[Elecraft] 30 meter gain

[Stan Rife]

	My K2 seems to have way too much gain with the preamp on for 30
meters, OR I have a bad EMI problem here. The noise level stays at 10 to 20
over S9 with it on, and it is not useable with the noise floor that high.
With the preamp off, the S-meter seems to sit around S3. Is this normal for
30 meters on the K2? I seem to remember the manual stating that the preamp
was not needed on the lower bands. I thought 30 meters was considered one of
the high bands (with 20m) and so I had left the preamp on for 30.

	I have really been plagued with a lot of noise here in the past
several months, and I am trying to figure out if I have an EMI problem here
locally. My noise level has been very high most of the time lately on 20
meters. Only occasionally is it low enough that I can use that band. I am
thinking that the problem is present on 30 meters as well, but just can't
remember what the preamp setting is for that band. I seem to remember that
the preamp was on all the time for 30 meters, but I am just not sure now. At
this hour there are no sigs on 30m to tell what my receiver is doing with
the preamp off.

	My antenna is a Butternut HF9V vertical that I have had for a couple
of years. This evening I strung up a 20 meter dipole just to see if it would
make any difference. I see a little improvement on 20 meters, but the noise
is still S7 to S9 and 30m is just as noisy as ever with the preamp on.

	Also, do any of you notice these noise waves that float across the
bands? I don't know what the official name for them are (if there is one),
and that is the only thing I could come up with. They appear to be about 6
to 8khz wide.  

Stan Rife
W5EWA
Houston, TX
K2 S/N 4216