[Elecraft] First K2 question

[Fred Jensen]

>Vic K2VCO wrote:
> 
> Even if they don't come out as neat as they might, they will work fine 
> if you follow the instructions.  This is absolutely not rocket science 
> or voodoo, and not too hard either!

The nice thing about toroidal inductors is that their inductance is less 
sensitive to the "esthetics" of the winding than with solonoidal 
inductors.  Each pass through the donut hole counts as a "turn" so when 
you first stick the end of the wire through the hole to start winding, 
you've already put one turn on.  When you bring the long end around the 
core and stick it back through, you have two turns on although only one 
shows on the outside of the core.

Wanting "The Full K2 Experience," I did all of mine myself.  Elecraft 
gives you plenty of wire for a do-over or two, the lengths they tell you 
to start with are all more than sufficient, and all but one have a 
civilized number of turns with civilized wire size (the one with many 
turns of very fine wire comes pre-wound for you).

The only problem I had stemmed from the apparent fact that the 
illustrations (and board placement) are intrinsically right-handed.  I'm 
left-handed and my first try looked really good, however the leads 
didn't line up with the holes in the board when the core was positioned 
over the silk screened outline.  They didn't on the do-over either.  I 
watched my right-handed wife do it (her's came out correct) and I 
decided to just adapt and wind them all like she did (we lefties are 
used to the tyranny of the right-handers)

[Small digression:  News story a couple of days ago in the Sacramento 
Bee revealed that college-educated left-handed males on average will 
make 15% more money in their lifetime than college-educated right-handed 
males.  So there!  My wife read the story and said, "What did you do 
with your 15%?"]

Be very careful and deliberate with T5.  It has two windings and the 
direction of each winding is critical.

And it is far easier to do the "Solder-blob heat stripping" than it is 
to describe it.  I agree with Vic, the toroids are a paper tiger, and 
are not rocket science.  OTOH: I've seen Mychael's and they *do* look a 
little better than mine! I'd be surprised if his K2 works any better 
than mine, however.