[Elecraft] Audio Volume

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Phil, W9DVM wrote:
I too am hard of hearing and have tried many speakers, the best being Sounds
Sweet. All of those required 3/4 to full AF.  My K2 is on the second shelf
and I never use the internal speaker from any radio.  Tom Hammond, N0SS,
built for me the project speaker mounted in the Elecraft cabinet.  He added
an amplifier. It WORKS wonderful.  1/4 turn of the AF and it's perfect.  I
couldn't be happier.

Reply: --------------------------------

That's great! It's good to remember that the K2 is a low-current-drain
design so people using the QRP version can get the most out of a battery
supply. 

LOW CURRENT AUDIO OUTPUT

One of the design considerations to minimize the current drain was in the
amount of audio power it'd provide at the speaker/phones jack. A low-current
audio output I.C was chosen on purpose. It has plenty of audio for *most*
people in normal hamshack environments. It's not enough audio for other
situations though. For example, there have been a number of comments that it
doesn't work well in a noisy automobile under way. 

I'm not at all surprised to hear that if you are hard of hearing and find
the internal speaker of most radios lacking that the K2 wouldn't be able to
make enough sound either.

PHONES

One thing about the phones output that comes up from time to time too is
that the design includes resistors in series with the phones. It assumes a
"computer" type of phones will be used with an impedance of 30 to 50 ohms.
Those resistors can severely limit the audio level if low-impedance (4 - 16
ohm) phones are used.

Ron AC7AC