I am trying to track down why my power output is low. I have a couple of hours into this today... my vacation day (use it or lose it)

----Snip from the email that I sent to the Elecraft Reflector----
K2 gurus:

I got a note from Gary (support) and Don (w3fpr) with some ideas.

--I checked the low pass filters and the number of turns.
--I validated that T4 is oriented the right direction --No burnt relays
--8R/8T are ~8vdc (R-7.87/T-7.815)
--8R on transmit goes to 0.245vdc
--I clipped W1 to test for PA feedback (no change)
--I removed the bottom panels and cleaned up a couple of joints as a CYA
--Removed and rewound LP for 80m
--Checked & resolder the connections of toroids for 20/30, 15/17, & 40
--Repeaked (on receive) all of the band pass filters with a signal generator
--Repeaked (on transmit) all of the band pass filters

I made some progress: (Original Test... and after some rework)
--Freq-----1 Test----1 Msg----2 Test----2 Msg
 3.750mhz  2.5w      Hi Cur   2.3w      Hi Cur
 7.100mhz  6.1w      Hi Cur   6.6w      Hi Cur
10.100mhz  0.3w      Hi Cur   4.9w      Hi Cur
14.100mhz  0.3w      Hi Cur   5.7w
18.100mhz  9.5w               7.3w
21.100mhz  4.1w               5.0w
24.900mhz  0.5w               4.9w
28.200mhz  6.0w               6.3w

As you can see I am now getting ~5w on all bands except for 80m. I suspect that the toroid cleanup might have been part of the answer for 20/30 and tweaking the band pass brought 10/12 into better alignment.

On the three bands that I get a high current message it appears at the peak power out and does go away if the power is reduced. Any chance that I am only seeing power out of Q7 or Q8 instead of both of them?

Thursday was day 21. I spent the afternoon trying to trouble shoot an RF issue. I built the RF probe and poked around the radio while I was on the phone with Scott @ Elecraft HQ. It is hard to poke around some of the RF amp sections because the bottom cover/heat-sink is in the way.

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Saturday was day 22. I went over to N0FP's QTH. He has an O-Scope. Between two of us we went thru the schematic and compared notes with the O-scope readings. We were seeing RF thru the entire chain where we were expecting it.... just not enough RF.

Using the scope we able to measure the DC and the RF. His scope was fast enough that we were able to see a lot of detail in the RF. Even though T3 tested out properly it looked like the likely problem. I rewound it and put it back into the circuit. I also borrowed some small heat-sinks that would fit on the PA transistors so that we could test the radio without the rear cover.

I am now seeing the proper amount of RF coming out of the rig. I need to take one more pass thru tuning up the Band Pass Filters. Once that is done I need to test the output of each band to make sure that all looks good.

At this point it looks like the circuits are playing as expected. Next phase is to hook up the speaker and close up the case then the basic build is complete.

I have the SSB and ATU option kits to put together next.

WTF

Ok.... this pushes me over the edge. GM is now spamming my inbox with their attempt to get some of the bail-out cash. What a bunch of free-loaders. They think that they should be bailed out just because they have run their company into the ground.

I don't see anyone handing me bail-out money or offering me an easy way out.

GM here are a couple of common sense ideas for running your business:

• Provide some real leadership, vision, and consider innovating again.
• Maybe come up with a couple of vehicles that people are interested in buying.
• Dump some of the crap from your product line that is no longer viable.
• Stop comparing yourself to your competition.
• Lead by example and stop looking in the damn mirror.

What a lame attempt to skim for money. Now they are trying to put the spin on their crappy business model.

Our weather has become cool and rainy, snowy, and ice covered rather early this fall. It appears that I am already visiting in the inside work bench a little more and a little earlier than usual. (Not that inside projects are bad.)

I took today as a PTO day at work (burning up time before the end of the year.) I decided to spend the majority of the day working my Elecraft K2 project. Looking at my blog it appears that last time that I worked on the kit was June 20 which is about 5 months ago... wow that is a long time.

I spent about 6 hours today working on the project. Today's focus was installing the last batch of capacitors, resistors, and then winding cores and transformers. Tonight at 8:30 I got the PA transistors installed and the case put back on the radio. The next big step is the Phase 3 alignment.

