[SOC] 'Scope question

[Tom McCulloch]

Hi all,
    I have what is probably a rather basic question and I'm hoping you guys 
can set me straight.

    I'm trying to teach myself have to use my oscilloscope, which I've had 
for a good number of years, but still don't understand.

    I have an Elecraft K2 ( s/n 1103, without the 100 watt amp), which I 
built a while back and it works well.  Because I didn't trust my building 
skills, after I built it I had someone look it over and align it, so I'm 
pretty confident that it is in reasonable working condition.

    So, to try to teach myself how to use the 'scope I thought it would be 
fun to measure the RF output from the K2 with the 'scope and then calculate 
the wattage. ( I also had checked the K2 output using an OHR wattmeter, 
which thanks to one of the guys here, I recently calibrated -- so I sort of 
new the 'answer' ahead of time).

    OK, so I wasn't able to get good Voltage P-P readings on the scope for 
any of the bands I tried (80 through 10 meters) -- they all seemed too low.

Here's what I did:

1) My scope is 20 Mhz, which I know is low -- is this a problem in measuring 
RF voltage, or just a problem in calculating frequency?

2)  Rather than open up the K2, I put a "T"-adapter on its RF output 
(antenna) jack (outside the rig, on the back panel).  I put a 50 ohm dummy 
load one side of the "T"  and left the other side open so I could stick the 
'scope's probe into it.  I put the ground clip of the probe onto the ground 
post on the back of the K2.  Is using a "T"-adapter a bad idea?  Should I 
have gone inside the rig and used the jack itself (with the dummy load 
connected outside the rig, of course)?

    That's pretty much what I did, any suggestions would be greatly 
appreciated.  The reason I decided to built the K2 in the first place was in 
hopes of poking around learning something.

Thanks in advance for your help
Tom
WB2QDG