[Elecraft] Elecraft K2 S/n 01432...LIVES.!!

[Andy GM0NWI]

Yes' Sir'ee....!

You read that correctly...!   As of today 23rd April 2005... "... Elecraft 
K2 S/n 01432..".... LIVES..!!

Bhoy's... !  You CANT...even begin to know how I feel today...!  This, for 
me, has been only the 3rd most happiest times in my entire life..!  The 
1st...passing my driving test in 1983, ...first time around....with a "hand 
controlled" car....  The 2nd.... Passing my "Ham Ticket"...after 18 
months.... 12 HOURS A DAY...constant studying of the "Manual"...and all 
other literature involved.. .....
and the 3rd... " The Birth Of My Elecraft K2 S/n 01432..."...!

Oh..!  Yes...!  ..... as the man himself.... Mr Elvis Aron Presley ...sang 
about many, many a time in my room at home... "....I Got My Mojo Working..." 
.... And BOY IT FEELS GOOD..!!
Now I KNOW...what all the talk has been about on the reflector, HF Bands, 
magazines....etc for the last 5 years of my life...

What a truly "Monumentous" occassion happened here today...!  Some of you 
guy's will remember earlier in the week, where I posted to the reflector... 
that there had indeed been a "hiccup" in the construction of my "Baby"... 
... with the "Alignment & Test Past II" section of the manual, and I was 
admittedly strugglin' with the "way of the manual", shall we say, ..not 
knowing wether I was actually doing the correct proceedure for alignment on 
the 40M Band...(in and around Page 50)...

Well... Once Again... my dear friend, "mentor"...and...close friend John 
Ross GM1BSG...has again (...keep readin' John..!) "Saved The Day"...  From 
the outset of the beginning of the construction of "K2 S/n 01432" 
(...yeah..I know..its layen in a cupboard toooo... long..!)... John has been 
an absolutley monumentally oustanding "rock" for me throughout all of 
this... the man is a pure genius...a fantastic friend, shoulder to cry 
on.... the whole shootin' match...  When others all around me, constantly 
said, "..you'll never do that Andy...your not good enough...".... John... 
helped me "rise above it all"...with his kind words, determination, and 
sheer bloody-mindedness,... telling me that he "Knew...!  that I could do 
it.." ...I thought he was lying or just sayin that to help me along,...but 
today, it all fell into place..and now I beleive him...Without HIM...I CAN 
say, that I would still be "scratching my head" on this one, with the only 
thing to do "backtrack" through the manual...which we did to a certain 
extent, but nothing like I would have needed to do on my own if he were'nt 
here..

Today, we connected up some "Serious" test equipment, I'll leave John to 
explain the finer points of that.... and quickly found the "problem"...

What Was I Hear Y'all Say...??   In a word....

ME..!!!!.........

Dumb-%^&*...!  here had "forgotten" in my wisdom, to include a couple of 
very important componants during the last few pages before puttin her 
together for the "Big Smoke Test"...!  R39 and another componant...on the 
back left-hand-side of the "RF Board"...which of course, allowed me to 
"tune" the various filters, even for 40m...but was stopping the rig from 
receiving ...ANYTHING !! on 40m...
a quick read of the schematic (by John..!) and a scan of the board, brought 
this to our attention....    Where I "..hastily made a quick retreat to the 
kitchen...! " ...and I'm NOT joking...!!  How "small" once again did I feel 
for the 2nd time this week.??  Another "small" problem that I seemed to have 
had, was with some "switching" of the 40m filter,....this turned out to be 
Toroid "T5" or "T6" which I had "orientated" in the wrong direction..! 
making it act, kinda like a "choke" or "attenuator" (or so john 
explained..!) this was b.a.d.  ... as you can imagine, attenuating, so to 
speak the signals on 40m...

Must have been one of those moments of madness, ...where I had visited other 
rooms in the house for a moment and forgotten on returning where I was 
at...or perhaps what I was "partaking in" at the time...

I've learned my lesson for sure...

