Sunday, January 20, 2019

What Once Was Old is New Again

Radios, radios, radios.....I love radios. Over the years I have owned more than my share of boatanchors, QRP rigs, V/UHF gear, short wave (now called "world band") radios, some CB rigs and, yes, a scanner or two. 

For one reason or another I have sold/traded most of that gear off and have kept only a very select group of radio equipment. Herein lies the crux of this blog. "The one that got away".

In 2017 I managed to afford a brand new Elecraft KX2 ultra-portable HF transceiver. The KX2 is an utterly fascinating radio, it's size being deceptively small for all the features that are packed inside that tiny box. I was very proud of my new KX2 and took it to Grand Forks AFB, ND when Pat (KB3MCT) and I visited our grand daughter and her hubby after the birth of Eloise, our 3rd great grand child. I had a simple vertical antenna set up on the back yard of their base house (complete with three radials) and made a grand total of 3 Qs over a 4 week period. Not a stellar number of contacts given the extended period of time. 

That experience sealed the fate of my KX2. I quickly found that although I liked the rig a lot and it was a small miracle of miniaturization and design it was NOT a fun rig for me to operate. Don't get it twisted, I was very happy with the radio but several things about it's operation started to bug me. Soon, I knew that I had to find it a new home and get a replacement. One that had a lot of features, was well respected in QRP circles and one that I was at ease operating. 

Enter the Elecraft K2....."The One That Got Away!" I built my first K2 back before the turn of the century. It was loaded up with all the options Elecraft sold except for the 100W linear amp....(I don't need no stinkin' 100 watts!) and I loved it. The building experience was not only pleasant it was also very soothing and calming. Pat worked nights as an armed Social Security Guard at the data center in Plains, PA, so I would stay up very late each night and Conan O'brian and I would build the K2 together. Occasionally I'd tune to Coast to Coast AM with John Noory and listen to all the UFO/conspiracy theorists explain how the space aliens had taken over MacDonald's and were fattening up Americans to become a food source for their dying planet. WOW! 

My original K2 and all the options went together without a hitch thanks to the extremely well written instructions provided in the K2 manual (thanks Wayne and Eric!) I used that K2 until 2005, when I sold it to procure a newer, more expensive piece of gear. Dumbest move I ever made (not including marrying my first wife). I have regretted that decision countless times over the intervening years. Time to find someone that wanted to off load their K2 in exchange for my KX2.

I placed an email on the North Georgia (NoGA) QRP Club reflector and within 24 hours Pickett Cummins, AD4S, emailed me back saying he had acquired a K2 from the estate of a local QRPer who had just become a Silent Key (SK), would I be interested? I immediately told Pickett that I was most assuredly interested and maybe we could do a trade.

We exchanged several emails and last Thursday I traveled to AD4S' QTH to seal the deal. He liked my KX2 and I definitely liked the K2 he was offering in trade. The K2 looked near mint. It was a bare bones CW rig with only the KAT2 internal automatic antenna tuner (ATU) installed. We struck a deal and I walked (stumbled?) out his basement door with my new K2 under my arm. 

Presently there is the KSB2 SSB option and the KAF2 active audio filter option on order as well as a factory manual. I need to find a copy of Fred Cady's, KE7X, book on the K2 which is long out of print. The hunt is on. 

Over the next 11 months I am going to procure the KNB2 noise blanker, the KIO2 I/O option, along with the K1602, 160M/2nd antenna option. Elecraft has discontinued their KDSP2 digital signal processor option apparently from either poor sales or the lack of availability of critical through-hole parts. This last thing weighs heavily on my mind as it is possible that Elecraft may decided to discontinue (retire?) the K2 and it's options, in the near future due to this parts procurement problem. I certainly hope not as the K2 is a great kit radio and it offers QRPers the chance to construct a world class HF rig that, although 20 years old, still performs admirably on today's bands. 20 year old technology be damned, it is more radio than I'll ever need given my current operating schedule/practices. 

One thing I loved about my original K2 was it's ease of operation. Once the learning curve had been mastered it became second nature to tweak controls to optimize the radio. Controls were ergonomic and easily accessed without going through 4 or 5 nested menus. Something I really liked! In short, the K2 was, and still is, a viable HF multi-mode station even by today's standards. Additionally, the K2 set the bar for future HF rigs, including those offered by the Offshore Empire. I have said it before, Elecraft, and it's amazing and talented engineering talent, have revolutionized ham radio equipment design, forcing other manufacturers to up their game to stay competitive. All this done by a hand full of people in northern California. Well done, Elecraft!

So I have managed to recapture "The One That Got Away" and am looking forward to many years of flawless operation on the HF bands with the K2. 

Time to go ogle the new K2 and maybe even put it on the air!

vy 73
Rich K7SZ
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