Elecraft K2 out of production......say it's not so!

I was just reading a post on the Elecraft reflector of an amateur and that he contacted Elecraft to get some spare parts for his K1 and K2. As we all know the K1 is out of production but  he was informed the K2 is now out of production!! Say it's not sooooo but then again with parts availability and the market I knew once I heard about the Elecraft KX1 and the K1 had gone the way of the doh doh bird it would not be long before the K2 would follow. I have built 2 of these amazing radios and if the truth is the truth then it is a radio that will be missed.
                                                             UPDATE:
CORRECTION......ACCORDING TO ELECRAFT AND A POST FROM ONE OF THE OWNERS (ERIC) THE K2 IS ALIVE AND WELL AND STILL IN PRODUCTION.......YAHHHH. 

It's time for the Kool-Aid.....:)

It's like the Borg connected to the collective!

As my readers may have clued in already I am a big Elecraft fan and the two radios I have at the moment are the Elecraft K3 and Elecraft KX3. One of the best things I like about these rigs as well as the accessories such as the P3 and PX3  Elecraft is constantly improving and adding things to the radio. These improvements for the most part are  upgradeable downloads via the internet. The other thing is the upgradable downloads are not complicated to preform, it's as simple as

New software loading

downloading and setting up the utility from Elecraft. From then on  all you do is plug your rig in via USB or serial cable to you PC and double click on the utility icon on your desktop. Your software on your rig is read and if there is any new upgrades you see them on your utility and can download them to your rig...........and that's it! There are release notes telling you what has been added or enhancements to your rig. Time for me to get off my soapbox now.

A hard decision to make.........

My 1/2 built K2 is up for sale

Many decisions have been made here at VE3WDM in the past few months. We decided to downsize to a condo in so doing we moved to a very nice condo on the lake in Toronto. Many things had to be sold including ham radio related items. The shack had to be downsized but not shut down! Over the weekend I took another look at items I have that I'm not using. So some small items went up for sale and one BIG item that I have been mulling over for some time.....my 1/2 built K2 went up on the market today. This was a hard decision as I really enjoy kit building but with the small space it was just not going to work out. This is my second K2 and I did have a blast putting the first one together as well as 1/2 of this one. It's up on the Elecraft user group site. There was a heart stopping moment when one email asked me what the serial number was of the kit. No problem I packed it in three boxes, once opening them the contents were just the casing and the boards that I had 1/2 built.....WHERE ARE THE PARTS!!!! Did I toss them with the "junk". A fast check of  some boxes in the locker cleared up the question and all were parts were found safe and sound.

The K2 was shipped

The K2 ready in it's Pelican case to be shipped

For some time now I have been looking at my Elecraft K2 sitting on my radio desk doing nothing. A conversation has been going on for some time within me to keep the rig...I built it and it's a fantastic radio. Again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on the desk doing nothing. There may be a time when I need a QRO radio...again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on my desk. It then came time for me to realize the K2 has to go to a ham who is going to run it through the paces. Give the rig the exercise it was

All is packed and ready

meant to have. I put the radio up on the market last week and it was sold within 24 hours and as I write this post is on it's way down to Nova Scotia. Thomas had a K2 at one time along with the antenna tuner and 100 watt amp. He sold it and has been wanting one.... so serial number 6613 K2 is on it's way down to him. Sound kinda funny to miss a rig like this but this rig was built with my own hands and I was very very proud of the work and the performance of the radio. In the box is the rig, combo ATU and 100 watt amp, dust cover from Rose, Pelican carry case, A & A engineering charger for the internal K2 battery and a load of internal upgrades in the K2. At the home station there is a hole were once the K2 called home and soon my KX3 will move in. This is begining to sound like a sad soap opera....lets turn things about 360 degrees.......the rig is gone and there are some extra ham bucks to spend. Not sure what is going to be added to the shack.....I do have some ideas.

Where the K2 used to be now a bare spot

Time to put the K2 package up for sale.

I have resistance for a long time but as the borg say "resistance is futile" and it's time to sell my K2 package. I have seen my rig just sitting on the desk doing lots of nothing. The K3 and KX3 have been getting lots of on air time. As for the K2 I have not flipped the switch for uncounted months. I know there is a ham out there who could put the rig to good use.  I am in the process of putting a for sale post together. I say "K2 package" because I am selling the rig, external ATU and KAT100 and the A&A Engineering smart charger for the internal battery.

