K2 is easy to understand. A few operators had never before seen or 
used the K2, it was only a matter of minutes to instruct them.
- The K2 is not overloaded. It has all it needs. Nobody complained about 
missing features.

The performance of the receiver, even under heavy pile-up conditions, 
left no room for complaints. Most operators used a 400Hz filter setting 
for CW, that is broad enough so you dont need to have one hand on the 
tuning knob all the time.
To summarize it: the K2/100 can only be recommended for a DX-pedition, 
even under rough climatic conditions.
One thing though, is still under investigation. Upon arrival on Tarawa/
Kiribati we did a sanity check on all K2's. A few K2's could not be 
used for the expedition, because they refused to work on some or all 
bands. We reported this to Elecraft. The fault pattern was the same on 
all affected K2's. The affected K's were built by different 
individuals . All were of course in a perfect working condition before 
we left.
All other K2/100's worked flawlessly from the first to the last day, no 
complaints.
For further questions mail directly to me: DF2IC@T-Online.de

73 de Greg, DF2IC (T33IC)


  

-- 
Best regards,
 Martin
K2 #2706                          mailto:dl1iaq@gdxf.de