[Elecraft] Just finished building my K3

[drewko]

Its quarter to three,
Theres no one in the place cept K3 and me
So set em up joe
I got a little story I think you oughtta know...


73,
Drew
AF2Z



On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:10:15 -0500, James KC2UEE wrote:

>Dear group,
>
> 
>
>Just finished building my K3!  It took me about 10 hours from start to
>finish.  I ran into a few problems, but thankfully nothing major.
>
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>My K3 is a 100w version with sub receiver and full complement of filters on
>both sub and main receivers.  A transverter board and voice recorder module
>are also installed.
>
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>
>Lessons learned:
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>
>1.	Don't drink while putting this kit together. without realizing, I
>ended up getting pretty drunk during the course of assembly just sipping on
>beer.  Mistakes can and will happen when you're tired AND drunk.
>2.	Screw drivers and circuit board traces don't mix. see item number 1.
>(My screwdriver slipped when I was trying to pry the sub receiver board out
>of its metal casing and scratched a few of the small traces.  Fortunately,
>no major damage and the circuit remained in tact.  Also, those damn holes on
>the sub receiver board don't line up with the metal shield.  This is why I
>had to take the thing out in the first place and sand the nubs down with a
>dremel.)
>3.	Read the assembly manual at least 3 times from cover to cover before
>you even start building.  It really helped knowing ahead of time what's
>expected.
>4.	Have a small pair of diagonal cutters.  Cutting jumper W1 and W2 for
>the transverter board was a pain in the ass.  I had to go to the store at
>10PM last night to look for cuticle cutters (I should have listened to you
>Gary).
>5.	Don't work tired!!!  I kept pushing myself to finish last night, and
>while I didn't complete it I ended up making mistakes.  I forgot to install
>the voice recorder and ended up having to take the front panel off again.
>6.	Sleep for 8 hours before resuming assembly if you have to stop
>assembly at night.  I went to bed at 4AM and woke up at 9AM to finish.
>While I was cleaning up, I pulled the power plug for my PS out of the power
>strip.  I wasn't paying attention and my thumb and pointer finger hit the
>two power plug terminals WHILE it was still half way into the socket.
>Suffice it to say, I didn't need coffee this morning and my skin is still
>tingling.  It's no fun getting electrocuted.
>
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>
>Anyway, this thing works great now that I have everything calibrated and
>installed.  Thanks to all the folks out there that took the time to answer
>my questions and help me out.
>
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>
>Gary Smith - special thanks to you for the assembly tips and the filters.
>
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>73,
>
>James KC2UEE
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