K2 serial number 6613
KIO2 AUX I/O module
KAT2 ATU
KBT2 (purchased 10/10/2011 installed spring of 2012)
KNB2 Noise blanker
73cnc.com machined weighted vfo knob
VFO knob with tuning dimple as a spare knob
All manuals for the above options and K2
EC2 enclosure with
KAT100-1 ATU
K102 host control Aux I/O
KPA100 100 watt amp
All interconnecting cables between K2, EC2 and PC.
Additional items
K6XX visible LED tuning indicator ( it has not been installed but it’s the complete kit ready to go)
A&A  Engineering 1 amp smart charger for the KBT2 keeps the battery topped up and ready to go.
At this point I am trying to come up with a fair price for all the above. 

Times R a changing

Times R a changing with the way the sun is preforming these days. I know we have all wanted the sunspots to go up along with the flux numbers......BUT..........what is up with the solar flares!!! As a wise man once told me with the good comes the bad as well.  Sunday afternoon I fired up DXlabs and on the cluster was S573DX from Slovenia. He was booming in at around S7 to S9 and I had my K3 at around 5 watts and so began my effort to contact him. There was a pileup and as it goes with QRP you have to let the big guns get their turn and then you can fit your call in the cracks! I was waiting for my

Back to the K2 build

opportunity (mind you I still was throwing in my call along side the "big guns"...you never know) and then S573DX went from S7-S9 so S...NOTHING!! In the blink of an eye he was just above the noise level even the APF was not able to dig him out of the noise floor. So goes the conditions when the sun grumpy! There are other projects around the shack to keep me busy...such as my K2 build. There was not much time for radio this week as Julie has relivitves coming in from England next weekend. They will be staying with us for 3 weeks so it was time to get some rooms ready for them and do some needed house cleaning as well.

Kit build came to an abrupt stop

Last weekend I was working on my Elecraft K2 project all was going well until I tried to clean my Weller soldering tip in the wire sponge. For some reason it the wire sponge was not letting the soldering tip go. It was as if the tip was soldered to the sponge that was supposed to clean it! I did free the tip from the sponge and I tried to clean the tip once again and the same thing happened but it was even harder to remove from the wire sponge. I then took a closer look at the Weller soldering tip and half the tip was missing, it seemed to have come off. I never had this happen in the past with these tips and of coarse it was this tip that I did not have a spare of. I did pick up some new tips (4 of them) and will now be able to continue with my Elecraft

Wire sponge

K2 project once again. At one point I was using just a sponge that was damp to clean the tip's but I found this cooled the tips down and the soldering was affected. Has anyone out there ever had the problem of the soldering tips dissolving or breaking off in the wire sponge? The temperature on the Weller WES51 is set to around 800.

Time to do some kit building

Oliver is keeping an eye on things

I was on the radio this afternoon and not much was on the WARC bands   (CW contesting on the other bands) it was time to spin my chair 180 degrees to the project desk. I am in the process of building another Elecraft K2 that when done will be put up for sale. This was supposed to be a winter project but the bands were busy and I was on the radio and not the soldering iron. Now the K2 build has become a spring project. A few years ago if I was asked about kit building I would not ever considered it....BUT...I have been bitten by the bug!! Along with my QRP and QRPp operating I also find kit building to be a very relaxing way to spend time. There are some kits which I have sold such as my Elecraft KX1 and

Control board completed

Some tricky lead forming

LP-Pan. Funny thing is after building something you attach a personal ownership to it that over the counter commercial equipment does not have. I have sold many items purchased but not built and thought nothing of it (other than it was money to get another kit with...maybe time for kit builders anonymous). As for the kits when it came time to say goodbye to make some coin it took some thought before they were put up for sale.
As was said I am in the process of building another Elecraft K2 and I have another blog that deals with the build. I wanted to blog the progress but also highlight other areas such as toroid winding, what was needed to be a kit builder and so on. There are specific posts about the K2 build it self making mention of tricky sections of the build and how it was handled. It's now time to see if the bands have come alive!!

MFJ 1026 noise canceling unit...for today ham!

