[Elecraft] [KX1] Contesting with the KX1 on CQWW CW

[Michael Madden]

Hi QRPers,

Apologies to those who read it on QRP-L already...  I
thought I'd share my recent experiences with the KX1
on the DX contest with the Elecraft list.

I had great success using the KX1 on the CQWW contest
over Thanksgiving. My station was in the spirit of
KE9V's anti-shack: the KX1 on the dining room table,
and a temporary inverted vee in a tree.  The station
packed into one pouch of my computer carry-on bag on
the plane.

Summary:

31 countries/entities worked
5 continents
14 zones
Best DX: Northern Finland, Canary Islands, Argentina,
Hawaii

I packed up the KX1 and a DWM Yo-Yo dipole antenna in
my computer carry-on and took it on the plane with me
from California to Chicago for Thanksgiving.  My plan
was to set the KX1 up on the dining room table, string
up a wire antenna in the backyard, and operate during
the downtime between family visits.  

The yo-yo antenna went up and was tuned in about 30
minutes.  I marked off the lengths for 20M and 40M
with tape on the wire, and reeled to get a 1:1 match. 
The KX1 ATU was not necessary.  The SWR bridge on the
KX1 worked great to tune the antenna quickly.  I could
take the KX1 out to the backyard with me, attach the
coax, and tune on the spot - with the same coax and
rig I'd be using for the contest.  Pretty simple.

I highly recommend the yo-yo dipole antenna for
portable operation.  Packs nicely, easy to deploy, and
easy to tune.  One observation is that the length to
unwind to get 1:1 was quite a bit shorter than the 5%
shorter rule for inverted vees.  My guess is that the
wound wire in the yo-yos at the ends acts as a little
bit of loading.  My final correction factor was about
9-10% shorter than 234/Fo.

Before I left for the trip, I found a tiny wall-wart
12V switching supply at Halted that supplies 1.25A and
weighs just a couple ounces.  It gives me 4W out on
the KX1, and packs well in the computer bag.

The KX1 worked flawlessly in the contest.  I tried
both the KX1 paddles and the palm paddles, and found
the palm to do a little better at 25-30 WPM.  Not that
I am that fast in regular QSOs, but it helps to be
able to send fast to sneak in the holes.  The variable
bandwidth
filter was perfect for quickly filtering QRM.  

I found that if I could copy a station pretty well, he
would hear me.  Often I'd need to time my call to be
in the hole between stronger stations, and sometimes
it took several calls to get it in.  But if you listen
to how the DX is working the calls, wait for the
stronger stations to get theirs, then I found that you
get your report in just a couple calls.

I also played a little bit with my on-air signals on
DxTuners.com.  I have a subscription there where I can
tune in receivers around the country and world.  I
could copy myself fine in Pittsburgh, so I played with
cutting my power and observing what happens.  Bottom
line was that I could hear almost no difference
between 4W on external power, and 1.5W from internal
AA batteries.  Both were about a 559.  For those of
you who (like me) try to squeeze every last dB from
your QRP system, I recommend this exercise. 
You quickly learn that the difference between 1.5W and
4W is not a big deal.  

So after this little exercise, I switched to internal
batteries, and found I had about the same success rate
in working the DX.  Working Hawaii from Chicago on 40M
with a low vee and 1.5W was pretty exciting. 

In one stretch on Sunday, I worked North America,
South America, Europe, Africa, and Oceana within about
1 hour of each other on 20M, all with 1.5W.  

I have to say that this little stunt of the anti-shack
on CQWW showed me how fun and effective the KX1 and a
dipole can be in a contest.

73,
Mike N9OHW


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