[Elecraft] Looking at Elecraft kits

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I strongly recommend the K2, Steve. 

Adding the options when you want is very simple. The K2 was designed to be
built just that way and it's a trivial exercise to install options after
you've built, tested and used the basic K2. The K2 is designed to be taken
to bits in a few minutes, should you ever want to do that, but the modules
are added with a minimum of fuss-and-bother without doing a lot of heavy
disassembly. Usually they involve adding a header to a pc board where the
module will plug in and cutting or removing a jumper that you installed
during the initial build to bypass the module until you add it. 

Some of those options are perfect for your style of portable work - such as
the optional built-in antenna tuner and battery that mount in the removable
top cover. With them, all you need is a key and some wire to use for an
antenna to go portable. If you decide you'd like a 100-watt K2/100 in the
future, you can add the KPA100. It, too, is in a removable lid that replaces
the "QRP" top that may contain your portable battery and tuner. So a couple
of minutes - at the most - to swap top covers and your K2 is either a
world-class home station or a self-contained world-class portable station.

Congratulations on the license, Steve! You'll have a world of fun with your
Elecraft rig on the HF bands. When the bands are open for DX, it's literally
a "world" of fun! 

73, 

Ron AC7AC
 

-----Original Message-----

Hello All, As a newly licensed tech, I am looking around for radio's. I am
interested in the Elecraft kits, but am debating whether to get the KX1 and
then an older used radio for home or to just get a K2.

I do a bit of camping and hunting, over the course of a year probably spend
about a month in the woods but none of it is hiking so extreme portability
isn't that much of an issue. It might be in the future and I will get a KX1
for that, but right now it would be a matter of dragging a car battery to a
table at most 50 feet.

The fact is budgets being what they are, I probably can only afford a basic
K2 right now. I am trying hard to learn the code and I am slowly progressing
so it may seem like a waste to buy a basic K2 now without knowing code, but
if I do not get it now, I will not be able to afford it again for a while.

My main concern is if I get a basic K2 without any extras, is it easy to add
things later on? It seems like it would be, but I just want to make sure.

Thank you,
Steve