[Elecraft] K2 Alignment and Verification of Specifications

[dave]

Seems to me that a few might be missing the main point here.  While 
assembling a K2 there are a few hundred parts to be stuffed into holes.  
It is not all that difficult to stuff the wrong part into a pair of 
holes.  Seems that I remember a firm (Sherwood Engineering I believe was 
the name, but not positive) who loudly and longly claimed that the K2 
did not meet its published specs nor those of the ARRL tests.   Seems 
that the fellow was testing just such a K2 as I'm describing.  The 
testing firm was not the builder and the builder had made errors.  That 
sample did indeed not meet spec.  When he later tested a good sample the 
results fell in line with expectations.

Knowing the propensity of folks to make errors, I'd say that at least 
10% of the K2's out there, and maybe as high as 25%, do not meet the 
published specs.  Although I'm a very careful worker I'm well aware that 
the one I built might not meet spec.  I don't have the test equip to 
fully test it so don't know for sure.

So it does not seem to me to be all that bad of an idea to have someone 
who would run assembled K2's through a rigorous series of tests - 
similar to those the ARRL does - to assure that a unit is in proper 
working order.  These would be more than the simple alignment tests 
proposed so far in this thread, and would include IMD3 (at 1 or 2 kHz 
spacing as well as wider spacings), IMD2, actual sensitivity, and 
whatever else was needed to assure that the unit is up to speed.

I would think that anyone buying a used K2 would be interested in such a 
service.

I am aware that one cannot make single errors in the assembly process - 
if the wrong part is stuffed into a pair of holes then the correct part 
must then be stuffed into the wrong pair, making for two errors rather 
than one.  This means the builder has two chances to catch their error.  
But most of us have, at one time or another, bought a used kit, looked 
it over carefully and found assembly errors.  One small transceiver I 
bought - nowhere near as complex as a K2 - had 8 such errors.  (And, 
yes, the builder claimed to be an expert builder.)  Others have had the 
far-more-common poor solder joints.  This kind of stuff happens every 
day.  Be good to have a way of testing for it.

73 de dave
ab9ca





David A. Belsley wrote:
> Boy, I don't get this one at all.  The whole essence of Elecraft, 
> IMHO, is doing it yourself and getting something really great for the 
> effort.  That's a conjunction: doing it oneself AND getting a great 
> product.  If all you want is the latter, there are plenty of other 
> sources.  And if you want the former, then do the former.  It's good 
> to have self doubts, but they work best when they lead you to do 
> what's necessary to remove them -- yourself. Don,
> _______________________________________________