Re: k1 - frequency range.

[Mike Morrow-3]

>when i built my k1, i set it up for the 150khz range..
>
>looking back at my manual, it says that it is strongly advised to use
>the 80khz range..
>
>is it strongly enough advised for me to mod my machine and put it back
>to the 80khz range?

No, that's really bad advice unless you live in an ITU region that makes the extra coverage superfluous.

Contrary to popular assertion, the K1 does NOT tune too fast with the 170 kHz span option.  The kHz/turn coverage is pretty linear since R19 was added across the VFO pot six years ago, and the resulting 17 kHz/turn rate is *not* at all a rapid rate of tuning.

I believe that the adverse performance that some experience with the broader VFO span comes simply from the fact that the K1 VFO potentiometer shaft has almost NO resistance to rotational motion.  That makes it very easy to impart unwanted rotational motion (and hence frequency change) to the VFO knob when releasing it.  This unwanted frequency change is more noticable for the wide VFO span.

I too found that to be a problem, but one that was extremely easy to fix with a couple of thin layers of hand-cut felt rings around the VFO pot shaft, between the front panel and the back of the VFO knob.  Now I've got just the right amount of rotational resistance.

I like the 170 kHz span because it allows coverage of every bit of the 40m CW band (reduced now though it is), plus it allows coverage of 10 MHz WWV on the 30m band.  And who knows, but when 15m comes back hot again, the extra coverage there will be useful.  A small plus, since the K1 receiver is LSB on all bands, is that one can listen to 40m LSB in the bottom 40 kHz of the phone band, or even try a cross-mode contact, if one can find anyone on the phone band that knows Morse.

Remember that if you change to the smaller VFO span, you'll have to change the filter board hetrodyne crystal for 30m.

Mike / KK5F

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