KX1 on shortwave

J

Jerry

Member
How well does the KX1 on shortwave compared to an FT817? Can you hear a lot of stations? I'm thinking of building one and would like to know if this is more than a novelty.

Another rig I'm looking at is the Sierra, is there enough room inside to add batteries and a small altoids type tuner?

Also, is the K1 a good single box (just add wire) rig to stick in a carry on without taking up too much room?

I am really leaning towards the KX1 because I like the SSB and SW reception.

Thanks for any information and opinions.

Jerry KT5TT
 
Hiya Jerry

I can't comment on some of the rigs you mention, but I do have a K1.

For ham bands only receive they are OK, but because it is a dedicated CW rig the filtering is way too narrow for clear SSB reception. Also they only cover about 75-100kHz of each band (which is fine if you only want the CW sections), and off the top of my head they use the lower sideband for CW receive (so that as you tune up a band the pitch of the CW signal appears to rise).

I have had a listen around on 40m SSB with mine, but as mentioned above the received audio bandwidth is very restricted and muffled sounding.

I have a four band version of the K1, with the additional display backlight mod, and internal battery holder mod. There is an internal ATU kit available, but I prefer to use resonant antennas ;)

The only other rig that I have used from your list is the FT-817. They are great QRP rigs, multimode, with general coverage RX. But then they do cost a lot more than the K1 etc, and you can't say that you built it yourself!

The KX1 reviews I have seen have all raved about how good they are, but you have to keep in mind that the reviews are referring to the KX1 when used as a QRP CW portable set, not as a general coverage multimode receiver.


Regards, Mark.
 
Hi Jerry, I have had an Elecraft KX-1 for a few years and recently added the extra bands kit and now have 80, 40, 30 and 20 metres. The main reason I bought it is we travel to upper Ontario each July for a weeks Fly-in fishing trip to a secluded lake Sudbury Aviation. Sometimes I use an external battery pack so that if the batteries die, all I do is pull out the plug and the internal batteries take over. The KX-1 can also operate on 12 volts which we use at times using a 12 volt gel cell. All I use for an antenna is a short coax pigtail, then attach a 33 foot insulated wire to the center out a window thrown into a tree and string another 33 foot insulated wire connected to the braid and place it on the ground outside the cabin. It did wonders for me, talking to many hams not only in Canada but was able to talk back home to Baltimore each evening on 7.025 MHz since someone was listening for me. Mine also has the internal auto tuner and we use a straight key since I could never get the hang of the optional keyer Elecraft sells for it. The KX1 has one of the hottest receivers I have ever heard with excellent bandwidth adjustments and when not fishing or hamming, the XYL and I enjoyed listening to European shortwave stations using an external powered speaker. The external battery pack plus the batteries inside the case lasted the entire week.
 
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