[Elecraft] Quoted text

[Paul Bruneau]

Is there a specific reason why some of you folks don't have your email 
software adding the quote characters "> " to the quoted material from 
the messages to which you are replying, or is it just an accident? It 
makes it very hard to see what the reply is and who has replied (see 
below for an example). I've never seen this behavior before I joined 
this mailing list.

Thanks,

Paul


In a message dated 14/04/05 05:36:04 GMT Daylight Time,
rondec at easystreet.com writes:

Jonesy,K9NX wrote:

My K2 #4198 is running just fine and I am  wondering how often to check 
the
Calibration of my K2 to help make sure it  is running at peak 
performance
Say every 6 months or  yearly?

---------------

Just a guess, but I'd say you can ignore  it for a couple of years at 
least.
Even then, 'recalibration' will catch  any tuned circuits drifting, but 
isn't
really a test to see if there's  performance degradation from other 
reasons.


I have a habit of  recalibrating or doing other repairs only when I see
something wrong. I see  something wrong when some critical values 
change.

I log the key data  about a new rig so I can look back from time to 
time if
I'm suspicious that  something's amiss or if I'm simply bored and want 
to
tinker


----------------------------------------------

What Ron says sums up the situation very well, why would you want to
recalibrate the radio unless the performance is falling off. To quote 
the often  used
phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Not many hams would do this  
to the
latest Japanese/USA black box, so why do this to a K2? The radio is  
tested
to a degree every time it is switched on and used on the bands.  A fall 
off in
TX power output or RX sensitivity soon becomes apparent.

Is important however, to record *all* the tests you make on original
commissioning, calibration and after any mods that may be done for 
future
troubleshooting if required. By and large unlike earlier tube 
equipment, solid  state
equipment performance does not change all that much unless a fault  
develops and
one is usually made aware of this pretty quickly by other hams if  not
apparent to yourself. Apart from odd quirks that can occur with some 
radios,  I
would be rather more worried if the performance does drift as that 
would not  say
much about the quality of the original design or the components used.

With commercial communication systems these are tested with specific  
routine
maintenance programs on a regular basis to ensure that any defect is  
picked
up before it becomes a problem. The reasoning behind this is to prevent
unforeseen outages as these can mean lost revenue for the company or a 
possible
threat to safety. Ham radio does not normally fall into this category, 
so unless
  tinkering with the K2 calibration really turns you on, it is far 
better to
use the radio for the purpose it was designed for in the first  place,
communicating with other hams.

Bob, G3VVT
(retired comms maint tech)