[Elecraft] Using a K2 with a boat anchor receiver?

[Don Wilhelm]

Dave,

For reasons other than twinges of nostalgia for boat-anchor gear, I can't
understand why anyone would want to actually use such a combination - the K2
has a much better receiver and works QSK nicely as a stand-alone
transceiver.  I would think the Drake would be quite useful as a station
'decoration' that even works, but it is just not up to par with modern
receivers (although the R4A was one of the better ones).

So, yes, you may want to try the AMP keying circuit to see if that works -
if it does not mute the receiver quickly enough for QSK operation, you could
add some delay (more circuits in the keying circuit) to hold the receiver in
a muted state.

Consider also the problem of switching the antenna between the receiver and
transmitter.  Because of these considerations, you may want to consider
breaking the paddle lines and the mic PTT line to the K2 (so it does not go
into transmit until the receiver is ready) and use an external T/R switching
arrangement with relays doing all these tasks rather than using the K2
output to initiate the switching.  Yes, I am thinking that an old-fashioned
Transmit/Receive manual switch may be in order here, but the problem still
remains of spotting the transmit signal, the K2 has no ready means to
transmit a tiny signal to be heard in the receiver, and the K2 VFO does not
change the K2 frequency while transmitting - OK, back to the drawing board!

Have you considered homebrewing a boat-anchor transmitter?

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
> companion transmitter for it. One option could be to use my K2 as a
> stand alone transmitter with an appropriate "external receiver" output
> modification to the K2 and a "mute" relay fed from the normal linear
> amplifier relay.
>
> I feel sure someone else must have gone down this route, so before I
> reach for the cutters and soldering iron I would like to compare
> thoughts and ideas!
>
> 73 Dave, G4AON
>