[Elecraft] KX1???

[Fred Jensen]

I built the KX1, 30 meter board [not the 3080], and KXAT2 primarily to 
take along on a cruise through the Panama Canal in 2005, Ft. Lauderdale 
to Los Angeles.  Our cabin, only place they'd let me operate, was on the 
top deck, unfortunately on the port side of the ship [left side as you 
face the pointy part of the boat for the non-nauticals], and I basically 
heard nothing from NA.  Lots of SA of course.  I used a 1 Ah Li-poly, 
and it still had about 1/4 charge when we got home.

KX1 build came after I built my K2 which included the KAT2 and SSB for 
which I've never gotten a mic.  I would put the KX1 combo and K2 combo 
in the same category of "build-hardness," the K2 is a much larger 
project of course and took longer, but in terms of difficulty, the only 
thing I noticed about the KX1 was that more components were installed on 
the reverse side of the boards and I had to be careful I got that right.

I can speak to 4-5 W on 80 CW with my K2 using a compromise field 
antenna ... I've only done it a handful of times ... QRP on 80 is hard. 
  I'm happy with my 40/30/20 KX1.  Dave, W8FGU, made me a very 
lightweight acrylic back to replace the metal one for Spartan Sprint.  I 
don't think you can get the 30-only option anymore.

KX1 is a shirt-pocket radio for those whose interest is back-packing 
with radio as a side activity along the way.  It has a very cool LED 
lamp to light up your log at night. :-)

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org

On 5/7/2015 4:00 PM, Johnny Siu wrote:
> The construction of the basic KX1 40/20 is not difficult and with
> less skills than K2.  However, the LPF in the KXB3080 is quite a PTA.
> The manual does not give the sufficient forth warning to the builder.
> My review in eham net gave the details and areas to be paid
> attention: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3586
>
> You would expect a lower power output after the installation of the
> KXB3080 (before and after comparison with my LP100A and RF probe) I
> would be happy to provide further details in the construction if some
> one is really going for it. 73 Johnny VR2XMC