[Elecraft] My 2nd K1 impression.

[Darwin, Keith]

I made my first K1 QSO last night.  Someone calling CQ - very strong.  I
wasn't really ready but answered anyway.  It was embarrassing.  I didn't
write down his call so had to send QRZ.  My keyer speed was set a bit
higher than I wanted and couldn't remember the menu selection to turn it
down (duh, it's not in the menu!!).  The keyer in the rig is not quite
what I'm used to so my sending was not so hot.  I'm a bit surprised he
answered me :-)  The rig worked FB and we had a good QSO between VT and
MN.  I ended the QSO a bit early to save him the torture of copying poor
CW with a bit of a weak signal.
 
I also did some listening tests, K1 vs. Omni V.  The K1 was noticeably
quieter.  The Omni has a lot more IF hiss which reduces the S/N ratio.
K1's CW signals leap out of the background silence.  The Omni showed a
bit of distortion on the leading edge of each CW element.  K1 distorted
on the first element (audio AGC) but the rest were very clean.
Selectivity didn't seem largely different between the two rigs but more
listening is needed.
 
And the QSK of the K1 was very smooth.  Maybe even smoother than the
Omni V.
 
Of course, the fairly weak European station calling CQ DX didn't hear me
when I came back to him.  I suspect the 100 watts of the Omni would have
made the QSO possible.
 
All in all, this little K1 is really a pleasant surprise!
 
- Keith KD1E -
- K1, Omni V -