[Elecraft] K2 Calibration using WWV

[Fred Jensen]

Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
 > Right, Fred, but notice that's what you did with your SX-28
 > too! You turned the dial to make a frequency mark line up
 > with the indicator. That was "requesting" a frequency.

Well, I was just sort of reflecting on our world.  Wilbur and Orville 
would be astounded.  Marconi would be too, as would Watson and Alexander 
if they met my grandsons and watched them pull their "telephone" out of 
the pocket in their oversize cargo shorts.  I just counted, and I don't 
have a working radio in my shack ... OK any radio ... that doesn't have 
a computer in it.

 > The only thing you knew for certain was that it
 > wasn't exact!

Truth be told, "exact" didn't matter then.  I tuned to what I wanted to 
hear, not always inside the ham bands.  But your observation is correct. 
  Nor did doing a CAL PLL on my SX-28 on WWV at 10 MHz assure that 15 
MHz would be even close to right.

 > And, finally, even if you did get the dial set exactly on
 > 10000.000 Hz on your SX-28 and you had calibrated it with
 > the same accuracy, you are still at the mercy of any drift
 > in the oscillator frequency since you calibrated it!

I never turned my radios off.  I told my Mom they were in "standby mode" 
and consuming 0.1 kilowatt-hours per day, less than her kitchen clock. 
She didn't know what a kilowatt-hour was, she knew I did, and she liked 
her clock so she believed me.  Left on all the time, Bill Halligan did a 
pretty good job with the SX-28 in the drift arena.

 > The same is true of the K2. It will change a little with temperature

Mine seems to drift about 450 Hz from cold-start to scheduled QSO time, 
over maybe 30 mins which is great as far as I'm concerned.  At least, 
that's what my service monitor tells me, which I leave on all the time 
too and tell my wife (the family comptroller) that it is in "standby 
mode" who is less accepting of my stories than my Mom was.

 > But then I don't need a fork lift to pick up my K2

No kidding!  I had forgotten how heavy that puppy was!  Took a large 
handtruck to get it out of Woody's family's house, and two of us to get 
it into and out of my shack.

73,

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw