Abstract The physical properties of transiting exoplanets are connected with the physical properties of their host stars. We present a homogeneous spectroscopic analysis based on the spectra of FGK-type stars observed with the Hydra spectrograph on the WIYN telescope. We derived the effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities, for 81 stars observed by K2 and 33 by Kepler 1. We constructed an Fe i and ii line list that is adequate for the analysis of R ∼ 18,000 spectra covering 6050–6350 Å and adopted the spectroscopic technique based on equivalent-width measurements. The calculations were done in LTE using Kurucz model atmospheres and the qoyllur-quipu (q ²) package. We validated our methodology via an analysis of a benchmark solar twin and solar proxies, which are used as a solar reference. We estimated the effects that including Zeeman-sensitive Fe i lines have on the derived stellar parameters for young and possibly active stars in our sample and found them not to be significant. Stellar masses and radii were derived by combining the stellar parameters with Gaia EDR3 and V magnitudes and isochrones. The measured stellar radii have a 4.2% median internal precision, leading to a median internal uncertainty of 4.4% in the derived planetary radii. With our sample of 83 confirmed planets orbiting K2 host stars, the radius gap near R _planet ∼ 1.9 R _⊕ is detected, in agreement with previous findings. Relations between the planetary radius, orbital period, and metallicity are explored and these also confirm previous findings for Kepler 1 systems.