++++++++++++++++++ Reply-To: "A. Sewell N5NA" From: "A. Sewell N5NA" To: Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 17:10:26 -0500 Subject: [Elecraft] K1 Operation Summary After building my K1 a couple of months ago I put together a K1 Operation Summary on Word. Printed front and back it is one page which can be folded in half to make a neat little manual. If you're interested you can download it at: http://www.qsl.net/n5na/files/K1Oper.doc 73, Alan N5NA ++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 11:12:28 +0200 (MEST) From: f5pbl at qsl.net Subject: [Elecraft] WPX - Dream or Reality ??? Hello Friends, QRP addicts ... I just want to share with you some dream I made last week-end ... I made 162 QSOs during the WPX contest. Cndx were not so good on Saturday, improving on Sunday. I was not "on air" whole time, due to other appointments but ... here is some part of the "Magic Story of Qrping" : K1 #480 - 5 W on 20m / 15m - Ant : "all bands GP", w/o any tuner, QTH is near Paris (JN18CT) : 20m : UN, EX, LU, TA, FM, VK3, VK4, 3V8, VE2, VE1, VE6, HC8N, JY9, P49, 6Y1, OH0Z, 9H, OY, SV5, JA, OD5, PV0F, 5B4, 9G1MR (Full new one !), IS0 + numerous Ks and European stations (OH, SP, HA, UAs, S5s, YL, LY, LZ, OE, OZ, OK, OM, YO, ...) 15m : SV, 5B4, KL7, OY, UN, 5B4, EA9, PV0F, EA8, HC8N, TI5X + some Ks + Europe USA areas : all districts logged except #0, sri. So, since the 1st QSO made with the K1 (early March this year), I have made about 80 + 162 = 240 Qs, including 70 DXCCs, 23 new ones during the WPX ! Many thanks to Elecraft for these wonderful moments !! 73/72 QRO (!) Claude, F5PBL ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 12:47:11 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?H=E5kan_Olsson?= Subject: [Elecraft] WPX Hi all! Made 136.884 points, 282 qso:s, 204 mults and I think 53 countries in the WPX contest on the 40 meter band only with my new K1. Antenna is a 10 meter vertical supported by a 11 meter fishing pole on my balcony of my appartment house (abt 20 meters above ground). Radials are inside the appartment. It was really great fun, but all those east Europeans really should get better receivers! 73 de Haakan / SM6EQO sm6eqo at bredband.net +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 07:03:28 -0700 From: Louis Hlousek Subject: Re: [Elecraft] 150 Khz Hi Mathew, 80 kHz is enough and 150 kHz is plenty. CW sigs occupy very little bandwidth so you can fit a heck of a lot of them into 150 kHz. How close you can pack them depends more on the RX filter bandwidth then the actual bandwidth of the transmitted signal (roughly 50 Hz at 13 WPM). Most activity occurs near the bottom of the bands so I start looking for CQs at the bottom and tune upward to the Fists calling frequency (*58.00) kHz and the QRP calling frequency (*40.00 kHz or *60.00 kHz depending on the band). BTW, A lot of gud dx goes on in the bottom 25kHz so it'll be worthwhile getting that Extra class ticket if you don't have it already. With QRP it is usually best to listen for CQs rather than send CQ yourself. It might seem daunting at first tuning around and hearing nothing but fast CW. Sometimes, you can find slower ops further up in the band, above the QRP or Fists calling frequencies. Don't be shy about responding to CQs that are too fast. Most CW ops are happy to see new CWers and want to help them out. The op will either slow down to your speed, keep sending fast or blow you off. If he keeps send fast ask him to QRS. If he blows you off, so what. Keep at it and in a few months you won't be asking many to QRS. Definitely check out the Fists organization at http://www.fists.org/ Lou W7DZN ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 06:51:21 -0600 From: "Rod Cerkoney, N0RC" Subject: [Elecraft] ARS Sprint with K1 and NiMH Batts Folks, Results of my 03-Jul-2001(z) test: Solar Conditions - ---------------- SFI 134; A index 5; K index = 1 Station Setup - ------------ XCVR K1 S/N197 (no options) Attic Doublet Ant Z11 Ant Tuner Kenwood HS-6 earphones and Code Warrior Paddles Station weight ~ 3.5 lbs Batts Xtreme 1500 maH (Batteries Plus) - ------------------------------------- 8 AA Batts. 0200z 10.8 Vdc 8 AA Batts. 