[Elecraft] K2 - Strange, self-recovering problem

[stan levandowski]

My friend Tony W1ZMB just finished building his K2 this week and asked 
me to visit him and try it out yesterday.  He did a great job and it 
works great.  However, a strange thing happened two times during a CW 
QSO I made at 5 watts using his perfectly matched OCF dipole on 20 
Meters.  He has the KAF2, KAT2, and KNB2 options installed.

The problem:  during transmit the K2 powered itself off and then right 
back on and operation continued.  The receiving station might not even 
have noticed because it was that fast.  Tony did not have the K2 
grounded.  He immediately ran a short braid directly to his copper 
ground rod and has not since experienced this problem.

I'm not convinced it was the ground.   My K2 is grounded at home but I 
frequently use it off-site without a ground and never had this 'dropout' 
occur.

   Since Tony is not yet an member of our Reflector I'm posting this 
query on his behalf.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks!

73, Stan WB2LQF
KX1 #2411    K1#2994    K2# 6980    K3#5244     K9 #1 (Cocoa the 
Chihuahua)
Everything is QRP, even the dog.