[Elecraft] K2 CAT

[jerry]

Hello K2 experts!

    I have a question about the CAT support - as implemented in the 
KPA100.  Is there a CAT command
to set transmit power?

    The situation is - the K2 is my main CW machine.  It has two killer 
features:  1) It has true quiet
diode-switched QSK.  and 2)  It fits perfectly under my two big computer 
monitors.  So I can log & mill-copy.  And also listen to the bands while 
I do work stuff.

    You'd think that 100W was plenty for CW - but I have gotten some weak 
reports from stations that I could hear well.  As a ragchewer, I prefer 
to be easily copy-able.  I have a homebrew 1100W LDMOS linear, but I 
could not use it with the K2 - because the linear has no bandswitch.  
Instead, it relies on Yaesu "BCD" data from the radio.  I wound up with 
this for two reasons - 1) Safety of the very expensive LDMOS device and 
2) the touch screen that I have has a problem where touch does not work.

    So I built a little box.  I reverse engineered the Auxbus just enough 
to recognize band changes, and my box outputs the 4 "BCD" bits.  Yeah I 
know that Elecraft markets a similar box, but where's the fun in that?  
My box has a Raspberry pi Pico.

   Generally, operating barefoot I use 80-100W.  But the linear would 
prefer that its drive be 17W or so.
It's completely protected; if the drive is too high, it will just shut 
down.  Then I have to press a button on the front panel to transmit 
again.

I was just thinking... if the CAT interface can set the power, I could 
have my little box do that.  The Pico has a couple of UARTs, and one of 
them could talk to the RS232 port.  So when I set my linear from
Standby to Operate, it could tell the box, and the box could magically 
set the power on the K2 to what's appropriate.

                                  - Jerry, KF6VB