0400z 9.7 Vdc Summary Results - --------------- 34 complete QSOs; 2 incomplete QSOs; 20 SPCs 0200-0220 Search and Pounce 0220-0400 Called CQ once every 10-15 sec. ----- Bottom Line: 8 NiMH Batts Work well, no revelation to old-timers but new QRPers might find this interesting or useful. I started with the batteries fully charged, pulled them off the charger at 0055z. I started out in SP mode to conserve battery power, but after 20 min. pickin's were slim, so I started calling CQ. I was quite surprised how well I did calling CQ with only 2 watts and an attic antenna. (75% of QSOs resulted from calling CQ) Calling CQ so frequently put a heavy load on the batts. At 2W the K2 is drawing about 500 ma. Also adding to the batt drain, I left the side tone level at max setting after some rig tweaking. I was surprised how well the batts held up. Empirical data to back up Wayne's analysis and tests. After the Sprint I left the radio powered-up overnight, antenna terminated in a dummy load, volume up headphones plugged in. At 1130z the batteries still had life. In RX mode they measured 9.5 Vdc, in "TUNE" mode they measured 9.0 Volts and the rig still put out a full 2W! 9 hours of useful operation. Conclusion: NiMH Batts are the way to go for portable ops. 8 AAs weigh only 8oz. Coupled with a K1 (or similar light weight rig) a complete [deluxe] portable station can be assembled for less than 5lbs for some real "To the Field" Fun. 73, Rod N0RC Ft Collins, CO ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 13:32:23 -0400 From: "ccraigie" Subject: [Elecraft] Trip Report and Portable Ant for Close-in QSOs Hi Dean W9KX and fellow K1 Hikers, Just getting back to the computer after last Saturday's hike up on Blue Mountain to Dan's Pulpit (1640 feet elev.) on the Appalachian Trail in PA. I had a great day, with many good ham radio QSOs as well as nifty people I met on the trail. It took me just over 2 hours to hike up there, and right about 2 to get back to my car; and then it was over an hour and a half to make the return trip back to my home in Paoli, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. I was on the air from about 1430 until about 1700 UTC, right around the frequency of 7.043. I was using my K1 set at 3 watts to begin with, as Wayne recommends, and up to 7 watts for one QSO with a former student of mine back home who was having problems hearing me, and then back down to 3.5 for an hour longer. I used the KBT1 with 8 AA NiMH Radio Shack 1600 mAH batteries. I had charged the batteries the night before on my Radio Shack Fast Ni-Cad / Ni-MH Battery Charger Cat. No. 23-422 (which holds up to 8 AA batteries). The charge was 11.1 v when inserted into the K1, and that reading was on the K1's display, so that means they were probably charged to a higher voltage. In any case, after about 2.5 hours of operating, I checked the K1's battery meter, and it said 10.2 v. So YES, the next time I may go up to 5 W on the K1's OUT setting, and my reports should be higher. I would recommend 5 W for about 3+ hours of operation, I think. I was getting 539 - 549 at 3 W, and 549 - 559 at 3.5 W. I was using a 50-foot vertical wire (simple insulated stranded hook-up wire) up in a tree, with a 33-foot radial strung out in a fairly straight line on the ground. The KAT1 tuned it to a 1.5 to 1 SWR, and people said I was OK signal-wise. Next time I'm going to take a 33-foot wire for the vertical for 40 and a 16.5-foot length for 20 meters (along with a 16.5-foot length for the 20 meter radial). I'll bet the SWR drops to 1 to 1. BTW, with a vertical wire hooked to a (size 10, 12-pound test brass snap) swivel tied to that small-diameter brightly-colored nylon string used to make chalk snap lines on construction projects, I find it no problem at all to change the vertical wires for antennas. I had connected the vertical and radial to the red and black Jameco Double Binding Posts - Dual Banana (part no. 125233 BNC-female bind post...$2.95); I had already soldered banana plugs on the vertical and radial wires, so it was a quick job to just push the plugs into the binding post sockets. My great joy was to work so many of my friends who live CLOSE-BY! I had great success this trip as compared to the other 2 trips up the same mountain. I also worked stations as far away as NC and NH, so I had some rather typical 40-meter QSOs as well as the ones closer-in. I had been trying a dipole before; now I'm going to agree with Wayne Burdick and go with a simple, easy-to-erect vertical with a radial. Thanks to all who wrote (some wrote several times, and others wrote really long helpful suggestions). I was all prepared to try various renditions of the NVIS "Cloud warmer" antennas--my pack was HEAVY with wires and dipoles, but since the vertical was working SO WELL, I decided to leave well-enough alone! I thank you all so very much for all your assistance, and I may try your ideas out at a later date! But for now, at least, the vertical wire up the tree is the way to go for me. BTW, the 50-foot length of wire (still using the 33-foot-long radial) tuned to a 1.0 to 1 SWR on 20 meters at 14.060... I didn't try 20 meters, but I will the next time, so I can learn more about what goes on with portable antennas. I also want to give out the Appalachian Trail for the Trail Awards sponsored by the EPA QRP Club (look on the web for n3epa.org for information on the various awards and to see alerts for when hikers will be on the A.T. (Click on The A.T. Archives link...) Thanks for the bandwidth! 