[Elecraft] Elecraft K1 as my first HF rig??

[Paul Huff]

Hi Jeremy,

First let me say welcome to the world of HF and to this fine list.  I'm sure 
that you will enjoy both.

The K1 was not my first HF rig, nor was it my first kit, but I do use it as 
my main station rig.  Elecraft's construction manual is outstanding and with 
your technical background I think that you will do just fine.  The people on 
this list (or the qrp list) are an excellent source for help if you do run 
into any difficulties.

There are some people who do not recommend QRP for first-timers.  They 
suggest that it can be a frustrating experience with long gaps between 
successful QSOs.  I understand that concern, but I have to question the 
amount of QRP experience that these folks have.  In my opinion, working QRP 
DX might require a significant amount of patience and skill, but solid 
regional contacts are almost always easily available - especially on 40 
meters.  (I don't even have a very good antenna - an inefficient multi-band 
trap vertical!)

As far as your CW vs. SSB question, all I can say is that I am totally a CW 
operator and absolutely love that mode.  I have a microphone around here 
someplace but I don't know where it is and it wouldn't work on my K1 anyway! 
I'm sure that there a hams who are just as dedicated to SSB, and that's 
great.  It's really a matter of doing what you personally enjoy.  (This is a 
hobby!)  If you do decide to give CW a try, don't worry about speed. 
Accuracy is far more important, and speed will naturally increase with use. 
Just about everybody on the CW bands is more than willing to slow down and 
help out a beginner (unless there is a contest going on).  I personally 
consider it an honor to be on the other end of somebody's first CW QSO.

By the way, my K1 works on 40, 30, 20, and 15.  My favorite bands are 40, 
30, and 20, in that order.

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me directly or 
post them to the list.

73
Paul - N8XMS
Livonia, MI


--- Original Message ---

Message: 48
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:33:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeremy <jeremymblock at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Elecraft] Elecraft K1 as my first HF rig??
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <511942.26757.qm at web30501.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi all-

I've been looking around for a few weeks now for my first HF radio (just 
recently newly licensed as a General) - and am looking at either something 
like a Yaesu FT-101, or a Kenwood TS-820S.... or an Elecraft K1 (probably 
just the 2-band 20m/40m version).  I'm wondering if anyone built a K1 (or K2 
I guess) as their very first HF radio - and if so, whether or not they were 
happy with the decision. I don't really have any doubts really about the 
radio itself - probably just more about the fact that it's QRP and CW only). 
My price range is up to about $300 right now.

Is building a K1 and not being able to use SSB a disadvantage for a new 
ham - thoughts?  Is only having 5 watts going to be overly frustrating (for 
being able to make contacts)?  I do know that a good antenna is pretty 
important - I was going to do an end-fed or center-fed dipole.

I am quite comfortable with building a kit (I'm and ex-Electronic 
Technician, and now am an Electrical Engineer so I know that I can and like 
building/soldering and even the troubleshooting parts.)  I'm still in the 
process of learning morse code (slowly but surely) and using CW, especially 
QRP, was one of my original reasons for getting my license in the first 
place.  I also really like the fact that modifying a K1, and being able to 
build QRP accessories is practical for a 5W radio -  not so much with a 100W 
one though!

If anyone has any thoughts at all or advice I'd really appreciate it. I hope 
I'm not too off topic here as this isn't really an Elecraft technical 
question - but I figured that if I posted this at eham.net or QRZ.com forums 
I'd get hit with a lot of "Life's too short for QRP" responses - and not as 
much good advice.

thanks,
Jeremy
KC2TIX