ELECRAFT K1 Owner's Manual download pdf (Page 6)

From March 2001 QST © ARRL

Figure 3—An internal view of W1VT’s K1. The Front Panel Board plugs into the main

board along its front edge. The Filter Board, which determines the two bands covered

by the transceiver, is towards the rear of the enclosure (the forground in this photo).

It’s positioned above the RF Board and connects to it through three 8-pin headers.

Three small screws secure it in place.

arranged in a column along the right edge

of the front panel. In addition to the menu

setting operations already mentioned,

these keys are also used to vary the speed

of the internal CW keyer, to step through

the three filter bandwidth settings and to

control a 14-dB attenuator. Pressing both

keys simultaneously will lock the trans-

mitter on—a handy feature for making

antenna tuner adjustments, for example.

The

MSG/REC key is used to record

and play the contents of the two CW

memories. Each memory provides 90

bytes of EEPROM storage—the pro-

grammed messages will not be lost when

the transceiver is shut off. An “Auto-Re-

peat” feature allows either message to be

continuously retransmitted after a menu-

selected delay interval of from 0 and 255

seconds. This would be convenient for

beacon applications, for contesting or for

repeatedly calling CQ on a “quiet” band.

Advanced features are controlled

through the menu. These include the RF

power output level; the AGC (on or off);

the QSK delay; the sidetone volume and

pitch; the key type (straight key or

paddles); the paddle sense; and the iam-

bic mode. Curtis A or Super CMOS Keyer

III B emulation is supported.

The rotary controls and the buttons on

the K1 all have a decent feel to them, but

there is a noticeable amount of lateral

play in the shafts of the potentiometers

used for the volume and offset controls.

This is undoubtedly a consequence of

using board-mounted potentiometers, but

it detracts somewhat—at least cosmeti-

cally—from the otherwise rugged appear-

ance of this transceiver. Nylon bushings

might help.

The main tuning knob controls the

varactor-based VFO through a multi-turn

potentiometer. Vigorous cranking gener-

ates a mechanical sound that resembles

that made by a guitar player’s fingers slid-

ing along the strings from fret to fret. The

tuning action is smooth and solid, however.

QRV!

The K1—at least initially—is more

complicated to operate than the typical

QRP kit transceiver, but you’ll quickly

warm up to the nice selection of advanced

features.

The digital display is particularly handy.

If you should accidentally bump the main

tuning knob in the middle of a QSO, it’s

easy to tune the radio precisely back to the

desired frequency. This can be a problem

with analog tuning arrangements.

Since the K1 employs a frequency

counter to measure the actual frequency

of the VFO—and uses that information

to drive the display—you can easily com-

pensate for any drift that might occur due

to warm up periods, temperature ex-

tremes or wide variations in supply volt-

age. This simply involves making small

adjustments of the main tuning knob to

keep the displayed frequency constant.

The selectable filter bandwidths are

another big plus. The wider settings are

convenient when tuning around looking

for activity or for listening for answers

to your CQs. Once you’ve identified a

target signal, you can switch to a nar-

rower filter setting to reduce QRM.

The RIT arrangement on the K1 is

nicely designed. The ability to switch it

on and off makes it particularly useful

for contesting. You can leave the filter

bandwidth set at the narrower settings

and not have to worry about re-match-

ing your transmit and receive frequen-

cies between contacts. This can be tricky

with a strictly rotary control.

XIT is just icing on the cake! This

added capability is especially handy for

chasing DX in a pileup. First, tune to his

frequency, then tap the

RIT/XIT [PFn] key

to activate the RIT, and use it to search

for his listening frequency (simply hunt

for the station in the pileup exchanging

reports with him). When you’ve located

one, hold the

RIT/XIT [PFn] key down

briefly and you’ll be listening on his

transmit frequency and all set up to trans-

mit on his listening frequency!

I’ve had the K1 set up at my home sta-

tion and used it to make several domestic

contacts using my 80-meter dipole and an

antenna tuner. Zack has worked a fair

number of DX and domestic contacts on

a variety of bands on his. (We purchased

enough band modules to cover all the

possibilities and have been swapping

them off between us). Rick Lindquist,

N1RL, took my rig home for a weekend

and ended up playing around a bit in the

North American QSO Party. He reported

that the receiver held up reasonably well

even under fairly busy band conditions

and that he had no trouble at all partici-

pating with “just” 5 W.

For me, building the Elecraft K1 was

sufficiently challenging to make things

interesting—yet still simple enough to

keep it fun. The completed K1 delivers a

collection of features and a measure of

performance that’s a cut above those of

the average QRP kit transceiver.

Manufacturer: Elecraft; PO Box 69,

Aptos, CA 95001; 831-662-8345; fax

831-662-0830; [email protected]m;

www.elecraft.com.

Price: Elecraft K1 two-band QRP

CW transceiver kit, $269; KFL1 addi-

tional two-band modules $59; KNB1

noise blanker, $29; KAT1 antenna tuning

unit, $89; KTSI wide range tilt stand, $35.

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ELECRAFT K1 Owner's Manual Page 6

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