Friday, March 30, 2007

Back home where it belongs!

I came home from work yesterday to see a white USPS Priority Mail box waiting for me. I did not need the powers of the Amazing Kreskin or even Superman's X-Ray vision to know what was inside. My K2 was back! Hot dog!

My initial inclination, of course, was to rip the box open and run the rig downstairs to the shack and start pounding brass. But first things, first! First there was track practice for my son, homework for both my kids, bath time and bed time. Then and only then did I take the K2 and put it back in its rightful place on the operating table.

To my delight, I found out that Alan W3DVX did an outstanding job putting the final touches on my K2. The frequency is spot on! Twirl the dial on 30 Meters to 10.000.00 MHz and WWV is there, right where it should be! Next was a check of the K2's internal crystal filters. I went to 40 Meters and picked out a station that was in a cluster of several close by signals. Changing the filters was a thing of beauty. The station I had picked stayed put, rock solid and the interfering stations magically disappeared as I flipped through the K2's filters.

The KAF2 is now installed and I reset the internal clock to UTC. The audio filter sounds fabulous and I can already see where it will be a big help in the QRP sprints; when everybody and his brother seems to obstinately occupy about 5 kHz of spectrum instead of spreading out!

And as if things couldn't get better, I started calling CQ down around 7.031.00 MHz and I was answered by TK5JO, Guy in Corsica. A new one for me! I've never worked Corsica before, either QRP or QRO. This becomes my 69th DX station worked as I continue on towards QRP DXCC. Oh baby, what a night!

As I predicted, an already fabulous rig is now even better since it has been professionally tweaked and aligned by someone who knows EXACTLY what they are doing! And with this result, I can recommend Alan Wilcox, W3DVX and his firm Wilcox Engineering enthusiastically and whole heartedly!

If you want to have an Elecraft radio; but are hesitant for whatever reason to build it on your own; then Alan is THE man! If you're like me; and you've already built your own KX1 or K1 or K2, and you know it can stand some improvement and don't have the time to tackle the job on your own; then Alan is the man for you! His work is top notch, A-1 and his rates are reasonable. He is a true gentleman and he'll keep you informed every step of the way. By all means, do yourself a favor and visit his Website: http://wilcoxengineering.com/

You will be so glad that you did!

73 de Larry W2LJ

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:52 PM

    Thanks for the kind words, Larry! I try to take care of each radio as if it were my own.

    In fact, I just got another K2 for myself ... #5373. My first was #1077 that I had sold a few years ago. See my new page at http://wilcoxengineering.com/K2sn5373.aspx where I've been posting pictures as I build.

    Thanks again!

    73, Alan, W3DVX

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