[Elecraft] Another K1 Comes to Life

[Mike]

Paul Cavnar wrote:

> I am pleased to announce that K1 #1256 has been born...

Congratulations!

> Next comes the list of mods that I may do ... Likely, I
> will do none. :)

If yours is of the latest version (manual revision F), there's *very
little* left in the way of significant mods.  Just about all the issues
and improvements developed since the K1 and the KFL1-4 were introduced
have been incorporated in the later units.  About the only electrical
mods I can think of that aren't are just matters of tailoring a feature
or two to one's own personal liking:

(1)  AGC response time decrease (RF board C31 changed to 1 uF or so).
(2)  KFL1-4 40m bandpass broadening (C10 and CK to 4.7 uuF) if you have
a 150 kHz or greater VFO range and want near full output over that
range).
(3)  RIT range reduction (I've not incorporated this one).
(4)  Backlighting the LCD (I've not incorporated this one).

Beyond that are the minor non-electrical improvements, like:

(1)  Speaker grill cloth -  more important than one might think, to keep
crud out of the speaker cone and improve appearance.
(2)  Felt "washers" behind the tuning knob to create some resistance to
rotation - strictly a personal choice, but I've found this to be
valuable with my 170 kHz VFO tuning range.
(3)  At one time, a "resonace rattle" could occur at certain audio
frequencies unless the four corners of the front panel PCB had some
small amount of foam tape between them and the fastening blocks on the
main chassis.  I've heard no more about this for over a year, so I guess
this has been resolved.
(4)  At some audio frequencies, a rattle could occur between the speaker
magnet and the mounting bracket of the KBT1 internal battery unless a
single layer of tape was wrapped around the speaker magnet.  I haven't
heard anyone mention this as a problem in a long time either. 

I'm sure there's other mods out there, but if I had a new K1 I
personally would do all the above except the RIT mod (I like the RIT
range as designed) and the LCD backlight (I don't want the extra current
consumption).  Every other mod I've done to K1 number 175 in the past 21
months has already been incorporated into the latest units.

73,
Mike / KK5F