Success Alignment 2 Completed at Last

After two weeks of having my PLL oscillator problems I finally cracked it and thankfully the “Alignment test part 2” is now completed. I have to give a huge thanks to Don Wilhelm from the K2 forum, without his help I would still be tearing out what little hair I have! 

As usual with these things it was something small, a resistor or to be precise a resistor network that wasn’t playing ball. After replacing various components we narrowed it down to this resistor pak and in the end I replaced the pak for two separate 10k resistors as suggested by Don and it worked. 

From removing and replacing the pak a number of times I managed to damage one of the patches off the PCB but thankfully it wasn’t required so I was extremely lucky. 

 The PLL oscillating area is the top right of the PCB, you can see in the picture below where I've replaced the resistor pak with two 10k single resistors, that finally did the trick and got it running. You can see the 6th patch is damaged but luckily is now not used.

 I must admit I was beginning to lose hope and my confidence was getting low, I really thought I wasn’t going to get the old K2 working. It’s an amazing feeling when it all comes together and you realise you are not  a solder wavering madman who mucked everything up. 

The good news is I have had a listen to 40 meters CW and the radio sounds great, the filters are really good and first impressions are that it needs a slight tweak here and there but all in all it’s a very good receiver.

K2 PLL Issues But I'm Getting There!

The problem with alignment continues but the good news is that as I go along checking each part, measuring the capacitance or the resistance I'm getting to know how everything works. 

The interesting fact now appearing to me is I'm no longer scared of this kit, it's actually quite fun to learn and slowly understand how each individual part works in conjunction with another.

I think I know the problem with the PLL testing, for K2 owners its D17 one of the varactors. At the moment when I switch to PLL testing I get a good 12099.00 Khz reading and when pressing the plus button it stays as it should, but when pressing the minus button it drops to 00.450KHz , way out. 

So I kept plugging away trying to find the problem and by chance found with the DMM probe that if I touched D17 instead of the one good reading of 12099 it reverted to 00.450 so that both plus and minus was then out. By touching D17 again I got the 12099 back up. Definitely a varactor problem and a new one has been ordered and I suspect once replaced should hopefully fix the issue. 

You find yourself checking your soldering, (is it any good and up to spec?) are there any bridges? Have you made some gigantic cock up somewhere? And all your confidence vanishes as the hours go by and you find yourself getting nowhere and even dare I say think about giving up!

But then you realise that hundreds of kit builders have gone through the process where somewhere along the line they've come across a problem and find themselves scratching their heads wondering what the hell to do.

Inevitably it something simple like one component that refuses to play or a simple soldering issue and once its rectified, bingo, the kit works and you wonder what all the fuss was about! 

A friend of mine who has just completed his K2 took 18 months and had various issues, he is I might add is a true experienced home-brew builder, having built many transceivers and other more complicated pieces of kit and I dare say was building other kits along with the K2 (hence the 18 months). 

Yet he had similar PLL problem besides others issues. An interesting thing he said to me was that he knew builders who had lot less experience and had sailed through the kit with absolutely no problems. It's the luck of the draw.

However, he is now happily singing its praises and telling me what a superb rig the K2 is and that I will get there in the end and no doubt I will, but it will not take me 18 months I can assure you!

K2 Alignment Testing Begins

The build with the K2 continues on and I am now at the second alignment testing stage. With the front and control boards completed I’ve reached halfway through the RF board with most of the components for the receiver now fitted.

The alignment testing consists of a number of actions to prove all is working correctly, these are the 4MHz ref oscillator, RF alignment, AGC threshold and IF filter alignment.

Sadly though I’m stuck on the oscillator test and am unable to get signals within the approved spec.  Searching the K2 forums this is a well-known problem and normally means some soldering/bridging issues or a component problem or perhaps a component misplacement.

