[Elecraft] [K2] Fun times on 20m SSB tonight

[Mike-WE0H]

Had some fun with my K2 running SSB on 20m. Was listening to a guy in 
Florida boasting how life is too short for QRP and telling a guy local 
to me about his beam and SB220. hi hi...So me, like a smart a$%, jump in 
there with the K2 set to 5w. Yep he comes right back to me saying I am 
light but in there decent. He asks what I am running. I cracked up 
laughing and said a Butternut HF6V and a K2 set to 5w output...hi hi...

So the band starts to fold for that path and a guy in Tuscon AZ comes in 
there and says my K2 is sounding great and about S-9. I said hold on a 
bit and came back at him with 1w. Yep, he says the 1w is making it, but 
real light copy near the noise floor. I try 2.5w then 5w and he says 
that helped out a lot. So I let her rip at near 20w and got a almost 
10/9 report out of him!!! I think fading had something to do with the 
different signal levels but it proved QRP would do the trick on SSB. 
Later on I had to get on my '930 as the band was folding. Chatted with a 
bit over 100w on that rig until he faded down to a S-3 and said my 73's 
es thanks OM.

Has anyone used a MC-60 mic with a K2? The first comment I got when I 
went over to the '930 was more punch to the audio. The '930 was setup 
kind of light audio with the ALC barely moving the needle.  I use a 
MC-60 mic on that radio.  The mic preamp was on. I am using a MC-43s 
hand mic on the K2, and it is set to the recommended audio and 
compression levels. Would the MC-60 drive it a bit stronger yet not 
destroy the audio quality? I suspect the K2 might be running super clean 
audio with no compression or processing. Could it benefit from a bit 
more audio drive or processing? I don't know. What do you guys run for 
audio settings on the K2?

-- 
Mike
WE0H
K2 #6698
SKCC #5446