[Elecraft] K2 - test mode

[Peter Howson]

I have held my class B licence since 1972 and always meant to do the morse 
test. Finally after 35 years, with the help of John, G3FDN, at the Stirling 
Club, I have achieved 12 wpm. Not that this is now needed for HF operation. 
Still nervous about going on-air I have been practicing sending using my K2. 
Originally setting it to minimum power and connecting a dummy load. Then 
realising that I was the dummy and that there is a built in "test" facility; 
used this instead.

This worked great, but a few nights ago I was practicing and also half 
listening to a local QSO on 2m (simulates QRM) when one of the local lads 
was trying out his new TenTec on 10m. Quickly changing to 10m ssb I pressed 
the tuning button to set up the antenna but only managed 0.1 on the scale. 
Took me while to realise what was causing it - had not changed from test to 
normal. No problem - missed joining in the test on 10m but learned 
something.

Then this weekend did the same thing again but as I was already on the 40m 
dipole did not bother to tune and happily worked a couple of stations on 
SSB. Only then I realised that the K2 was still in test mode!

So -- in test mode the K2 will not transmit cw - OK it says it on the tin, 
therefore will not transmit a tune signal but it will transmit SSB. I have 
the latest firmware on board -- So is this normal??

It is not a problem to me and may already have been highlighted.

73
Peter
GM8GAX
K2 #04027