So at the moment I’m running checks within the oscillator circuit searching for what may be at fault. One thing I did suspect was the toroid’s which have the correct windings (I've double checked), but don't seem to have a decent amount of tinning on them and I suspect I will have to remove and re-tin. I've never had the issue of toroid winding, in fact I find it quite therapeutic although hand winding five of them in one afternoon does tend to cut your fingers up!

I think with a bit of time and patience I’ll get there, normally with problems like this it’s some minor issue that the builder has missed and when the problem is found you can never believe that such a small error could cause the issue.

The good news is that the forum provides plenty of support and talks you through each check in detail so you are bound to find the cause in the end. Also by chance a fellow ham just down the road is building a K2 so if needs be we can get together to discuss. 

Hopefully in the next post I'll have moved on and perhaps start to see light at the end of the tunnel!

K2 Smoke Test Completed

Well I’ve done the initial smoke test and thankfully all is working, but I had a few issues along the way. 

 Note the egg box in the background, an ideal area for placing parts

Naturally when you get your kit you are very keen to get going and build as quickly as possible, the simple rule you must follow is to take your time and check every component as you go along. You must check it’s the correct item, and when installed is soldered correctly with no bridges.

I did the classic of installing a component (the socket for U1 a large chip) and missed one solder point. Naturally I thought I had checked, but obviously no doubt due to haste I missed it.

 Consequently I carried on and installed the LED Backlight assembly and the LCD over the socket, so two separate items were covering this costly mistake. On the first smoke test I got no LED backlight or LCD readout.

It took me a whole morning to find the problem and then I had the difficult task of creating an opening to raise the LCD followed by removal of the back light to actually get to the problem which then took only seconds to fix, a simple solder.

It felt more like a surgical operation rather than a repair. Mistakes are bound to happen, but the morale of the story when building this kit is check, check and double check! 

 With initial testing done the main board has now to be completed with RX and TX components

However, all is now well and with the smoke test completed I can continue on but at a slightly slower pace.

K2 Front Panel Completed

The front panel is now completed and so far the build is going well, a few minor issues where there have been some solder dry joints and bridges but nothing major. With the Easter break upon us I’ve had a few work free days so that I have managed to make a good start and things are progressing nicely and hopefully I’m ahead of schedule.

My old vinyl record disc anti static mat makes and Ideal building pad and attached to my anti static wrist band I happily work away with the radio playing some background rock music and drinking vast amounts of coffee! 

I picked up an interesting tip for checking dry joint which is to hold up a bright torch behind the PCB board and check each joint; pinpricks of light will appear if the solder is dry or incomplete.

 Resistance tests on each completed PCB board were a little worrying as my experience with a DMM is not great but a quick lesson on the web got me started and the tests were not as bad as I thought. 

 It’s noticeable that if I work too long I make silly errors, so I must pace myself and remember that mistakes can happen when you have been over doing it!

K2 Build Begins

Inventory completed, I’ve cracked on and made a start on the Control board which is the first of the three PCB boards that have to be completed. 

So far so good with no initial problems, I’m using some thinner solder wire than previous builds and it definitely makes a difference, I only wish I’d done this for the OHR100. 

I’ve managed to install all the capacitors, resistors, diodes and begun work installing the transistors. Hopefully by tomorrow I should have the Control board completed.

I've managed to take over the conservatory at the back of the house which is a small well lit room  and ideal for building purposes as it's out the way and I can leave everything in place knowing it wont be disturbed. With the radio turned up I am left to my own devices and can happily solder away!

K2 Arrives

Finally I have my hands on the K2 kit!

It’s taken a long time but at last the kit arrived in this morning’s post. I’ve already had a quick peek and begun the inventory checks. There's a lot to check but everything is so neatly placed in the box it’s almost a shame to unpack it. I love how each individual packet is labelled with a note of who packed it, it’s a real nice touch.

 Not so neat now as I've had a good rummage.

Hopefully I’ll have the inventory done by the end of this week and then I can begin the build. I will adhere to my usual rules, those being to take it slow and steady and check everything as I go along, normally I’m happy doing two hour slots but we will see how it goes. 

