[Elecraft] KTS1 Tilt Stand Mods

[Jerry Kincade]

Hmmm. Thought I'd double check after reading your note, Michael. So I went
back out to the shop this morning and put the K1 back in the stand with the
original long arms installed, and it still won't rotate to a vertical
position, no matter which way you swing it. Rear corners of the K1 strike
the vertical "ears" of the T-shaped piece. Wayne Burdick tried a couple the
other day and ran into the same thing. Clearly there are some manufacturing
variances at work in the stamping process for the T-shaped base pieces. The
variance appears to be in the inside distance between the vertical "ears" of
the T-base. Distance between the inside surfaces of the ears on mine is LESS
(by about 3/32") than the overall width of the K1, so the K1 cannot possible
rotate past the ears in either direction. A small irritant, very easy to
fix. Like you, I want to be able to pack and carry this thing in the full
vertical position with the stand attached, and maybe even operate it
vertical with coax attached.

Anyway, the new 5-1/4" arms I made last night not only allow full rotation
to any position, but by using a 90 degree BNC connector they also allow
operating the K1 in any position desired, including full vertical. Or at
least I think they will - I'll have to wait for the paint to dry before I
actually try it. But I will have better than 1/2" of clearance between the
end of the BNC jack and the base plate when the K1 is vertical, so am pretty
sure a 90 deg BNC will clear. Of course, I also have to cipher out why I
would ever want to do that. :-)

The only drawback I can see (and which was pointed out by Wayne) is my
custom built long arms are too long to be stored inside the base plate when
the short arms are in use. But wait... The 1/2" x 10-32 thumbscrews supplied
were too short to reach through the thickness of two arms plus two rubber
gaskets anyway, so I couldn't use that storage idea unless I find some 3/4"
x 10-32 replacement thumbscrews (I wonder if others have run into that - it
could be cured by supplying a couple of 3/4" vice 1/2" screws). But since I
will likely never use the short arms, I'm not worried about it.

Thanks for the comments - Aint it great to work with a company that has such
excellent quality control that two-bit little things like this are all we
can find wrong with their stuff. :-)

73, Jerry W5KP


>
> Come to find out, I have about 350 degrees of rotation.  The trick is to
> rotate over the top, not from the bottom.  If I have the rig in the
> normal near vertical position, I can't just continue in that direction
> and get it vertical.  However, if I reverse and come all the way around
> so that I'm rotating around the bottom, over the front and then over the
> top, I can get the rig to vertical position.
>
> This certainly makes it much nicer to carry with the stand still attached.
>
> Michael N4NMR
>