KX1 #1467 Completed and On-Air

[Paul Neuman]

What a thrill... This is the first kit I've built in about 25 years.  
The last ones were a couple  of Heathkit weather instruments that I put
together in the early '80s.  I was a bit leary of attacking this one but
I guess I did ok.  The toroids weren't really such a big deal, but I
sure made good use of a magnifying glass!

I took my time and apart from some confusion here and there, I
encountered no real problems.  I did have some trouble though with the
final receiver alignment.  I just couldn't get the trimmers peaked but I
finally switched antennas and that seemed to help.

Everything seems to work just FB.  Power output appears pretty even on
20 & 40.  I made about 20 contacts today in the IOTA contest, across
both NA and EUR.  The little paddle works quite nicely too.  Of course,  
I had some help today from the big guns.  I'll see how I do with the
bumblebees tomorrow.  I hope to be out there next year with my KX1 as a bee.

Next will be to install the tuner and then really make sure there are no
kinks before finishing up the 3080 module.  I'm sure glad I didn't try
integrating everything at once.

Thanks to all those who post here.  I learned a lot without even having
to ask.

73,
Paul, kd2mx



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[Ron-73]

Paul Neuman wrote:

> What a thrill... This is the first kit I've built in about 25 years.  
> The last ones were a couple  of Heathkit weather instruments that I
> put together in the early '80s.  I was a bit leary of attacking this
> one but I guess I did ok.  The toroids weren't really such a big deal,
> but I sure made good use of a magnifying glass!
>
> I took my time and apart from some confusion here and there, I
> encountered no real problems.  I did have some trouble though with the
> final receiver alignment.  I just couldn't get the trimmers peaked but
> I finally switched antennas and that seemed to help.
>
> Everything seems to work just FB.  Power output appears pretty even on
> 20 & 40.  I made about 20 contacts today in the IOTA contest, across
> both NA and EUR.  The little paddle works quite nicely too.  Of
> course,  I had some help today from the big guns.  I'll see how I do
> with the bumblebees tomorrow.  I hope to be out there next year with
> my KX1 as a bee.
>
> Next will be to install the tuner and then really make sure there are
> no kinks before finishing up the 3080 module.  I'm sure glad I didn't
> try integrating everything at once.
>
> Thanks to all those who post here.  I learned a lot without even
> having to ask.
>
> 73,
> Paul, kd2mx
>
>
>
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>
>

Would you advise against installing the 80 meter board during initial
assembly? If so, why?
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[Paul Neuman]

> Ron wrote:
>
>>
> Would you advise against installing the 80 meter board during initial
> assembly? If so, why?
>

Ron,

Since I had  no desire to remove/change components, I was planning on
installing the 80/30 board during the initial assembly until I read some
advice posted here pointing out that if you have a problem, you have no
way of pinpointing it easily.

I assume the tests called for during the base assembly would not
necessarily be valid after making some of the required changes for the
80/30 kit.

Basically, I chickened out of attempting the complete build all at
once.  Given that everything seems to be working FB here, I might've
been ok.  But I was able to implement a couple of component placement
changes required for the add-on.

 I don't look forward to making some of the changes but I think I made
the right choice.  Some final words from the assembly manual: get to
know your kx-1 before installing options.

It would be nice if Elecraft issued an all-inclusive build instruction
manual.

The kx1 does 3eems to be working just fine and has compared pretty
favorably to my ft-897.  I've worked a number of bumblebees in today's
sprint.  Can't wait to get the tuner installed and hit the trail.

73,
Paul



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