This next chunk of testing and alignment will validate that I installed all of the proper pieces in the proper spots. So far I have had minor issues with each phase largely due to dumb things on my part. Each of them was resolved with some troubleshooting, emails, and the occasional phone call to the support folks.

I am not sure if I will get back to the project this week as the calendar is looking pretty full. Worst case... I have another day of PTO planned for next week.    I would like to get the basic QRP CW rig finished and checked out. I still have the Tuner and SSB option kits to install to finish out the basic rig.

My goal is to be able to finish the radio with the above options and then be able to order, build, and validate the transverter option kit prior to the January VHF contest. (Ok... my first goal was to have the radio ready for the 2008 Field Day weekend... I kind of missed that goal... life got in the way again.)

Ben, Joe, and I spent a couple of hours Saturday afternoon cruising around west of Willmar, MN taking pictures of trains.

http://www.hoaglun.com/gallery/2008-10-04/

Summary:
I was scrambling to swap out my Kenwood TR-751 as the IF rig for the transverters with an older Kenwood TR-9130. I was messing with getting the power levels tweaked, the 6 pin mic connector, and the discovery that it has a PTT-High interface. Once the TR-9130 was in place I had to adjust the TX & RX levels within the transverter. It appears that my 1296 transverter may only be putting out 4-5watts instead of the 15-18watts that it is rated for.

The weather was poor with rain & drizzle pretty much all weekend. I could hear the rain approaching 10 minutes before it hit as the noise level on 6m & 2m would increase from S0 to S6.

The activity level was extremely low. I was surprised at how quiet it was for the contest. The voice & CW keyer ran un-answered for large portions of the contest. Finally Sunday evening around 7:00pm I pulled the plug on the contest and decide to work on homework with my kids, clean my office/shack, and watch part of a movie.

My log is about 60% lighter than I would have expected for this contest.

Highlights:
I worked N0UY in EN18, N0PB in EM39 and then briefly into EN50, EN51, and EN52

Thanks to KC0IYT/R and W0ZQ/R for their efforts to put on a limited rove this weekend. Without you it have been a really quiet event.

Grids Worked on 50MHz

Grids Worked on 144MHz

Grids Worked on 222MHz

Grids Worked on 432MHz

Grids Worked on 902MHz

Grids Worked on 1296MHz

I need one of these:

http://www.ncsradio.com/m_switch.html

Summary:

This was the first August UHF contest from this house. (We built it 3 years ago.) I thought that conditions on Saturday afternoon were kind of average or poor. Once the sun went down and the relative humidity went up it seemed like some of the paths started to open up. On Sunday it seemed like conditions were decent but the activity level was kind of low. During the last 2 hours of the contest I had a thunderstorm sit a couple of miles away. I had to disconnect the coax and rotor cables do the nearby lightning activity.

Highlights:

• Working W0ZQ/R and W9FZ/R through a bunch of grids. (Many of them new for me.)
• Working N0PB in EM39
• Working K2YAZ in EN74
• Working N0GZ in EN31
• Working W0FLS in EN21
• Working N9LR in EN50
• First contest with the 902 antenna on the tower. (Thanks to W0AMT for the transverter)
• First contest with the IF switch box and transverters relocated to our utility room

Wish was better:

• More activity (the rovers were awesome... but we need the fixed stations to be active as well.)
• Thunderstorm during the last two hours of the contest
• My 902/1296 IF rig is slightly deaf compared to my backup IF rig.
• Need to get a microphone for the backup IF rig so that I can migrate to this radio.
• Better band conditions.
• Some missed 902/1296 opportunities with K0AWU, K2DRH, etc.
• EN25 is not quite on people's radar so I sometimes struggle getting people to look my way.

Future Plans:

• I would like to get a 2304 system on the air some point on the VHF/UHF tower.
• I would like to get a 10GHz system up on my HF tower. (I need more bands!)
• My Elecraft K2 will be driving more of the lower band transverters as time progresses.

Grids works on 222mhz

Grids works on 432mhz

Grids works on 902mhz

Grids works on 1296mhz

Thunderstorms at the end of the contest