Elecraft K2 Owner's Manual - Manual (Page 35)

34
E
LECRAFT ®
6. RF Board
Most of the K2’s receiver and transmitter circuits are located on the
RF board, including filters, oscillators, and RF amplifiers. The front
panel and Control boards plug into the RF board, and the chassis
pieces are designed to form a tight enclosure around it (see photos in
Appendix D). In addition, many option boards plug directly into the
RF board to minimize wiring.
Assembly and testing of the RF board is broken into three parts:
Part I: The DC and control circuits are installed so that the front panel
and Control boards can be plugged in and tested. The I/O controller
(U1 on the RF board) is also installed and tested at this time. Once this
phase of assembly is completed, you’ll have the K2’s built-in test
equipment available for testing and aligning the remaining circuits.
Part II: Synthesizer and receiver components are installed and tested.
By the end of Part II you’ll have the K2 receiving on 40 meters.
Part III. Transmitter components and all remaining filter components
are installed. The K2 is then aligned on all bands.
Components
i
Review anti-static precautions before handling transistors or
ICs.
Open the bags labeled RF and sort the components into related
groups. In later steps you’ll sort some of the components according to
value to reduce the likelihood of assembly errors.
Locate the RF board and place it in front of you with the
component side up (the side with most of the parts), and the front edge
facing you (the edge with the irregular cutouts). Throughout this
section we’ll refer to the different areas of the board in terms of their
proximity to you. For example, "front-left" means the corner closest to
you on the left.