[Elecraft] K2 Problem in NAQP

[Jim Harris]

Hi Folks,

I ran into a problem during the just completed NAQP RTTY contest with my Elecraft K2.  To make a very long and frustrating story short, on at least 20 and 40 meters it receives on the lower side band but transmits on the upper sideband.   On 15 meters it receives and transmits on the same sideband which appears to be the lower sideband.  The only way I was able to get it to transmit on the same sideband on the two bands mentioned was to put the radio into RTTY reverse (with CW REV) and then operate MMTTY in REV.  As a result of the problem I lost about three hours in the contest while troubleshooting the problem.  If someone can shed (and I'm sure they can) some light on this perplexity, I would very much appreciate it.

This was my first serious attempt to do SO2R.  I used my K3 for the right radio and the K2 for the left.  I had aligned the RTTY filters in the K2 using the procedures found on the internet and used Spectogram.  I tried to be careful to set them on the correct sideband.  I can accept that maybe I didn't get that done right and will recheck them.  But, I don't understand why the upper band is correct and the lower bands are not.  

BTW, I ran both radio's pretty hard at 100 watts and neither overheated.  The K3 takes care of itself very well.  I think one could go near brick down for several minutes and it would be fine.  I used a hand held, point at an object, temp sensor with the K2 and the highest heat sink temp I measured was about 100 F......usually it was 10-20 degrees lower.  I have manually adjustable variable speed four inch muffin fans mounted about three inches above each radio and ran them continuously at about half speed during the contest.  With a little external help I see no problem in running the K2 at 100 watts FB in RTTY contesting.

Thanks for all the commits I'm sure I will receive.

 

Take pride in the USA. 73


Jim, W0EM