Things don't seem to work  when you really need them

I have been reading on many blogs of fellow hams who have had an increase in QRN due to many electrical sources and routers just to mention a few. The enjoyment of ham radio has been for many cut short due to devices blowing a hole in the spectrum!! Yes the companies are suppose to adhere to regulations regarding emissions. BUT both the adhering and the enforcement are very much lacking. We as hams are left to somehow deal with the hash that many modern items produce. I have this feeling it is not going to decrease as time goes on but increase. I have found this is were in my case the MFJ 1026 shines for me. I have a Plasma TV on the main floor and when Julie is cooking, surfing the net or relaxing the TV is on with some music playing in the background. I could go down and ask her to turn the TV off....but....I am a married man not a foolish man. Below is a YouTube video I did today showing how effective the MFJ 1026 is. It was done with my Iphone so some movement will be noticed. (note to self....get a proper recording device)

Seems doing nothng is doing something.....

RFI Friday night

My last post dealt with my PC monitors causing me some grief in the form of RFI to my K3. On Saturday I spent most of the day spinning my wheels trying to find a way to lesson or better yet cure the RFI problem. Below is what I had tried to in order to fix the problem.
1. I changed out the video cables and wrapped them with chokes as well.....did nothing.
2 Moved the monitors to other locations on the operating desk...that was loads of fun and it too did nothing.
3. Tried running the K3 just off battery power and.... nothing.
4. Ran the monitors from the 12 volt Astron power supply and again nothing.
5 Put snap on chokes on ALL cables coming out of PC and the ALL cables from each monitor.....NOTHING!
6. Even tried tin foil on the back of the monitor and grounding it...only made monitor look sci-fi.
7. Put 1:1 balun on the coax coming out of the K3 and still had problem.
8. Tried my Elecraft K2 (maybe just a K3 problem) found same issue with K2.

Sunday...not to bad

9. Plugged monitors into separate AC outlets on different circuits and did not fix issue.
10. Ran a ground up to each monitor and video card on the PC (PC is already grounded) and nothing.
11.Repositioned screen to see if that made any difference I thought it did but turned out not to.
 So that was how my Saturday was spent and from doing all the above I was able to find out a few things that I hope may ring a bell on how to solved the RFI isssue
1. As I move my hand closer to the monitor the RFI increases.
2. When the rig is on the dummy load the RFI is gone.....but so is everything else regarding signals.
Now it's Sunday and I have come to the understanding that I am going to just have to live with the problem. I know where it is coming from that sometimes that is half the battle! I am going to do some reading and thinking about the issue. I came into the shack to just roll the desk back up against the wall and tidy up the room. I then turned on the K3 along with the PC and for some reason the RFI is still there but not as much at all!!! Seems doing nothing is doing something!!

Announcing a new blog

My additional blog

Back in December when my second Elecraft K2 kit arrived I tossed around the idea of starting an additional blog about my K2 build. I planned to not only document my kit build but to keep the site updated with links and sites that will help out fellow builders. I have up to this point produced 3 pages and some updating posts on the blog itself. Check out the blog and give me  your feedback as well as any info you would like to see on the site as well.

Contest Skeeter Hunt wallpaper

Just waiting to be framed and hung on the "I love me" wall

 The Skeeter Hunt contest had it's first running this year its sponsored by the NJQRP club it was arranged and coordinated by Larry W2LJ. The theme was "My favorite place". This is a QRP contest and encourages (more contest points) home made or kit gear as well if you can come up with a home made key then your contest score will reflect this BIG TIME!!! As for VE3WDM I had kit gear (Elecraft K2) and I was operating from a park (more points for this). To make this post short and sweet I had a blast in this contest and plan on doing it next year as well.

Does the early bird get the DX...it's said he gets the worm.

Last Friday we had a "situation" at work that had me working until about 3 a.m. and when I got home I was still all pumped from work and was not ready to jump into bed. The thought came to me about getting on the radio and seeing what DX pileups were out there. I had heard of folks getting on in the wee hours of the morning and catching some rare DX. With great expectations  I turned the radio on....10m dead, 15m dead, 17 and 30 same thing!! Alas on 40m my Elecraft P3 showed some faint signals, I spun the dial to the frequency only to find it was some very weak State side stations. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it's kinda a let down when one is anticipating WILD DX!!!

