[Elecraft] KX1 SN 290 Lives

[michael]

Folks :

I am happy to announce the birth of KX1 #290.
I am getting 3W out on 20M and about 3.8W on 40M
with 13.8 Vdc in.

The kit went together well in a couple of weeks of
elapsed time with about an hour per night spent building.

I had a couple of minor problems. Somehow L3 became the
"Toroid from Hell". It took me no fewer that 3 tries at installation
before I managed to get an Ohm meter reading at less than 1
ohm. Thankfully it is only 6 turns as I think I wound this one 4 times
(broke one end of the wire trying to get the last little bit of 
insulation
off on the second try). I'm not sure what happened as I have wound lots
of toroids in past and never had a problem. Oh well ... I must say that
I have perfected my desoldering skills ... I was extra careful not to
damage the board, but I was started to get really worried after the 
second
failed attempt. The important point is not to panic and to resist the
temptation to fix this sort of problem when you are tired as this only
adds to the frustration and the likelihood that you will do something
that you will later regret.

The other issue is that I can't get the last knurled screw in to hold 
the
bottom half of the case together. This would be the screw near the
BNC connector. It appears that the hole in the case was not drilled
in exactly the right place so there is a misalignment with the standoff
that it screws into. The case fits together well (ie no problem with
the placement of BNC etc) it is just that the screw hole is offset
just enough that the screw will not go in. I will enlarge the hole ever
so slightly and see if that fixes that problem. Has anyone else
seen this on their KX1?

My only suggestion to Elecraft is that it would be nice if they would
include a suitable plastic alignment tool for peaking the RX.
I found that the added capacitance from using a metal screwdriver
was too hard to deal with. I routed through my collection of plastic
alignment tools but found that the shaft on anything I had was
too thick. I finally resorted to building my own from a nylon cable
tie (barely stiff enough) by carefully snipping pieces off with cutters.
(I appreciated having the tool included with the K1.)

So ... a couple more nights to get the ATU and paddles built and I
will be ready for QRPTTF this weekend.

Michael VE3WMB