[Elecraft] Magnetic Fields

[Dave & Jeanne Robertson]

To All,

First to the good people at elecraft, congratulations on shipping the K3s.

Second:

This may have been presented to the forum before but I have not seen it.

Be careful with exposing your K2 to strong magnetic fields, especially ones from power transformers.

I just finishing restoring an old Heathkit SB220 linear and in setting up the station placed the linear to the left of the K2.

When I was using the linear I started to notice some strange distortion in the received audio from the K2 and other stations commented on distortion on my audio.

On CW all the received signals seem to have a strange AC ripple on them. It was a very small amount but still there. Stations receiving me also reported a slight amount of ripple on my signal.

All this is while the linear was on but not necessarily being used (I installed a Standby switch in the SB220).

With the linear powered down, everything was perfectly normal, both on received  and transmitted signals.

The power transformers in the SB220 are on the linear's right side. This was the side the K2 was located near.

I rearranged the station to have an antenna coupler between the K2 and the SB220 linear, a spacing of about 10 inches, and that totally solved the AC ripple problem both on transmit and receive with the linear powered up and on-line.

Just thought I would pass this on to everyone.

73
Dave KD1NA