 The manual is huge, more like a novel!

I’ll try to take some pictures as I go along, but there are plenty of websites around who describe the build in detail so I won’t be doing a specific build sheet. 

 The start of the inventory check, each bag is unpacked placed in a separate box and ticked off

I’ve also been in touch with Elecraft and ordered the 100 watt PA and the audio filter, (the UK distributor only had the basic kit). 
Obviously more to follow as I progress.

Kent Paddle Key

Some good news at last, my Kent key kit arrived and after a fairly simple build is now connected up to the FT 1000MP V. 

The only snag having rarely used a paddle was which way round I should connect the dashes and dots. After watching a few demonstrations on the web I quickly sorted it out, though not before attempting to practice with the dots on the right paddle and the dahs on the left! (I wondered why it didn’t feel right)!

First impressions on tapping away are pretty good, I thought I would really struggle but it actually seems to come reasonably naturally, obviously I’m fairly slow at the moment but speed will come with practice.

I have to admit it's a beautifully crafted piece of kit and looks great sitting in front of the rig. It's quite chunky and  has a good weight so it doesn't slide around even with my clumsy attempts, I'm very pleased with it.

Almost forgot to add the K2 is coming next week! 
Long story short, the UK Elecraft dealer suddenly has a K2 in stock and by chance when ringing them to inquire about another product they happened to mentioned it. Strange indeed, but hell,I bought it there and then in case I was dreaming and the kit should arrive next week, happy days!

K2 Blues

Well once again my bad luck with overseas purchases has struck. 

At the end of last week I rang the UK Elecraft dealer trying to find out if there was any progress and suffice to say there was no change in my order and consequently no sign of my K2 arriving. 

From what I could gather the kit had not even been ordered and it seems they are much more interested in the K3 KX3 or KX1 orders and certainly don’t stock the K2 kits here in the UK. I'm not even sure if they've ever ordered a K2 for a customer, (I got the impression they didn't like the fact that someone might complain if they made a hash of building it).

Thoroughly disappointed I cancelled the order as I could see that I just wasn’t getting anywhere. The price of the pound against the dollar has recently taken a hit and is not brilliant at the moment so ordering direct from Elecraft is a possibility but may prove costly; I guess I’m going to have to wait. 

The only other option is to see if any come up on Ebay but of course I lose the fun of building the kit, the ideal situation would be something like a partly built kit but I doubt that will happen. 

So unfortunately I just have to accept that I'm going to have to wait a little longer for my K2.
To cheer me up I ordered the Kent twin paddle key kit which should be arriving in the next day or two, hopefully concentrating on the build and learning to use a paddle will take my mind off the K2!
................C'est la vie!

Time For a Switch

Many may be surprised that as an ardent CW fan (I rarely speak on the radio) I’ve never used a paddle key, having stuck with a straight key for nearly 16 years. Actually I tell a lie, I have, but a long time ago when I was first licensed and really it was too early and I was put off by the experience. 

Now that I am tapping away on a daily basis my Morse has moved on and I can quite happily converse at 20 wpm, the trouble is my sending hovers around 18 wpm max and if I try to speed up with a straight key mistakes naturally happen and it get uncomfortable after a few qso's. I could persevere and stretch myself (and sometimes I do), but quite honestly I should have used a paddle some time ago.

I love straight keys having 5 different keys ranging from a very nice “Stillwell”, a Himound, an old Watson and a couple of Czech keys these being the two I use most of the time. But as I said you find yourself limited and I think now the time has come to move to paddles. 

I’ve been watching Ebay to see what’s about and spot any bargains but so far with little luck. I want to start with something fairly moderate like a Kent and see how I get on. Hopefully with time and practice I will switch over fairly easily but it won’t happen overnight, so I must remember to be patient and put in loads of practice. 

Once I’ve bought the paddle I will post up some pictures, any advice on switching from straight to paddle will be greatly received!