[Elecraft] k2 continuing on (nothing to lose)

[Phil Wheeler]

Good to hear you are back in stride, LS!

73, Phil W7OX

On 4/15/16 6:57 AM, lstavenhagen wrote:
> Hi all,
> Tnx for all the encouragement and suggestions by PM and on the list on my K2
> tragedy. After thinking it over after something to eat I decided I didn't
> have anything to lose by simply continuing on.
>
> My thinking was, ok, this is a learning experience, right? So I figured, ok,
> let's learn how to remove a component without tearing everything up LOL. If
> I could get the second ruined relay out without doing more damage to the
> board, I was ok.
>
> I did manage to get the pads back down on the first relay socket and I
> didn't see that the traces were actually broken. So I carefully threaded the
> new relay in and soldered it in like normal. Fingers crossed that all the
> connections are good.
>
> As for other relay that I ruined, I robbed a relay out of my KAT2 kit and
> got out my desoldering iron from Radio Shack. Not the best desoldering tool
> in the world and it has failed me in the past, but marginally better than
> desoldering braid and nothing else and went to work. After sucking out as
> much solder as I could on the pins, I flush cut them as far down as I could
> go and went over the pads again with the iron and braid. Fortunately, this
> relay came out easily after cutting it in half on the topside with the wire
> cutters. No damage to the board.
>
> At that point, I was cooking with gas and decided to install L33 and the
> remaining diodes. That put me at the alignment part II stage. By about 10pm
> last night I'd complete the receiver alignment and all those circuits
> checked out virtually perfect. So the RX is intact and receiving on 40M. I
> hear relays click when I go through the bands - the 20m bandpass filter is
> where I did all the damage and replaced the relays, so maybe they're hooked
> up and working right.
>
> Anyway, at this point, since the RX is fine and working normally as far as I
> can tell, I think I should just go ahead with the rest of the build and see
> what happens on 20M when it's done.
>
> Like Wayne suggested, if there does end up a problem on 20M at the end, I
> can probably just run wires on the bottom of the board to hook it all up.
> It'll do me good to go back to the schematic anyway lol.
>
> So onwards with the build and hope the rescue effort succeeds hi hi.
>
> Tnx es 73,
> LS
> W5QD