Elecraft K1

Many years ago I had an Elecraft K1 4 band CW transceiver. This was about 5W output. It was sold some time ago.  In its day, it was quite a good rig, but I think Elecraft has stopped doing them. Although simple, FT8 now does a better job for me.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/k1. As this page is very old, I cannot guarantee links work still.

Elecraft K1 CW transceiver

Many years ago, I built this 4 band HF transceiver from a kit.

A few years ago it was sold.

In its day, it was very good. These days, many HF operators prefer FT8 to CW as FT8 works with even weaker signals but it does need a shack PC to run the free software. The beauty of CW is gear can be very simple! The K1 produced over 5W maximum.

As I recall, mine covered 40, 30, 20 and 15m CW. I am not sure if the K1 is still available new.

K1 transceiver

Years ago I built and used an Elecraft K1 CW transceiver. A few years ago it was sold. For its intended purpose, it worked well.

These days I prefer to use digital modes like FT8 and WSPR.

There are better products available nowadays from Elecraft such as the KX2 and KX3 QRP transceivers. In the UK these are expensive especially if you buy the extras as well. They are very good rigs though, although I'd think twice about field use in rain.

See http://www.elecraft.com/
See also https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/k1

Elecraft K1 posted to new owner

The Elecraft K1 is on its way to its new owner, who I hope gets as much fun from it as I did in past years.  Over the time I had it, it worked some good DX on CW.  It has not been used since before my stroke. I may put the money towards a new radio at some point in the future. I prefer to do the building myself, but currently my fine motor skills are still not good. Thankfully I can eat most foods OK, although drinks still need to be taken in small sips. Life is tough and I never expected this.

K1 Sold

Elecraft K1

Today I will get my K1 off to its new owner in Holland. It worked well, but I have not used it since before my stroke. I prefer that someone has it who will use it.

There is one minor fault (which has just occurred) in that the menu button no longer seems to work as it did. I think this is a minor fault and I have declared this to the new owner, who still wants it. 

In the past the rig has been used to work lots of DX including the USA on 40, 30, 20 and 15m. The rig is a 4-band version with internal auto-ATU. The K1 is a decent little radio.

136kHz test?

Between tomorrow and Sunday I have 2 major aims.

Firstly I need to test my 40,30,20 and 15m K1 rig as someone wants to buy it. It should be fine. I have not used it at this QTH but has worked some good DX on all bands in the past. As "surplus to requirements" I shall be really pleased that someone else will enjoy using it.

Secondly, I want to try my QRSS3 136kHz beacon using my E-field probe on the car on RX. I have managed to get the E-field probe back together again and will test things on RX in the lounge first using the EFP, FT817 and PC.  I have still to match my beacon to the earth-electrode "antenna" on TX but this should be easy.

Elecraft K1

One of my least used rigs (it has still to be used at this QTH!) is my 4-band Elecraft K1 CW transceiver. This covers 40m, 30m, 20m and 15m CW at up to about 7W. It has the auto-ATU built in so just needs a 12-13.8V supply, CW key and end-fed antenna to be on the air.

At my old QTH it has worked lots including the USA on all bands with a simple end-fed wire antenna down the garden.  I really should consider selling it or trading it in as it is not being used.

More K1 fun

http://www.elecraft.com

Since getting my Elecraft K1 out of "hibernation" a few days ago I've had some lovely contacts with it on 40 and 20m as well as plenty of reverse beacon reports on 40, 30, 20 and 15m CW. I'd forgotten quite what a gem the K1 really is. No great DX - all the QSOs have been around Europe - but all at 5W with just the fairly basic Par 10/20/40 end-fed antenna. The receiver is lovely with signals just appearing nice and clearly, even QRP signals, out of the quiet background. This is not a synthesised rig and it sounds more like my old FT7 which had an excellent receiver.  Sensitivity is pretty good, and certainly fine for working other QRP stations around 7.030 and 14.060MHz, the QRP centres of activity.

