[Elecraft] K1 1562 Completed; KB3JCY on the air

Wed May 7 00:31:00 2003

Congratulations on finishing your K1.  I think you will find you made a
wise choice.  It should bring many enjoyable hours of operating.
Perhaps I will find you on the air one of these days.

Bruce - W8FU - K2 #3209

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark Fickett
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 12:45 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [Elecraft] K1 1562 Completed; KB3JCY on the air

Hello!

I think I can, at long last, call my K1 finished.

I would have said it was done a while back, except that at the very end
I had a resistance check problem (J8-5 was extremely low - around 1.5k
instead of around 100k) which refused to go away. After checking a
number of other things (resister placement, D15, everything else) and
emailing Elecraft support (and of course the reflector), however, I
decided to go with the suggestion to finish the kit and just watch the
RF detector and S-meter carefully, and know where to look if there were
problems; happily, I haven't had any problems (anywhere).

In general, the kit was wonderful all the way through. I had a couple
questions for inventory - it being my first kit, I didn't know how
exactly the parts had to match the list, or which ratings were critical
(the 10-turn resistor wasn't exactly as pictured; three electrolytic
capacitors' voltages were overrated) - which all turned out to be easily
satisfied, an adventure with soldering iron tips (which wouldn't conduct
heat, or died extremely quickly, or I couldn't find replacements for),
and a coupld resistance checks which were slightly off; aside from the
final resistance check, however, everything was very smooth. All in all,
excepting time spent on emailing the reflector and elecraft support
(both immensely helpful and prompt) and getting distracted during
reciever alignment, it took around 38 hours. The kit itself, too, was
excellent: the manual was wonderfully clear, the parts (from resistors
to casing) were beautiful, and the final product is extremely pleasing
(though
 I can't claim to be able to judge a rig yet - it's not only my first
kit, but my first rig).

At the moment, I have Bencher paddles, a J-37 straight key, an Astron
2.5A power supply, and a 40-m inverted-V dipole which is roughly 33ft
(half wavelength) up. (I also have a Yaesu Memorizer which I was given,
but which I have (somewhat guiltily) neglected to this point for my K1.)
I've made my first two contacts, both with a friend just down the
street. He's made a number of other contacts in the US using the K1 when
he came over to try it out and see my setup; he was very pleased with
it.

For now, that's all my news. 73,

Mark Fickett, KB3JCY

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