[Elecraft] K2 vs. CQWW CW 2012: A letter of gratitude / Appreciation for a rig well done

[Brian Lodahl]

Hi,

My trusted K2 # 6936 /KPA100 successfully managed to pound its way 
through 48:00:00 hours non-stop CW'in for CQWW CW 2012; completely 
flawlessly and with great satisfaction.

Driving about 70 Watts drive into an Acom 1010 (aka. "The Bulgarian 
Tractor") for the full length of the test, spending most of the time 
CQ'ing on 20m and 40m bands; This prooved to be a good decision to 
replace an otherwise outdated FT-1000 MP Mark V on these bands. Even 
with all the filters from INRAD that money can buy put into a FT-1000, 
you simply cannot beat the crisp, clean sound, the selectivity and the 
large-signal performance of an Elecraft in comparison. It just does the 
job so much, much better and to a large extent prevents operator fatigue 
during 48-hour contest operation just by having so much cleaner sound, 
and so many less turkeys cacling inside the receiver chain on an 
overloaded 40m band ... !

I had for the sake of the test and expected heavy duty-cycle mounted two 
extra 100 mm fans elevated ½ inch above the heat sink for the KPA-100, 
driven slowly in PWM mode to just quietly push some more air over the 
fins of the heatsink; This resulted in a super-quiet setup with hardly 
any fan noise at all, a heatsink temperature keeping only 2 degrees 
celcius above the ambient temperature in the shack, and preventing the 
original small fan in the KPA-100 to go off.

This is just to tell that the K2 kit version is more than a great QRP 
station, a great kit building project, and the proof that good HF radios 
can be built in simple, elegant ways; It also prooves that the K2 is in 
deed up for the job in harsh, multi-multi hi-power contest situations, 
with rigorous beating, high duty cycle brass pounding and difficult 
interstation interference environment.

I dedicate this CQWW CW 2012 to Wayne and Eric, Don and all the others 
who helped create this great rig ! THANK YOU :)

73'
Brian OZ2BRN