[Elecraft] Question about K2 power meter

[Don Wilhelm]

Jeff,

Another thought and a question - does the K2 control power properly 
(check with TUNE) when the requested power is set to 5 watts?  If you 
get somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 watts output with the requested power 
set to 5, then the power control circuits are working as they should be.

Setting the power to maximum will not readily reveal any problems with 
the power control.

OTOH, if the power output is always high then you do have a problem in 
the power control (ALC) loop.

73,
Don W3FPR

Jeff Kinzli N6GQ wrote:
> Don and others,
> 
> A few weeks back, a user posted about an issue with low power output
> with his K2. Don said:
> 
>> If you do not have either the KAT2, the KPA100, or the KAT100 
>> installed, the
>> K2 does not display the actual power output on the LCD (the requested 
>> power
>> is displayed briefly when the power control is changed). What is the
>> indication on the LED bargraph during transmit?
> 
> I'm going through an issue with my K2 where it *appears* to be putting
> out too much power. With the KPA100 installed, the output sometimes
> jumps up to 150+W.
> 
> I removed the KPA100 from the picture and have been seeing if I can
> reproduce higher than normal output with just the base K2. So far, the
> behavior is that if I enter TUNE mode, the indicated power on the
> display of the K2 will rise to 16-17W. My watt meter isn't accurate
> enough to tell me what it's *really* putting out though, although with
> the KPA100 it is accurate enough to see the 150W+ peaks.
> 
> So I was trying to think if it's really putting out 16+W, or if the
> power meter is really telling me it's TRYING to put it out (because my
> external wattmeter looks like actually less, but again not accurate).
> 
> I also thought maybe it's an ALC issue, because if I rotate the power
> knob back then back up to max, the indicated power on the K2 will go
> to about 15W, but the next time I do TUNE again, it again goes back up
> to 16+W.
> 
> Any thoughts on this? Should I keep chasing ALC issues? I've already
> gone through the base K2 RF board resoldering T1-T4, reheating
> anything that looks suspect, etc. to no avail.
> 
> I also sent something to this effect to Gary at Support, I'm just hoping
> someone might have any ideas that I could chase down.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jeff
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