[Elecraft] KX1 Nr 63 first QSO

[Nick Yokanovich]

K3NY de K2PQ/P  ur RST 559 in Wharton State Forest, NJ  (note: abt 170 
miles from my QTH near Baltimore & he was 579 running a K1 at 5w)

I was so elated I could hardly key the rig!  I was on docent duty at the 
Historical Electronics Museum where our club (W3GR, 
http://www.qsl.net/w3gr)  is based, and after the last visitor left I 
started experimenting outside on the lawn. The high end of the wire was 
about 15 ft up, rest was laying on grass.  I had tried a couple 
different lengths of wires for antenna and counterpoise with no luck -- 
the KX1 ATU wouldn't give me a better SWR than 8:1. The connector was 
also suspect, so I went into the museum lab and found a neat BNC 
connector with two 5-way binding posts for input, just what I needed. I 
hit close to a good length (I haven't measured it, just used the pieces 
of wire I had)  for 40m on second try, got 1.3:1 swr and 1.0 w out (six 
fresh alkaline AA cells), and heard K2PQ/P finishing a QSO, then calling 
CQ. I was standing up holding the rig in my left hand and keying with 
right. I never had a stand up QSO before! hi hi!  That length of wire 
didn't tune on 30 or 20, so more experimenting is needed. The ATU is 
quick but its range is limited, so (and this isn't a complaint) it needs 
a little help. I tried tuning a 20m dipole later in the evening, and it 
was FB on 20m, but band was dead. It wouldn't tune that antenna to 
operate on 30m or 40m. Bottom line: I am extremely happy with the rig. 
It's a bit harder to build than an NC20/Red Hot 20, the hardest thing 
I've built to date, but still a reasonable build. It took me abt 20 hrs: 
I am a one-component-at-a-time installer, pretty slow. But it worked 
first time I tried it! What more can one ask?

73
Nick K3NY
Arnold, MD
"My name isn't Arnold and I am not a doctor."

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