I did not check the propagation that morning so there could had been a storm brewing or maybe everyone but me was in bed sleeping. As I have blogged about in the past I am trying to get my ARRL Diamond Challenge award (and doing it QRP) at this point I am at 81 DXCC contacts. You only have one year to accomplish this goal and it's now almost December!!!  Having said that I am "really" at 95 DXCC's for 2012 according to Club log. The catch is the ARRL for the Diamond award is not counting ALL DXCC on the list. It is a long story but it's just how the ARRL perculates. I was hoping to bring my K2 or my newly acquired KX3 to work as I was wanting to get some operating time in before work. I am usually in around 5:30 in the morning and I have until 7 to make some contacts. With my Saturday mornings performance I am not to sure if bringing  the rig would be a waste of time.....any ideas out there???

How do you sell an Elecraft K2

My first K2 serial 6613

This week I posted a question on the Elecraft reflector "I'm building a bare bones Elecraft K2 radio and later will be putting it up for sale what kind of options would a buyer be looking for?" I had received many replies and all were very good but also got me thinking. I had always thought of the K2 as a CW radio (selfish me as I am a CW op) but one of the first suggestions was to make the radio both CW and SSB friendly by adding the SSB option. To me that should had a been a no brainier as that opens the market much wider to more potential buyers. I was then also reminded of the invaluable add on that I put in my K2 radio (which is still in my shack and goes out on park and car expeditions) the rework eliminators by unpcbs. These folks have
developed a kit that allows the K2 to be setup and ready for any add on you want to put in the K2. Let me clear the waters a bit......if you build a bare bones K2 with no options but later you want to add some options,  it my require you to  remove some components from the K2 in order to add the option.

NB rework board top view

With the unpcb kit  there is no de-soldering on the K2. In a nut shell you unplug the unpcb board and plug in the K2 option. There is another great advantage to this, if you think you have a defective DSP filter (or any other option) board you simply unplug the DSP filter and plug in the unpcb board and see if the problem is fixed. Its time for me get off my soapbox for the unpcbs folks.......but if you ever are thinking about an Elecraft K2 build this add-on is well than worth the money!!! I just have to jump on the soap box  for a short time again.....On the top of the noise blanker rework board you see some resistors. These resistor (or other components) would normally be on the K2 board and have to be de-soldered to instal the NB board option from Elecraft. With the rework board you unplug the rework board and plug in the NB board. If there ever is a problem with the noise blanker (or any other option the rework kit looks after) you unplug it and plug in the rework board. You K2 will now work but without the NB option. Without the rework board you would have to re-solder in the components you removed for the rig to function properly.

From the post I received great suggestions on options that should be added while building the kit. The one idea I am leaning toward is to just leave the radio "option free" and

NB rework bottom view showing header

when the kit is done ask potential buyers what they want in the rig. So it becomes a radio that is "made to order" The buyer will pay for the options they want and a small fee for assembly, setup and installation but in the end they will have a radio that is customized to their radio needs. It's the way I have always wanted a car purchase to be!! At this point the kit is going through the parts inventory. 

Winter project line ups

Now that fall is in full swing and most.....typo alert remove  "and most" (thanks to Gary at rework eliminator for Elecraft K2)and soon all the leaves will have dropped from the trees. The temps  already are starting to drop not yet to freezing but soon. So outdoor activities will be more limited as winter gets her firm grip on this QTH. 

Serial 7372 soon in the works

I find that radio conditions do improve in the winter months and there are some major CW contest to keep me busy on some of the weekends....but.....I don't know about my readers but I also like to have a few winter radio projects on the go. This winter's project is an ambitious one that satisfies my kit building hunger. I purchased another Eelecraft K2 kit, my first K2 kit was a blast to build. With this kit I want to take my time and very much enjoy the build. Another decision I made was to sell the rig once built and run through it's paces. I then can use those funds to put toward my next winters project. I try to keep what I call my well rounded approach to ham radio. This includes on air operating time for sure, reading my monthly ham radio

K6XX's kit for the K2

magazines, blogging and blog reading, interfacing computers with the hobby and of coarse kit building. I also wanted to add a CW tuning aid to my original Elecraft K2 and it just so happens that K6XX has a kit to add a CW tuning  indicator to the rig.  This kit has the dreaded SMD parts!!!! Now having said that I used to say that about kits that came with winding toroid's and that is not a big deal anymore. Below is a video of how the tuning light works.

