[Elecraft] Re: Dare I say? [KX1 builder observations]

[Mike Warner]

Wayne, All,
Since you asked,

 I am in the final stages of building KX1 # 62 ( I know, I'm slow) and 
so far am very pleased with the kit, packaging, instructions, etc.
There are a few things that have been on my mind that I believe would 
improve the radio.

1. The screws  for the battery holders need to be  about 1 to 2 mm 
longer. As supplied, I was unable to get full engagement of the screw 
threads into the case.
My workaround for this was to machine off the lands in the battery 
holder screw holes with a hand held drill bit, thus allowing the screws 
to engage the full thicknes of the case metal. Kind of clunkey but it 
was better than stripping out the holes and or screws.

2. Please supply the correct alignment tool for the trimmer caps 20A, 
20B, 40. none of my assortment was quite the right size. You did great 
by supplying the allen wrench for the encoder knob and sandpaper to 
remove the paint from the case metal but both of these items are 
available at local hardware stores. Alignment tools are somewhat harder 
to find here in the woods.

3. A few strips of masking tape before you paint the case might 
elliminate the need to sand off the paint overspray before transister 
and stand-off mounting.

4. As someone has already posted, lower profile pot shafts for AF and RF 
gain and the filter controls as well as the encoder knob and shaft could 
substantialy reduce the size of the final package and make it even more 
"trail friendly". Although on second thought I can see that the larger 
knobs will be an asset when wearing gloves,  tradeoffs.

5. Option while building for mono headphone/speaker jack. Maybe just 
something as simple as clipping a lead or cutting a trace like in K1.

So far all of the tests and alignments have been without problems.

I'll post again if I come up with anything while building the KXPD1, 
KXAT1 and KXB30.

Thanks for a fine product.

73 de N3XPD
Mike

Wayne Burdick wrote:

>That said, we're definitely open to improving specific assembly steps. Please
>send me your suggestions.
>
>73,
>Wayne
>N6KR
>
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