ELECRAFT K1 Owner's Manual download pdf (Page 5)

From March 2001 QST © ARRL

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Frequency Sweep: 2 to 22 kHz from Carrier

Re Level: - 60 dBc/Hz

Vertical Scale: dBc/Hz

ference

turned out to be easier than I had expected.

This is an aspect of kit building that I

previously had little experience with—

Heath would typically provide compo-

nents such as these as a prefabricated sub-

assembly. I must admit that I felt some

initial pangs of “toroid-a-phobia.”

After starting the first one I quickly

realized that it was somewhat like sew-

ing—only easier. No sharp needle! There

are a total of 10 toroids that must be

wound, and only the very last one pre-

sented any challenge whatsoever. T4 on

the RF board requires a bifilar winding,

so a twisted pair of wires has to be “sewn”

through the core. This took me two tries

to get right—but with only 5 turns, it re-

quired only a couple of minutes to re-

work. The toroid winding illustrations

and the text descriptions in the manual

are excellent.

“Alignment and Test” procedures are

preformed in two parts—once after the

receiver is completed and later when the

transmitter components have been added

to the RF Board. Some adjustments in-

volve activating the on-board test fea-

tures. These are enabled by pressing com-

binations of the front panel buttons.

After the second alignment and test

phase has been completed, you’re nearly

there. Install the internal speaker, bolt on

the top cover, stick on the rubber feet, slap

on the serial number tag and… it’s time

to play radio!

The total assembly time for me was a

little over 30 hours. I typically worked in

2 to 3 hour sessions and put the radio to-

gether over the course of a couple of

weeks. Zack managed to assemble his K1

in just 18 hours.

Figure 1—Worst-case spectral display of the Elecraft K1

transmitter output during composite-noise testing. Power

output is 5 W at 7.020 MHz. The carrier, off the left edge of the

plot, is not shown. This plot shows composite transmitted noise

2 to 22 kHz from the carrier.

Figure 2—CW keying waveform for the Elecraft K1 showing the

first two dits in full-break-in (QSK) mode using external keying.

Equivalent keying speed is 60 WPM. The upper trace is the

actual key closure; the lower trace is the RF envelope.

Horizontal divisions are 10 ms. The transceiver was being

operated at 5 W output at 14.020 MHz.

Although the instruction manual is

excellent and the builder support offered

by both Elecraft and the participants on

their rapidly growing e-mail reflector

(currently boasting over 1000 members)

is approaching the level of “legendary,”

I’d hesitate to describe the K1 as a suit-

able project for a beginner.

Heathkit probably would have rated a

project such as this at least a “skill level

2” (their scale ran from 1 to 3). But if

you’ve got decent PC board soldering

skills, reasonably good vision and dex-

terity—and patience—you shouldn’t run

into any major problems successfully

completing this kit. And yes, building a

K1 is the perfect “dress rehearsal” for the

assembly of a K2. The construction skills

required are approximately equivalent.

Learning the Ropes

The six keys on the front panel of the

K1 all perform multiple functions. White

legends above each key indicate its pri-

mary assignment. These are accessed

with a light tap (or taps) of the key. The

secondary control function legends ap-

pear in yellow below each key. Pressing

and holding a key typically evokes these.

Switching the power on—or tapping

the

BAND/DISPLAY key—will result in a

display of the current band and operat-

ing frequency. Since the LCD is only ca-

pable of indicating three digits at a time,

it does so in stages. If the operating fre-

quency is set to 7139.5 kHz for example,

the display will first show

7, then 139,

and then

39.5. Two quick taps of the

BAND/DISPLAY key will toggle the radio

between bands.

Pressing and holding this same key

allows you to change the information

that’s shown when the transceiver is in

the receive mode. You can choose to view

the frequency, an S meter bargraph or the

dc supply voltage. Turning the VFO knob

while in the S-meter mode will automati-

cally bring up the frequency display.

The

MENU/EDIT key is used to enter

the menu mode and to edit the settings of

the various parameters. While in the

menu, the

WPM+/XFIL and WPM-/ATTN

keys are used to scroll up and down

through the 16 alpha-tagged selections.

Settings are altered by pressing and hold-

ing the

MENU/EDIT key and then tapping

the

WPM+/XFIL or WPM-/ATTN keys to

step through the available choices.

RIT/XIT [PFn] key resides in the

lower center portion of front panel. A

quick tap will activate the receive incre-

mental tuning. Pressing and holding this

key briefly will evoke the transmit incre-

mental tuning. When either is enabled, a

flashing decimal point will appear in the

LCD display. The transmit and receive

frequencies can be offset—using a rotary

control—by up to +/− 3 kHz.

In addition to the flashing decimal point,

a bi-color LED—located above the main

tuning knob—lights green when the RIT is

on, or orange when the XIT is on. A second

yellow LED, located just to its right, illu-

minates when the attenuator is on. A menu

setting allows you to disable both of these

LEDs to conserve battery power.

The XIT assignment of the RIT/XIT

[PFn] key can be reprogrammed to serve

as a shortcut key to any one of the K1’s

menu selections.

The

WPM+/XFIL and the WPM-/ATTN

keys—along with a MSG/REC key—are

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ELECRAFT K1 Owner's Manual Page 5

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