[Elecraft] K2 initial impressions

[Bob McGraw]

One thing that has always concerned me about "ham signal reports" in 
general.  I've heard signals that were 20 dB over S-9 that were great 
sounding signals.   And I've heard signals that were 20 dB over S-9 that 
were lousy or terrible sounding signals. Likewise, for those that are 
only 6 dB above my noise floor, those can be great signals or 
lousy/terrible sounding signals.   Frankly, signal strength means little 
to me.  The "copy-ability" of a signal is how I determine signal 
quality.    A CW signal with a clean tone, no clicks, no chirps, no 
warbles is a great signal. On the other hand, one with any of those 
artifacts will be a lousy signal.

Your K2 should allow you to give and receive outstanding quality signal 
reports both on transmit and receive.  Be it from 10 watts or 1500 
watts, there should be NO Difference in signal quality, only signal 
strength.


73

Bob, K4TAX


Message: 3
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2021 13:08:06 -0700
From: jerry<jerry at tr2.com>
To:elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K2 initial impressions
Message-ID:<42564ab80402cf49ef38fdf954a65a73 at tr2.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Hello all,

    My new ( to me ) K2 arrived yesterday, far in advance of when Ebay
said it would.  Color me happy.  I just ordered the SSB adapter.

    My first impressions:  The UI is a little cryptic - a general weakness
of things with small displays and few knobs/switches/buttons, but really
not too bad.  I've already got most of the buttons memorized.

    Receive is nice & quiet.  When I disconnect the antenna, there is very
little internal hiss.  The AF gain control was scratchy at first, but
quieted right down with a little use.

    Had my first QSO with it - with Don Huff, W6JL.  Don gave me a good
report.  Even though I was only
running 10 watts.

    I notice that the band noise changes tone between "CW" and "CW R".
Could that be symptomatic of a misadjusted BFO?  Also WWV is a little
off - switching from CW & CW-R changes the beat note.  Looking forward
to getting into this; Ebay just yielded up a GPSDO ( GPS-disciplined
oscillator ) which is supposed to emit 10Mhz accurate to a tiny fraction
of a Hertz.

    I'll want to start inspecting the radio to see what needs updating.

                  - Jerry KF6VB