A VERY SMART charger

Charger ready for testing

I have built  A&A Engineering's 1 amp Smart Battery QRP charger mainly for my Elecraft K2's internal battery. This very much is a smart charger and here are a FEW reasons why.....

1. The charger can be connected to the battery indefinitely and no harm will come to the battery. Once the battery is fully charged the Smart charger will remain in maintenance mode delivering a float charge. Therefore the battery cannot be over charged.

2. The charger can stay hooked up to the battery while operating the radio if you so choose to do so. The charger will enter the bulk mode to help with the load of the radio operating.

3. When the charger is connected it automatically determines the type of charge the battery needs.

Close to done but no heat shrink on LED

 The charger can either be ordered fully assembled and tested or as a kit.....yours truly held true and strong the the QRP spirit and chose the kit. The kit did arrive very fast and all parts were checked and accounted for. If you are a first time builder of  kits this may not be the one for you as the instructions are vague at times. I did get myself into problems after  realizing I had missed part of the assembly and had to go back to add parts and two jumpers. The kit does not give you the "standard" step by step instructions regarding assembly. It's more or less tells you too "install the components according the the pictorial diagram".  There are even little side notes here and there one in particular relating to jumper installation that I totally missed. I did get the charger all together and it was time to check the unit out. So I plugged the charger in, turned it on and ........no 12 volts DC from the leads on the charger!!!!

Top view with no jumpers or D1 ops

Fried resistor

 It was time to check the board to see if parts were installed according to plans and if all solder joints were good and soldered. All seemed to be good so it was off to the internet to see if anyone had the same troubles. It was on the internet I found a test procedure for the kit version of the  charger from A&A Engineering. For some reason beyond me I am not sure why this was not included in the kit!!! Anyway.....one of the things what was emphasized was if the charger is not hooked up to a load you will NOT get any output. Well that solved the problem of no output and things now seemed to be "normal" There was a test procedure in the text that

Decided to use Anderson conn's

allowed you to see if parts of the charger were working as they should. It involved removing the IC and shorting legs of the IC 16 pin socket to certain areas of the circuit board. When this was done certain voltage reading should be observed or LED's should turn on. Here is my BIG problem with this type of testing......when you short things out things can go WRONG and they DID!!! I guess I was not paying close attention and I shorted the wrong pin on the IC to ground and I FRIED a resistor on the board. When you short out to test I call this a destructive way of testing I much more prefer using a meter to look for certain voltages. If  you either don't get the right voltage or a down right outrageous voltage you understand
either:
1. You are in measuring in the wrong place.
2. You have made a mistake in the assembly.
In either case nothing has been toasted

Some heat shrink fun

In the end all checked out ok with the Smart charger and it working great to charge my Elecraft K2.  Over all this is a great unit even with the hiccups that I had. Some of the things that are not clear in the instructions are as follows
1. The heat shrink tubing is very clearly stated to go on the transistor but it also should go on the leads of the LED's...that was not so clear and I have redo the LED's.
2. Make sure you add the jumper J1 to J2 in my case it is mentioned but off to the side of the instructions
3. There is no diode to be installed in D3 position, instructions just say install parts and there are is D1, D2 and D3. Just install the diodes (both are the same diode) one in D1 the other D2.

D1 needs to have the diode not D3

4. If  you ordered the QRP version of the charger as I did you will get a separate kit that allows the charger to switch between two charging currents. Read those instructions and install the resistors they tell you too or you will end up removing resistors if you follow the main instructions then move to the add on kit instructions as I did.
5. When done remember the output leads will SHOW NO VOLTAGE UNLESS A LOAD IS APPLIED.
6. The document required to test the unit can be found at the link above under "test procedure". BUT when  you do it be very careful!!!

Last weekend was a contest in the park.

