[Elecraft] Anyone got their KXB3080?

[Don Wilhelm]

Jay,

As you no doubt noticed when reading the instructions, the KXB3080 does take
a bit more care and patience than most.  In fact, I would rate it as the
most critical construction item that Elecraft has produced.  It takes care
and careful attention to the instructions if one expects everything to fit
together and work when complete.

After doing 12 of these upgrades, and repairing 3 others, I can easily do
the job in a couple hours now, but the first couple times it took a lot
longer to get it right and refine my technique.  I do recommend Mychael's
pre-wound toroids because they are a bit tricky to wind and tin the leads
properly.  Mychael's price is $9 per set plus $6 for shipping based on the
latest info I have, and I consider it a bargain.

If you need me to do the KXB3080 install for you, I charge $39 plus $10 for
pre-wound toroids (I order in bulk and pass along the savings) and $16 for
return packing and insured shipping - total $65.  I try to turn these around
in a couple days so you are not without your KX1 for a long time.

The only advice I can offer on the antenna is to stay away from lengths that
are 1/2 wavelength on any band for either the radiating element or
counterpoise wires (assuming direct connect to the KX1 with no tuner - or
feedline plus radiator lengths) - the W3EDP lengths of 85 ft and 17 feet
have been found good by several folks, and I can say that my doublet 22 ft
per side with a 25 ft parallel transmission line feedline (47 ft total per
side) works nicely on 80, 40 and 20, although it is getting close to a half
wave on 30 meters where I have to experiment with adding or subtracting a
bit of feedline.

73,
Don W3FPR


> -----Original Message-----
>
> I downloaded the KXB3080 manual and had some questions:
>
> How hard is it to put together for a KX-1 that has already had
> the KXB30 30M
> unit and auto antenna tuner installed?
>
> Has anyone found some universal wire antenna lengths that will
> work with the
> KX-1 and internal antenna tuner - over all four (80, 40, 30, 20) bands?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay
> W6CJ
>