[Elecraft] Happy Days..my K2 Works !

[Glenn McNeil]

Hi Group,

K2 Serial Number 04630 sprang into life here over the weekend...just 
under a week from receiving a parcel with the K2, an XV50 and an XV144. 
It was a great experience, and full marks to the Elecraft Crew for an 
excellent product and fantastic documentation. Very little head 
scratching went on, and I found the paperwork very easy to follow. I 
cheated a bit and used the " Toroid Guy's" toroids, which were equal in 
quality to the Elecraft provided bits and saved a heap of time I think.

The XV144 is up and running, and the XV50 about half finished.

The most complicated part...getting a grip on the Menu System on the K2 
and all the functions. I still have to do a complete filter setup, and 
went with the basic factory setup in the handbook. I'm looking at around 
a 30Hz error on Tx, so I will go in and do another Ref Oscillator setup 
along with the PLL and Filter setup, when I fully understand what I am 
doing :)

I found my Weller WTCP Iron with an 800C very fine chisel tip to be just 
about perfect excepting the "Big" jobs of soldering the nuts to the KI02 
9 pin connectors. I used a multicore solder with a 2% Silver content, 
0.56mm diameter. I realise that Elecraft no longer require this solder, 
but it leaves an almost clean finish, much tidier than the standard 
Multicore 60/40 that I normally use. It also proved no problem to remove 
when I had to add the options components.

My one and only complaint...some of the masking on the metalwork was a 
bit haphazard and required further sanding/scraping to get a bright 
metal finish for grounding.

A really great experience, and I'm already looking for a reason to get a 
second K2...this time with the 100W option, as this first one is 
destined for a life as an IF for the 50/144/432/1296 Transverters I will 
have plugged into it. Given a good soldering iron,reasonable soldering 
skills...and carefully reading the instructions, I think just about 
anyone could have a go at a K2.

My Icom756Pro2 is long gone, as will be my IC910...when it gets back 
from Icom Repair !

73 and happy assembling

Glenn
VK4TZL



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