The setup at the park

Last weekend on Saturday the weather here was great lots of sunshine and very few clouds. So it was off the the park with the radio to give the ARCI welcome to QRP contest a go. Its a 3 hour contest from late morning to early afternoon. I setup my Elecraft K2 along with my mono band mobile whip antennas. The key I used was the Mini Palm paddle which works great and has a super feel to it. I found the bands to be in good shape but was not able to find many who were participating in the contest. In total I made 3 contacts contacts in 2.5 hours of operation. While operating I did hear W6/DL6AP/P who was operating in the SOTA at location CT-086....translation Strawberry peak in California. I was not able to contact W6/DL6AP/P but I did hear him in there. There was some other very attended State QSO party contests going on at the same time and were very well attended. So over all I did not strike it rich in the contest by any means...BUT.......I did pickup some bonus points for just being portable on battery power with a portable antenna.

The first annual skeeter contest....done!!

Packing up for the contest

I took part in the first annual Skeeter contest sponsored by the NJQRP club the first years theme was to go to  your favorate outdoor operating place and get involved with the contest. Well up this way the weather was not looking like it was going to co-operate. My fav place to operate was out in the open and very vulnerable to the weather....namely rain!! I decided to head out to a location that offered some trees as

The weather to look forward too

shelter just in case of a sprinkle, as for a down pour my car was beside me and the rest of the contest could be finished from there. I was using my Elecract K2 and this by the way this was the first contest  this rig has ever done as battery powered. My key was the Mini Palm Paddle which by the way worked great!! My antennas were mono band mobile whips on the back of my car. I operated QRP at 5 watts Oh and the K2's battery lasted for 4.5 hours at 5
watts with me calling CQ and not searching and pouncing.
The weather was a mixed bag from nice sunny skies (very rare) to very threatening overcast that did let go

The setup...with a bit of rare sunshine

with rain at times.Over the last month the temperatures have been in the upper 30's and low 40C...today it was nice and cool almost to the point of putting on a long sleeve shirt (which was used to cover the rig during light rain). The location I chose was about 15 minutes from my home and offered a pic-nick table, trees and what I consider a luxury when operating out and about a portable washroom!! The bands were busy with not only the Skeeter contest but the WAE contest as well. I did have some European stations involved in the WAE contest respond to my "CQ Buzz contest" Thats ok they gave me their report and serial and  I asked for their power output and then they moved on this made it a skeeter contact....I believe anyway???

Covering for rain drizzle

I confined my operating to 20m as it seemed to be a "buzz" with skeeters but at 14.060 for some time there was some SSB going on, not sure if anyone else heard it but they were there right on the CW QRP calling frequency. While calling CQ I did have someone come back to me at the same time a passer by asked me what I was doing and showed an interest in ham radio. So I sacrificed the contact for taking time to talk with this gentleman about the hobby. So if your reading this blog I was not ignoring you just had to promote the hobby.....:). I had to end the contest around 4:40 as the Elecract K2 was telling me that the battery is getting to the point of no return so it was time to shut things down.

When it really rained

I made in total 19 contacts including DJ5AV from Germany and YU2A from Serbia. 12 of  the contacts were fellow Skeeters as they had Skeeter numbers. One contact was just an average QRP op not in the contest but wanted to know what he had to give me as an exchange so he could count in the log. Over all I had a great time even though the weather was touch and go at times.

Finally...a must have!!!

See all you Skeeters next year!!!

Soon there will be a new KX3 coming to town...

Elecraft KX3

But

To help raise the funds for the new Elecraft KX3 some items here at the shack have to go up for sale....including my beloved KX1!! I have a new page with all the "for sale" items on it have a look and see if anything there can find a home in your shack. Yes Yes there was a post on my blog regarding my Elecraft K2 and how it was just fine (and it still is) and I did not need a KX3........BUT the bug has bitten.........and it has gone from a need to a want!!!

Other goings on at VE3WDM

When I ordered my Elecraft K3 some years ago I had it outfitted with the 100 watt module....as most you know I am not a QRO op....not that there is any at all wrong with QRO but for me QRP and QRPp is the best option considering my stealth operation. So the 100 watt module (KPA3) was put up for sale and sold in 1 day to help fund my KX3. Now my Elecraft radio is what is called a K3/10 (10 for 10 watts max output). Removing the KPA3 meant taking out my Sub receiver from the rig, the NB board along with some jumper cables. When events like this come I just hate opening up a 5K rig and playing around with the "stuff" inside. All went well and  it's back together and working just fine. 

