[Elecraft] Ailing K2

[Tommy Mitchell]

I sent this to Elecraft support, but I thought I'd post it here too to see
if the collective wisdom of the group might have anything to add.

Tonight during dinner I noticed my K2/100 (w/ KAT100) was showing no noise
on the S Meter.  I unplugged the headphones and could hear no signals at
all, as if the antenna was disconnected.  If I tried to tune, the ATU would
light up (sometimes) and it would run a tuning cycle, but I don't know if
it was finding a match. No noise at all on the bands.

I started taking the panels off and the next disconcerting bit was when
bits of plastic started falling out.  Q11 and Q8 are both split in half
with most of the body of Q11 loose in the chassis and the base side of Q8
split from the collector & emitter.

I had left my radio on this afternoon while I was a few doors up the hill
working and we had a short thunderstorm.  There were no close strikes (very
little lightning at all) but yeah, I should have disconnected things but
didn't realize I had left it in that state.  A visual inspection doesn't
show anything else obviously wrong aside from some slight scorch mark where
Q11 went boom.  No traces look blown and there are no signs that any of the
caps or resistors in that area are damaged.

Aside from Q11 & Q8, are there other likely candidates for replacement or
places to check?  The ATU & PA100 pass a visual inspection.  The storm is a
pretty strong correlation, but are there any other likely scenarios that
could cause this failure?

Thanks,

Tommy