[Elecraft] XV144 - another lesson

[dave]

Hello All,

My XV144 is up and running with my K2 as the driver.  Using the wide 10m mod 
and a few hours with spectrogram I have peaked the bandpass response at the 
ends of the 144-146 segment: for satellites (my main interest) and weak 
signal.

The biggest problem I had during construction was mounting the PA module.  The 
heat spreader was fairly flat but the  module had a curve that gave a 1.6mm 
gap in the centre.  No thermal insulator was going to fill that gap.  In the 
end I spent a few quiet hours carefully rubbing the module on a "flat smooth" 
file (with everything I could get earthed for static protection).  The module 
backplate is just plated copper.  Got the gap down so I couldn't see any 
light between the module and the heat spreader.  

The module survived and warms up the bottom of the case quite well.

73 de David VK5DG