But it did "raise a few eyebrows..... and ...temperatures..! " I can tell 
you, when John found out what had happened.... infact,..he has made sure 
that I NEVER apply for a job at his satellite business, where they undertake 
the fabrication of satalite receivers, LMB's etc etc...EVER..!!  (...aye 
John..?)

A quick change around of the toroid, a solder of the 2 componants that I had 
ommited to install...  BANG..!   There they were....signals 5-5, 5-7, 5-9 
...all on 40m CW..!!

Fanfare Plays In The Background...!  Oh..! Joyess Moment...! ...and nearly 
tears of happiness all around....

SO..! Glad to say that K2 S/n 01432.... is now receiving stations on 40m 
CW...Boy Its Good..!..   Still got a couple of problems to sort out,... Like 
WHY..the S-Meter is still sitting at S3 of constant... when there is nothing 
to be heard on the band...or any stations on a particular frequency.... 
Suppose I'll come across why later in the manual... perhaps a "tweak" still 
to be done...??  Also "not sure"..why I can't resolve LSB on 40m too good... 
certainly not clear enough to make any sense of..?  Again...I guess I will 
find the answer later on... just thought I'd be able to hear as usual at 
this stage on LSB...

For all you guy's...who "were" following my "Mission" of the construciton of 
the radio on my website... I have to apologise most sincerley, as I have 
tended to neglect that part of the progress report latley..this is due to 
many thing, ...the house refurbishment (which still is'nt finished..!) ..and 
also..the fact that I have been concentrating on gettin her up n running so 
much here in the shack, that time has been against me for updating my 
website...  I guess that y'all having the various reports on the reflector 
has kinda kept you up-to-date anyway... but I will try and post a few things 
on the website when I can...

What a tremendous day for sure... y'all know what I mean, when I say, what 
the "feeling" is like, when you turn on your radio and hear stations for the 
first time...!?  Theres not a word can describe it... nothing like it... is 
there..?

Thanks also must go out to all the folks who over the past year or so, have 
answered the sometimes silly, mundane, and obvious "pleas" for help from 
myself here on the reflector also... Don Wilhelm... is another man, who 
without his gentle, calm guidance, I would have been lost on several 
occassions during construction.....a quick e-mail to him,....within 
minutes... problem(s) solved..!  I've just never had people in my life like 
John, Don, and the rest of you guys before..... this too good..

Sorry for the bandwidth guys...I hope that you all can manage to "feel" what 
I am feeling at this very moment, I KNOW,..that this will go on for a long 
time to come.....and it will take me a few days to "come back down to 
earth".... But Hey..! In the meantime... I'm sure gonna enjoy my "High"..!

THANKS EVER SO MUCH WAYNE and ERIC....All The Folks At Elecraft...for giving 
me the chance to realise my boyhood dream since the age of 12 years old, 
..of putting together my own "Fully Loaded All Mode Superhet HF 
Transceiver".....you guys have lifted "The Joys Of QRP"..beyond a level of 
anyones expectations,...its a Joy, a Pleasure..and above all...an Honour to 
own and operate one of the, ...if not "the" most outstanding QRP HF 
Transceivers ever to have been introduced to the amateur radio 
fraternity.... if not The World..

Thanks For The Bandwidth Guys...apologies that it has been such a long 
one...  Now back to construction of the rest of K2 S/n 01432.... wish me 
luck..!

Now..! to find space here in the shack for that new 800 watt Elecraft "cloud 
warmer"...!  My eyes are peaeed...my ears listenin...

Andy 
andy.gm0nwi1 at btinternet.com          "...I Just See It.!.."  John A. Ross 
(RSD Communications circa 2004)
A.R.S.
GM0NWI QRP                                       "..It is vain to do with 
more....             "A Dis-Orientated Kiwi...
"K2 S/n 01432 Soon To Be On-Air"                    what can be done with 
less..             In The Northern Hemisphere..."

GQRP No.9576
QRP-L No.2165
ARCI No.10561
Central Florida DX Association (CFDXA)
Alaska QRP Club No.190
Flying Pigs QRP Club No. FP#-1061
ICQ No.31899603