Well, "two or three hours" was a bit optimistic! It actually took quite a while to get through the last four transformers. I was being extra careful about getting the spacing right. T4 turned out to be fairly brutal; getting those two "link" windings into their respective soldering pads right next to T3 was nearly impossible for the size of my fingers.
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However, by late afternoon, I completed assembly of the RF board (whew!!) and plugged the three boards together and mounted it all in the case, ready for Integration Test 3 and alignment. |
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I ran the N6KR method for setting the 4 MHz reference oscillator, which worked really well, and ran through the receiver and transmitter alignment steps a couple of times (last night when I was too darned tired, and then again today when I was fresh and actually read the fine print!!) ... and depicted is the result ... Elecraft K2 S/N 6982. |
Actually, I did as much of the alignment as I could. I don't own a noise or signal generator and 10 and 12 meters were so dead there was nothing for me to use to peak the band pass filters. Also, I don't own a dummy load and don't have antennas for all the bands either, so I couldn't peak all the band pass filters by the transmit method either. I plan to build the KPA100 (100 watt module) next (heh ... stay tuned for more blog posts later this year) and will get a dummy load as part of that project. I also will probably get Elecraft's N-GEN noise generator (although I think they charge too much for it!). With noise generator and dummy load in hand, I will be able to complete alignment for the other bands.
Looking forward to getting on 20 meters tomorrow!! Right now ... very satisfied and very tired.
