[Elecraft] K2 QQuestion on Options

[sheajohnw at aol.com]

I have been a K2/100 operator for about ten years mostly on RTTY and CW utilizing the DSP filter as needed..  

1.  The SSB capability is needed by the K2 for digital operation.  Digital mode operation is exciting because it can get out at 100 W or less power almost as effectively as CW verses SSB operation where it can be considerably more difficult to make contacts using simple low antennas and less that 100 W power.
2.  The DSP provides the K2 AFilter feature which is useful for digital modes because it does not cause the slight frequency shift when engaged as does engaging XFilter.  The slight XFilter induced frequency shift may not be an issue for good CW operators who only need the computer for logging..
3.  For those having weak CW skills, engaging the DSP improves CW signal SNR enough to enable the assistance of reasonably effective computer decoding (Mixw) of strong and moderate strength machine generated CW such as contest QSOs.  Without the assistance of the DSP, the K2's machine decoding of even strong CW signals can be ineffective.  The DSP is not effective enough to allow useful machine decoding of very weak CW signals and hand keyed CW signals.

73 de KB1IKD