[Elecraft] K2 lifespan

[Fred Jensen]

On 3/24/2011 4:33 PM, Shane wrote:
> Are you really learning anything from the assembly process.

Yes, I did, but certainly not everything.  Electronics sort of left this 
OF in its dust about the time of integrated circuits, digital signal 
processing, and several others that I won't mention.  But I did learn 
the building blocks of my K2, even if I didn't understand how all the 
blocks actually did their jobs.  And, I learned where they all were in 
the radio, I figured out how to get the IF filters the way I wanted 
them, and I'm glad I did it.

> Putting pieces together as if I were coloring by number just because
> the blue component goes in slot 1 isn't how a radio works (at least
> that's what I think I'm hearing)

Well ... I was born without any color vision so it wasn't "coloring by 
number" for me  Poor choice of parents I guess, although my total 
cholesterol is very low and is made up of mainly the "good stuff", good 
choice of parents, I'm told.  My K2 kit contained resistors all taped 
for auto-insertion in order.  I still checked them, but my wife didn't 
have to tag all those little guys.  It was a nice move by Elecraft, and 
for me, if you've seen one resistor, you've pretty much seen them all. :-)

  So that's my main point in this question now … how much will
> I understand from assembling the radio?

As much as you want to.

  I don't care to know that blue
> goes in A1, or these wires always assemble in this way, or here's what
> an LED is … I mean, actual understanding of the fundamentals. How much
> are any of you taking away from this that don't have an electronics
> background?

Well, come on Shane, building a kit radio is not supposed to be 4 years 
of EE and math.  Trust me, "actual understanding of the fundamentals" is 
a very hard 4 years.  I don't seem to harbor the "construction pride" 
that others rightly do, but when I fire up my K2 on a summit somewhere 
or in a field situation, I have a good sense of what the controls do, 
how to use them, and why they work.  I understand the blocks in the ALC 
power control, and thus what happens when I adjust the power control.  I 
really don't care about how the control changes the bias voltage or 
current on Qxx so that this all happens.  And, I've never understood 
directional couplers.
>
> I saw James's post on how he messed up and sold his first one. I'd
> much rather have a quality rig and not something I took target
> practice at while trying to learn to assemble (at least not for this
> kind of money).

Hmmm ... I read James' post to mean, "I messed up *by* selling my first 
one."

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011
- www.cqp.org