>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Charles Greene" <W1CG@QSL.NET>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Our club is considering buying a Jupiter. I have never seen one, let
>alone
>> operated one. We plan to get and show the company video on it. Other
>rigs
>> under consideration are an ICOM 746PRO and a K2/100. Important features
>> are the ability of new/non-technical hams to operate, performance in field
>> day or a field day type environment with another rig on adjacent bands,
>> filters, DPS NR and ability to operate CW (preferably QSK), phone and
>> digital. I have a K2/100 and borrowed a IC746PRO to set it aside the
>> K2/100 and do an A/B comparison
The name of the game on Field Day is cleanliness of RF output and a bulletproof
receiver. IMO, the only good choices are the newer generation Omni's, the
Orion,
and the Elecraft K2 family.
The K2/100 with the KAT100 tuner and KDSP2 may be the best 100 w CW
contest rig in the world. I absolutely love it. And it is spectacularly good
for Field
Day. Extremely bulletproof front end, very low phase noise. Here's an
example. I
can be transmitting CW with my Titan 425 (driven by a TS850) into a 40 meter
dipole at 1 kW out. The tubes in the Titan are the originals, and the amp is
at
least 15 years old. 30 ft from one end of the dipole is a non-resonant vertical
that I
am loading on 30 meters with the K2/100 and KAT100. I'm in Chicago copying a
KL7 at 559, AND I CAN'T TELL THAT THE TITAN IS ON THE AIR! No clicks, no
hash, no desense. This also speaks well for the cleanliness of the TS850 and
the
Titan! There are no bandpass filters on either radio -- only the KAT100 tuner
on
the K2. The Titan is driving the dipole directly.
The K2 is NOT a world class SSB radio -- it's just OK. If SSB is important to
you,
look at TenTec. Two major shortcomings -- very inadequate crystal filters for
narrow SSB bandwidths (it is basically the excellent CW filters stagger tuned),
and inadequate gain in the TX audio/modulator chain. The transmit filters,
which
are used on receive for 2.4 kHz bandwidth, are excellent. Except for the SSB
filters, the receiver runs neck and neck with Orion, and is better than all the
Omni's. Obviously, the Orion's IF DSP is far more versatile and powerful.
I also one an Omni A and Omni V.9, and I like both of these radios. The Omni
V.9
is also a very good Field Day radio. The Omni A is showing its age -- it's not
a
bad radio, but Ten Tec has come a long way since then.
Another good thing about the K2 for a club project is that different parts of
the kit
can be built by different members of the club and put together into the
completed
radio. My guess is that most of the builders will eventually end up building a
complete radio for themselves.
Jim Brown K9YC
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