[Elecraft] K2 Frequency Calibration

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

No, that's not "normal", Samuel. You can get frequencies within 20 or 30 Hz
on your K2. For example, my K2 indicates 10.000.01 right now for WWV at 10
MHz. That's an error or 10 Hz. 

Two things can cause the error: operating procedure and the calibration of
the 4MHz master oscillator in the K2. 

The K2 calibrates the dial readout using the 4 MHz master oscillator on the
control board as the reference for a built-in frequency counter. That's why
the setup procedure for CAL PLL and CAL FIL requires connecting a probe to
the PLL oscillator and BFO. The PLL oscillator frequency is measured when
you run CAL PLL, and the BFO is measured when you do CAL FIL. 

There are a number of ways to set the 4 MHz "dead on" without any external
test equipment. They can be found under the "builders resources" section of
the Elecraft web site (www.elecraft.com). See "Notes on Adjusting C22 to put
the K2 on Frequency" under Construction Notes. 

Once you have done that your frequency display should be within 20 or 30 Hz
across all the bands. 

It does take proper operating procedure, however. The easiest was to be sure
you have a station properly tuned in is to zero beat the carrier with
sidetone in CW mode. An alternative, if you can hear subtle changes in
musical pitch, is to tune in WWV and adjust the tuning for minimum change of
the tone frequency as you switch from USB to LSB. 

Both of them should  produce an frequency error of a few tens of Hz, not
more. 


Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Samuel Ramac
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 2:52 PM
To: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 Frequency Calibration


Can anyone tell me if this is normal?  I tried to calibrate C22 using W1AW 
and found the following

W1Aw Freq
1.8175Mhz    delta = 0.07 Khz
3.5815         delta = 0.13 Khz
7.0475         delta = 0.30 Khz
14.0475       delta = 0.61 Khz
18.0975       delta = 0.73 Khz

Is the delta at higher frequency higher normal?

I have a K2 S#: 1866.  with 2.04P firmware..


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Samuel C. Ramac
samuel_ramac at hotmail.com