[Elecraft] New member...

[Brett gazdzinski]

 Hello all, I have ordered a basic K2 (to start with), 
and thought I would introduce myself.

My name is Brett, the call is N2DTS, been a ham since sometime 
in the 70's self educated in electronics and ham radio.

When I started out, I went right to the general ticket, and my 
first rig was a Heathkit hw7. I had a LOT of fun with that rig
and really enjoyed CW rag chews on 40 and 15 meters.

I then got a Heathkit hw101, and built it in 2 days, and had
had more fun.

I then got into AM phone, partly because all those great 
old tube rigs were dirt cheap at fests, and have been on
AM since, with a LOT of home brew gear, to the point I had
only homebrew equipment.

My homebrew receivers are sort of the same design philosophy
as the K2, low noise single conversion, filter 
just after the mixer, high Q pre selector at the antenna input.
Only I used tubes...and built them for AM reception mostly,
covering 160, 80 and 40 meter phone bands 
(as they were before the change).

I just wanted something homebrew that could receive AM signals 
under good band conditions, but wound up with  receivers that 
work better than anything else I had, the modern stuff, 
ic735, ts440, ic756 pro, the old stuff, R390a, sx17, Scott SLRM, etc.
The homebrew radio was MUCH quieter, and had much better fidelity.
I sold off all the other stuff!

There seems to be 2 major groups building in ham radio, the QRP
and AM people.

Anyway, I have been looking at the K2 since it came out.
I had built an emtech for 40 meters, great little rig for
a handful of parts. It was fun to build and modify.

Will they ever add AM to the K2?
Normally I would look into that, but the K2 is all computer
controlled and I cant say I am fond of processors inside radios...

Well, now the K2 is on the way, along with the rework eliminators,
and guess I will have to re-learn the code, I am real rusty and 
have to think about some letters.
I was up to a comfortable 20 to 25 wpm in the past, and used 
a straight key from radio shack which I still have.

My favorite thing on cw was to rag chew with new people
at moderate cw speeds, not sure if that has evaporated along
with the code requirements for a ticket.

I have some really cool QSL cards from the past, and even better
memories of pounding out CW on 15 meters working a housewife in
Wyoming for hours talking about the weekly rodeo, and the Pan Am
clipper radio operator who sent me a QSL with the picture of
the aircraft he used to operate on, etc.

Great stuff!

Brett
N2DTS