The current G3XBM (operating) shack

G3XBM QRP shack in a bedroom corner

Thought readers might like to see what the G3XBM station consists of currently.  In the photo I have annotated most pieces. The little silvery box to the right of the SignaLink interface was a VX2 programmer (software for which crashed my PC a year ago), but this box  is to be used to house my WISPY 10m WSPR beacon transceiver. The K1 was last used yesterday and the FT817 gets almost daily use, with the very nice audio speech processor underneath. Not shown are the lightbeam kit or the LF and MF tranverters for 136 and 472kHz which are housed elsewhere close the the earth-electrode antenna feed. There are also several homebrew rigs in drawers that get brought out from time to time. For the time being, the Elecraft K1 is not being sold.

The maximum power I can run currently is around 7W from the K1 and about 12W out on 472kHz from the transverter (about 5-10mW ERP) and 30W from the 136kHz transverter (about 50uW ERP). I have no great desire to run much more power. The FT817 is only used at 2.5W or less.  

QSOs with the Elecraft K1

As I am considering selling my Elecraft K1 rig to fund some other purchases, I decided to fire it up this afternoon to see that all was well. It turned out to be a very pleasant QRP session with 8 QSOs in 8 countries in the log at 5W on 40m and 20m in a casual hour or so of operating. In addition, there is a page full of reverse beacon spots for the CQ calls that didn't get answered. With the Par 10/20/40 end-fed antenna it doesn't need much to match the antenna: in fact without the auto-ATU it should match well on 40 and 20m, although with the internal auto-ATU I can also match this on 30 and 15m.

I still have mixed feelings about parting with this rig: it doesn't get used much so really would be better with someone who would make full use of it. On the other hand, when I use it I get good results and plenty of QSOs. We'll see if it goes or stays in the coming days. It will be on eBay if being sold, but not until I've carefully thought about it.

Selling my Elecraft K1

For some years I've had the Elecraft K1 transceiver that I made. It covers 40, 30, 20 and 15m with a built-in auto ATU.  This is a nice little CW radio, but I rarely use it, preferring to use home designed kit on MF and 10m these days. It has always been used at home and is in as-new condition.

This afternoon I fired it up, using the coax feeder to my 10m halo as a vertical and tuned this against my central heating ground using the internal ATU. It is a far from optimum antenna and suffers from QRM from my central heating controller's SMPSU right next to the feeder on RX.

RBN spots with my K1 today (intermittent operation)

Conditions were not great but several reports were seen on the Reverse Beacon Network (see above) and half a dozen QSOs are in the logbook on 7MHz and 10MHz (in DL, I, EI and LX) in not a lot of actual operating time: we had neighbours around for Christmas nibbles and drinks most of the day!

I really ought to think about selling the K1 as I don't use it enough to justify keeping it.  Ahead of my move next year I should be doing more de-cluttering as well, HI.

Elecraft K1 stand idea

Someone was asking about a stand to angle the Elecraft K1 transceiver at a suitable angle on the operating desk. A commercial version is available, but I found a simpler solution: two large rubber feet at the front and two small ones at the back. This angles the rig up about 10-20 degrees and is perfect for operating on a desk.

40m CW with the Elecraft K1

This evening, for a change, I fired up my little Elecraft K1 4 band QRP CW transceiver that I built a few years ago. Not much doing on 20m or 30m so I went on 40m CW and worked a few stations around Europe. Worst report was 559 and the best 599. It was a change from 500kHz WSPR.

QRP - 4 continents today

After a slow start to the year because of family commitments, today saw some QRP CW contacts around the world. These included RV6HA, HB9ANJ, 7X4AN and KA2MGI with QSOs on 14MHz or 7MHz.

With the Elecraft K1 with internal ATU and the random 15m wire strung down the garden I can usually work most of the stations I hear as long as they are not buried in a huge DX pile-up. CW is a very effective mode especially if you are like me and have a simple, unobtrusive wire antenna rather than a huge beam on a large tower.

Elecraft K1

This morning I fired up my Elecraft K1 CW transceiver not having used it for some time. It is such a good little rig. Mine has the 4 band unit and internal ATU option and covers 40, 30, 20 and 15m. The filtering is excellent and the user interface good as long as you can remember the menu system, which I forget often when I don't use the rig for a time.

Within a few minutes of connecting the end-fed wire about 15m long into the back of the rig I had 5 QSOs in the log on 40 and 15m. It is such a perfect CW rig.

More details see the Elecraft website http://www.elecraft.com