[Elecraft] K2/100 questions?

[thomask.smith at adab.centaf.af.mil]

Hi everyone,

I've got a bunch of dumb questions so please have patients with me!

1. When doing the S meter cal do you have the 'pre-amp' on or off? 'AGC'
on or off? Why I'm asking is that the meter never seems to respond
correctly. Even when using the 50uv source it's impossible to get an S9.
It's either one segment high or low.

2. The manual calls for using a second receiver to check your frequency
and audio quality. I don't have access to a second radio and haven't
made any friends with the locals here in the UAE yet. So how can I check
my signal? I've tried asking stations on the air and no one has
responded to my questions yet. I set my frequency using a government
calibrated counter so it might be correct. I set the filters using the
'Spectrogram' (I think that's what it's called) software and a digital
storage scope computer interface. Hopefully they are correct.

3. When transmitting with SSB my external watt meter only shows 30 or so
watts. It is a cheap MFJ meter that probably only shows average output
and not peak but in CW it shows full power on all the bands. Is this
normal? I've tried the different gain settings and compression ratios.
I'm using the MD-2 microphone from Elecraft. I have noticed I'm having a
very hard time making contact with anyone. I only had 4 contacts during
a contest weekend so no one had time to comment on my signal. I know the
problem might be my 2 dipoles on the roof of the apartment building but
I have nothing else to try right yet.

Any ideas will be helpful.

Thanks,
Tom A61/WA7DET