[Elecraft] Re: K2 Condensation?

[jferg977 at aol.com]

Dave,
This seems a good idea.  I had forgotten that some experienced mariner 
once wrote that he left all his electronics on all the time - in 
stand-by mode where possible and that this had considerably lengthened 
their lives.  My current plan is to take the K2 apart and very closely 
inspect all the surfaces and connections looking for discoloration and 
perhaps flux which might be causing a bridge when wet.

Don Wilhelm ( thanks Don) concurred that replacing the supplied IC 
sockets with ones having machined tinned terminals might help as well 
as the flux removal.  We'll see.  In the meantime the Info80 message 
goes off within about 20 seconds of firing up in the morning so it's 
really only an annoyance,

73 John KI4NGH

-----Original Message-----
From: dave <hottell at gulftel.com>
To: jferg977 at aol.com
Sent: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 11:18:13 -0500
Subject: Re: K2 Condensation?

John, 
 
I'd think a simple fix would be to cover the rig with a thick towel 
when not in use. You could leave it turned on and that should also 
work, but keeping the moisture away from the rig should do the trick. A 
thick towel should stop the air flow over the rig and reduce or 
eliminate condensation. 
 
73 de dave 
ab9ca 
 
 
jferg977 at aol.com wrote: 
> K2 Colleagues, 
> My boat-board (alas, 36 feet does not make a ship) K2/100 with KAT100 
 > gives me info80 displays on chilly damp mornings. It will step 
through > the bands but it takes two taps to do it, one to change the 
band and > then another to get rid of info80 and get the frequency 
display. 
> > I checked the archives but could find only a single note about this 
 > problem and the gist of the comments were that that problem might 
have > been a construction anomaly. I have to assume that if this were 
an > endemic problem, it would have showed up at field day or with the 
guys > who camp out with these things. 
> > Has anyone else expereinced this problem? 
> > It's been suggested that I clean the interior of the 
radio-especially > around the IC pins and look for any stray flux, etc. 
and then spray the > entire interior with some sort of varnish made for 
this purpose. I > really don't want to do this, but am worried that I 
will ultimately have > to deal with corrosion problems if I don't do 
something. It has even > been suggested that the problem is in the IC 
sockets and that I should > replace them with gold-plated ones. 
> > Any ideas? 
> > John Ferguson KI4NGH M/V Arcadian now on the hard in Brick, NJ 


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