[Elecraft] Musings: KX1 and a Compromise Antenna

[J]

I had to take my primary HF station out-of-service, and rather than suffer
withdrawal, got my KX1 out of mothball and put it on the air.

My current HF antenna is a Barker and Williamson ACS110, a terminated
end-fed Vee which is similar to the Radiowavz EFT-110.  

I wasn't expecting a lot from this type of antenna and my three watts.  It's
more suited to 100-1000 watt operation, MARS, E-Comm, it covers all of
1.8-30 MHz.

I was pleased that I did not need the internal KX1 ATU running on 40, 30 and
20 M with my antenna.  

 

In a week of very casual operation, I worked more stations on the KX1 than I
had since its completion in 2005.  Most contacts were CONUS with the 

Exception of HI, and several contacts were QRP-to-QRP on 40 and 30M.   

 

I was pleased with the audio and filtering in the KX-1, whether it was
driving earbuds or an amplified computer speaker.  The adjustable crystal
filter produced non-fatiguing CW copy.

 

It was enjoyable to put the fancy radio station away and get back to basics.


 

73

Jay

W6CJ