[Elecraft] K2 Question: RF Gain Pot

[David Herring]

Greetings!

I now have a K2.  8-) 

I notice that when I have the RF gain full clockwise, radio works fine, but then if I so much as touch it to move it counterclockwise, it completely mutes out the radio as if it were already fully counterclockwise.  Then as I move it farther, it resumes behaving as expected with commensurately variable degrees of RF Gain.

It looks to me like an intermittent connection in the pot.  I had resolved it, or so I thought, by just exercising the pot back and forth a bunch of times - thinking that the contacts were just maybe dirty.  It started working normal again after that.  And then after a while, it went back to its original odd behavior.

So my question is, is there a specific kind of contact cleaner/electronic lube that one would recommend for this pot?  Or am I looking at just replacing it?  Or is there something else I’m perhaps not considering?

This is merely an annoyance, not a show stopper… I still make Qs with the rig.  I’m about to open the rig up to install a KIO2 and thought while I was in there I’d try and address the RF Gain pot issue, hence why I’m asking the K2 braintrust for their input...

73,
Dave - N5DCH