I tried and I tried and tried to contact CY9M but it just did not work out that DXpedition is not shut down and it just was not meant to be. This weekend is the NAQP CW contest it starts at 2pm local time and runs til late evening. I am going to give this popular contest a go considering the not so good propagation lately this local contest will be fun even with max 5 watts. 

What else in new

I have an Elecraft K2 with the internal battery pack and up to this point I really have not been charging the internal battery to optimize its life. Some time ago I came across A&A Engineering   They offer a great charger for the Elecraft K2 internal battery. I ordered it and it arrived in no time it's waiting to be assembled because....surprise surprise.... I ordered the kit!!


As for my kit from DIY electronic kits the USB 0-500mhz USB power meter kit has been soldered  and is all together BUT is seems it has to be calibrated as the output of the rig is not even close to the readings I am getting with the kit. I have emailed the DIY electronics company over and over again but nothing.......seems that was 90.00 down the drain. I am going to keep it up and if I can I want to  find a phone number I will then call them and demanding a refund!!! On an up beat note I posted a short time ago about a kit that I ordered and put together call the QRPometer. This kit is a great QRP watt meter and SWR meter but it only goes done to 500mW's..........now for most of you that is just fine but not here at VE3WDM!!! I like to operate now and then at QRPp levels. This means I need a meter that will give me good and reliable wattage readings from about 10mWs up to 100mWs. This was the reason for me ordering the USB 0-500mhz USB power meter it brags of getting down to the low mW levels..........IF YOU CAN GET IT TO WORK AND GET THE DAM TECH SUPPORT TO EMAIL YOU.........take a deep breath......ahhhmmmm.........ok Im back. Talking with the 4 state qrp group (those who produce the QRPometer) I am told the meter can have it's decimal place changed!!! This would give me the QRPp readings I need. This is a project that is now in the works and I will keep the blog readers posted as to it's progress. 

In conclusion I always like to preview my blog post before it has goes "live" and for some reason the post is DOUBLED SPACED I have looked into this but am unable to find the answer..........keep you all posted on this one!!

A great day = portable op's

Portable op's QTH

VE3WDM portable in action

It was and still is a beautiful day here at VE3WDM there is a nice cool breeze, the sun is shining with a great temp of 17C. I have been itching to get the K2 operating mobile as I have been working most of the winter getting the K2, antenna and mount ready to go. I spent the morning and early afternoon spring cleaning the shack and found some
stuff I really don't use anymore thus it will be sold for  "ham bucks". Cleaning up the shack gave me the warm fuzzes once is was all done and long over due for sure. I just hate looking for

all packed away in trunk

something knowing I have it but not really sure where it is!! Julie was involved with her photography getting some details together for some up coming weddings she is photographing. It was the perfect time for me to jump in the mobile and give the K2 setup a test run. Before I hit the open road I always like to go online to WA7BNM contest site and find out what contests are on for the weekend. It's a great way to make contacts if the QRP fishing holes are fish-less. There were some local QSO parties and the ARI international CW contest. I found a nice quiet place to operate which is real close to home. Setup was a snap but Murphy did play games with me. I had forgotten my binder at home which contained my paper pencil as well as a cheat sheet for the K2 just in case I forget how to do something. I was able to find some scrap paper and pen in my carry bag....so it was off to the races. I set the K2 for 5 watts all my operating would be 20m's as I only have mobile whips for 20m and 40m's at this time (something the ham bucks may help me with) I operated for about 35 minutes in total as dinner had still had to be shopped for and it was BBQ night!!

Contacts made

1.  NN7ZZ                Mendon UT                14.047
2. K7EAR                Solomon AZ               14.040
3. IQ0PG                 Italy ARI contest         14.031        880 miles per watt. 
4. IZ1A                    Italy ARI contest         14.022       QRZ.COM can't find maybe incorrect copying 
5. DL5AXX             Germany ARI contest  14.010       810 miles per watt. 
6. IK2HDF              Italy ARI contest          14.011       834 miles per watt.                                                 I was very happy with the how the antenna and rig worked and was surprised at the distance I was able to get. I know for sure next time I am going to lower the output and start making some 1,000 miles per watt potable contacts. Some things that have to be worked on before next time......remember all the items to bring, some bottled water, longer cable for Palm paddle key and some adjustments to the Palm paddle key are needed. Well it's time to spark up the BBQ and get some dinner...cheers!!!