Hi Ken, I'm an avid contester with my K2s (as are several others) and I use them with N1MM.
"RIT - In my entire 33-year ham career I have never felt the need for RIT (and XIT even less). Not exactly a complaint (it's probably just me) but to me the RIT control takes up a lot of real estate on a cramped front panel. Make the RIT control an encoder (if it isnt already) and then you can have it do any number of other cool adjustments at the press of a button (Id put the keyer speed control on there if it was me and make some room on the front panel)." I'd disagree with this. RIT is a must, too many folks call off freq as they slide up and down the band. I set my RIT high or low, so I can switch it in and out quick to copy folks better. XIT is great as some of the tough ones tend to work split during a contest (thank you!!!) Some folks prefer VFO B to do these operations, but I like being able to click the RIT/XIT buttons on N1MM to get there quick. "AF Gain/RF Gain/Speed/Power Controls - Way too close together. I found the best way to use them was to push directly on the end of the knob with my fingertip and turn it that way, rather than trying to grasp the knob. How about putting AF/RF Gain to the left of the tuning knob and Speed & Power to the right? (also see the above RIT comment)" Crank the AF control to MAX and use the RF as "volume" control, only need to turn one of them... "Display - OK, as far as it goes. I'd take out the bargraph S-Meter and expand the LCD display to fill the space. Use a dot matrix LCD and run a bargraph S-meter along the bottom of the LCD display. A dot matrix LCD gives you tons of flexibility to show additional information, like the status of many of the controls such as DSP (if installed) and filter selections." I can tell what filter position I'm in by ear. Haven't used DSP yet. Nobody seems to give a "real" signal report any more any way, definitely not in the contests. In fact, most log checkers don't even look at the signal reports in a submitted log. I'd rather see a meter myself, but then I'd be dating myself as well ;o) "Tune Button How about making it so that hitting Tune automatically reduces transmitter output to just a few watts for the tune operation, then returns the K2 back to its previously set output when tuning is complete?" It reduces it to 20W (if you have the KPA100) and then goes back to whatever power you have set. I think in QRP it reduces to 2 watts (don't recall) and then returns to the set power from tune. I use WinKeyer USB by K1EL. For us kit addicts it's a fun build. Had a little problem loading the drivers, mostly because I didn't comprehend the variations between O/S and loaded the wrong drivers first (big mistake!) Definitely need to pay close attention to the instructions hihi. Hope to log you in some of the upcoming 2007 contests. Good luck! 73, Julius n2wn _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
