KX1 ?'s

[George Winship, NC5G]

Finally got all the options done on my new KX1 and am enjoying this amazing little radio. But I have a question or two.

1. On 20 meters only I am hearing a lot of birdies as I tune through the band. Is this normal or what should I look for?

2. OH NO, not another antenna ? HI! I am wanting to put up a wire ant. of some kind to hopefully cover all four bands. This ant is so that I can be "Lazy Boy" mobile in the house. It is about 18ft to the nearest window from the chair. I am thinking that it will have to be coax fed or at least coax to the window and then a balun and balanced line or balun and wire from there. I will need to be able to roll the feed line up and out of sight when not using the radio to satisfy the HOA(xyl). Any ideas?

3. Just to be sure, it is not necessary to remove batteries when using a PS. Is that correct?

Thanks for your input.

73,
George, NC5G

[k6dgw]

On 10/15/2011 7:01 PM, George Winship, NC5G wrote:
> Finally got all the options done on my new KX1 and am enjoying this amazing
> little radio. But I have a question or two.
>
> 1. On 20 meters only I am hearing a lot of birdies as I tune through the
> band. Is this normal or what should I look for?
For a KX1 a few hundred miles from civilization, no.  Today, close to
civilization, practically everything radiates something.  You may be
hearing Ethernet trash from your or your neighbor's.  Local oscillators
in wi-fi routers, monitors, you name it, and a lot of it seems to
concentrate in the 10 - 20 MHz range.  Short the BNC connecter securely
with as little wire as you can and see if you still hear the signals.  I
host the neighborhood wireless RAP at the top of my tower in return for
free internet.  I hear some birdies from it, I know where they are, and
I've learned to ignore them.
>
> 2. OH NO, not another antenna ? HI! I am wanting to put up a wire ant. of
> some kind to hopefully cover all four bands. This ant is so that I can be
> "Lazy Boy" mobile in the house. It is about 18ft to the nearest window from
> the chair. I am thinking that it will have to be coax fed or at least coax
> to the window and then a balun and balanced line or balun and wire from
> there. I will need to be able to roll the feed line up and out of sight when
> not using the radio to satisfy the HOA(xyl). Any ideas?
If it is conductive and you feed RF energy into it, it will radiate.  
See James C. Maxwell [1831 - 1879] .  Tom, N6BT [of Force12 Fame]
pointed this out by working WAC on a light bulb.  He says, "Everything
Works."  That it works is not the question, how efficiently it works,
is.  Antennas are magic however, lots of what is happening with and
around them is pretty much invisible, so fool around.  Hopefully you
have the KX1 autotuner, it will match a wide range of impedances, if no
one hears you, you can always try a light bulb. :-)  Antennas are
becoming one of the last places hams with normal electronic means can
experiment and build.
> 3. Just to be sure, it is not necessary to remove batteries when using a PS.
> Is that correct?

Yes, correct.  The KX1 will take power from the source with the highest
voltage.

73,

Fred K6DGW
Finally saw the KX3 at Pacificon today, the little paddle on the front
is really cool!  Didn't get much chance to do much else with it, big crowd.
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[George Winship, NC5G]

KD6GW wrote:
> Today, close to civilization, practically everything radiates something.  You may be
>hearing Ethernet trash from your or your neighbor's.  Local oscillators
>in wi-fi routers, monitors, you name it, and a lot of it seems to
>concentrate in the 10 - 20 MHz range.  Short the BNC connecter securely
>with as little wire as you can and see if you still hear the signals.  

The "birdies" are coming from the KX1. I live seven miles from town in the middle of
60 acres of pines and hardwoods. The nearest house is at least a 1/4 mile away. I
turned off my router and satellite internet but that did not help.

Also, how can this post be moved to the proper sub forum?

73, George NC5G

[Don Wilhelm-4]

George,

I am not certain what you mean by "proper sub forum" - there is only one
Elecraft reflector that I know of, even if it is presented both in pure
email as well as Nabble posts.

It is true that the KX1 has several birdies, especially on 20 meters.  
Double check the 14 MHz Low Pass Filter located after the DDS for proper
components (the DDS has a harmonic-rich output).  I suspect some are
coming from the DDS harmonics and mixing with harmonics of the BFO.  
There is not a lot of room for complete isolation inside that small
enclosure.  For the most part, I simply ignore those birdies, but YMMV.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 10/17/2011 7:38 AM, George Winship, NC5G wrote:

> KD6GW wrote:
>> Today, close to civilization, practically everything radiates something.
>> You may be
>> hearing Ethernet trash from your or your neighbor's.  Local oscillators
>> in wi-fi routers, monitors, you name it, and a lot of it seems to
>> concentrate in the 10 - 20 MHz range.  Short the BNC connecter securely
>> with as little wire as you can and see if you still hear the signals.
> The "birdies" are coming from the KX1. I live seven miles from town in the
> middle of
> 60 acres of pines and hardwoods. The nearest house is at least a 1/4 mile
> away. I
> turned off my router and satellite internet but that did not help.
>
> Also, how can this post be moved to the proper sub forum?
>
> 73, George NC5G
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KX1-s-tp6896330p6900155.html
> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> ______________________________________________________________
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>

... [show rest of quote]

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[k6dgw]

On 10/17/2011 4:38 AM, George Winship, NC5G wrote:

> The "birdies" are coming from the KX1. I live seven miles from town
> in the middle of 60 acres of pines and hardwoods. The nearest house
> is at least a 1/4 mile away. I turned off my router and satellite
> internet but that did not help.

OK ... I have one on my KX1 when I'm well away from civilization, not
loud and it tunes at double rate.  I guess I'm just lucky?
>
> Also, how can this post be moved to the proper sub forum?

I don't think there are any sub-forums on the Elecraft list, except
maybe the Nabble archive?

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org
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[George Winship, NC5G]

On October 17, 2011 at 8:17 AM Don Wilhelm wrote;

>I am not certain what you mean by "proper sub forum" - there is only one
>Elecraft reflector that I know of, even if it is presented both in pure
>email as well as Nabble posts.

I choose to view the reflector posts from the Nabble archive. If viewing from the topics
page the posts are usually under the heading that corresponds to the subject. These posts
are under the K1 heading instead of the KX1 heading. Certainly not a big deal.

>It is true that the KX1 has several birdies, especially on 20 meters.  
>Double check the 14 MHz Low Pass Filter located after the DDS for proper
>components (the DDS has a harmonic-rich output).  I suspect some are
>coming from the DDS harmonics and mixing with harmonics of the BFO.  

I will double check the filter. These birdies vary in strength and pitch, are narrow in bandwidth
and are numerous.

Thanks for yours and everyone's responses.

73, George, NC5G