[Elecraft] TX current on the Elecraft K2

[Stephen John Farthing]

Gentlefolk,

I could do with some advice. I am at Page 72 in the K2 MANUAL aligning 
the TX for 40 Meters.

At 5 watts output the current drain is supposed to be 1.3-1.6 amps. The 
book says if it is *much* higher than this, or the Voltage drops more 
that 1 Volt I may have a problem with the TX, load or PSU.

The figures I get are: -

Tx Off...13.8 Volts 200ma

Tx on...13.1 Volts 2.16 amps 5 watts out according to the K2 internal 
meter, 6.1 watts out according to Motorola R200D comms analyser....which 
contains the dummy load...the PSU is a large Palstar 30 ampere gizmo 
thus oodles of spare umph.

Setting the power at 10 watts I get the following.....

Tx on 13.0 volts,  - High Current warning then 2.44 amps 10 watts out 
according to the K2, 7.87 watts according to the R200D,

the manual says "if the current is *much* higher than 2 amps see 
troubleshooting....."

The R200D tells me the output frequency is very stable...and after a 
short warm up that the power out of the K2 is not fluctuating .and I am 
assuming that its dummy load is good...the interconnecting lead looks 
fine though it is rather (i.e. 10 meters) long.. And I am using a bnc to 
ntype adaptor at the R200D end. The K2 current meter tells me that after 
about 30 seconds the current is stable at the values I have quoted above...

So the 64,000$ (£37,647) question is......do I have a problem or 
not...normally I would go through the trouble shooting stuff but the 
shack is as cold as heck at the moment and I have some other things to 
do......and M0PUB wants a sked when its finished and I have the ATU, 
Sideband and 160 meter options to build and the battery option and I 
want to get it all finished in time for the winter sports.....

Greatful for any advice,

Steve G0XAR