[Elecraft] KX1 vs. FT-817

[Karl Larsen]

Alexandra Carter wrote:
> Yes, two completely different animals.
>
> I recently bought an Icom IC-7000, my friend Dale got one and if it's 
> good enough for him it's darned good.
    I keep a schedule with WF5A Karl Hess, and he has to have the latest 
in radio and he also bought a Icom 7000 and he sounds real good. We both 
have the FT-857D and the FT-817 and know that we cut our teeth on the 
817 with menue's and then got more menu's and then finally on the 7000 
even more menu's :-)
> My impressions so far are, Darned Good! But, which would I rather have 
> out on the park here on our Thursday lunchtime get-togethers? Probably 
> the K1 I'm building. Which is easiest to pull out of a backpack, throw 
> a wire up into a tree, and work some CW from the bluffs overlooking 
> Maverick's? Sure I can take the 7000 places but it needs many lbs of 
> batts. The K1 was designed to take to the field with a modest battery.

>
> The original point was, Why was I able to hear so much more on my 817 
> than on my KX1? And I think the conclusion was that I'd not built my 
> KX1 right somehow, and some testing with a decent sig-gen and seeing 
> if it would meet factory specs would have shown me that. 73 de Alex NS6Y.
>
    Hi Alex, I have wanted a KX1 for years. Often you have been looking 
at that radio for a long time, you can't see the tree for the forest. If 
you want I will be glad to look at your KX1 and find the receiver 
problem. I need the radio and the manual if you would like to try this. 
I have put together a AT Sprint 3 which is 99% SM devices. I have a BIG 
magnifying light on an arm and all the tools you can need.

73 Karl

> On Jul 11, 2006, at 8:19 AM, Karl Larsen wrote:
>
>>    When you try to compare two radios you get into a can of worms. I 
>> own an FT-817 of about 5 years ago and it's a fine radio. It covers 6 
>> meters and the two VHF-UHF bands that are not on a KX1.
>>
>>    But the KX1 uses less input power on receive and thus will last a 
>> lot longer on the internal battery pack.
>>
>>    But the KX1 has no SSB and the FT-817 does.
>>
>>    You go around like this and miss the real good points of both 
>> radios :-)
>>
>> The KX1 is made to be carried in a pack to hard to walk to places. It 
>> has a built in paddle and it works fine. I have taken my FT-817 on 
>> similar trips and it does well too, but it needs more battery.
>>
>>    So both radios do the same thing but the FT-817 does a few more 
>> tricks.
>>
>> 73 Karl K5DI
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Alexandra Carter wrote:
>>> I am very happy to announce that I am apparently all wet!
>>>
>>> From the sound of it, the KX1 I built a couple of years ago had some 
>>> undocumented "features" built in like perhaps the partial deafness 
>>> problem. Some serious testing on my part would have sniffed this out 
>>> and caused me to hunt down and solve the problem.
>>>
>>> I am working on a K1 now, and when it's done I'll make sure it's 
>>> recieving the way it ought to.
>>>
>>> 73 de Alex NS6Y
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 10, 2006, at 1:56 PM, ron wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I always thought them KX1's were far superior to them  817's!
>>> _______________________________________________
>>
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