72, Carter Craigie N3AO EPA QRP Nr. 13 K2 Nr. 678 K1 Nr. 159 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 11:24:40 -0700 From: lhlousek Subject: [Elecraft] K1/AM (Air Mojo) Elecraftisti, Operated my K1 air mobile on 20 meters last Thu and Sun flying between Reno NV and Denver CO for a total of 14 QSOs. Among them was George W3ANX on his K2, Don W6JL on his K1s and John K7FD on his SST. Most of the QSO were of the longer ragchew type. Condx on Sun were much better than Thu and I could have worked many more but bumpy flying condx and thunderstorms intervened. The lack of oxygen flying at 10,500 to 13,500 ft didn't seem to affect my CW skills much, at least as far as my hypoxic brain could tell. Hi! My K1 was running 3W off the KBT1 with 1800 mAH NiMHs. Antenna was a Hamstick mounted to the tail wheel strut pointing backward. The K1 was bungeed on top of the glair shield (dashboard). I wore earbud earphones under my aviation headset and used Galbraith paddles fastened to a clipboard. The K1 worked FB but was very touchy to tune with 8 KHz per rev of the VFO and +/- 1.8 KHz on the rit, especially in bumpy flying condx. For weaker sigs I found had to have the AF gain turned all the way up despite wearing the earbuds under my noise attenuating headset. I have photos so email me if you you'd like to see them. I had originally planned on using my K2 but it proved too big to fit conveniently anywhere in the cockpit of my Cessna 185. The remote front panel in the works at Elecraft will solve that problem nicely. Lou W7DZN +++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 04:14:24 From: "Bruce Prior" Subject: [Elecraft] 9 Sections missing -- pure K1 Sweepstakes I decided to try out the 4-band K1 in the CW Sweepstakes. I got 237 QSO's in 17+ hours, missing a sweep by 9 sections. The mediocre showing is a function of a rusty contester, not the K1. Above 25 WPM I have a lot of trouble sending sixes and fours, even with a Mercury paddle. I used only the internal keyer, eschewing the programmable external keyer. After dark when I was calling CQ on 15-m, VY1JA called me! I also landed VE9DX way after 15-m should have been closed. I was using dipoles. On Sunday afternoon I marched out to the backyard in the rain and threw up a 20/15 dipole inverted vee at approximately right angles to the other antennas. I built the K1 as a backpacker rig, but it did very well as a contest rig! I tried mounting a slightly larger knob on the tuning pot to get a little finer control for exact zero beating. It sorta got in the way. I guess Wayne Burdick sized the original properly. 8=) Maybe next year I ought to try for the full 24 hours. Toward the end I finally set the pencil down and relied completely on the computer logger. It was a big step for me. 72, Bruce Prior in Blaine, WA +++++++++++++++++ Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 01:56:33 From: "Bruce Prior" Subject: [Elecraft] Pedestrian Mobile K1 Whaaaat? Pedestrian mobile with the K1? I had a chance to try out the TacPack for my K1. So, I attached my old Outbacker antenna to my backpack, adding a tail of five pairs of speaker wire to capacitively couple the base-loaded Outbacker with the ground. I hoisted the pack, then I slung the K1 in its bright orange TacPack comfortably around one shoulder and across my chest as I headed down the road. The Outbacker angled way off to the side, so I stopped and secured it through the center backpack carrying handle and continued past Blaine High School (providing cheery entertainment for a group of just-out-of-school-teenagers) and on to Blaine International Airport, which is really a small general aviation landing strip on the Canadian border where aircraft have to overfly a part of southern British Columbia for either take-off or landing, depending on which way the wind is blowing. The Outbacker loaded quite nicely, thanks to the internal tuner in the K1. My big problem was trying to copy CW in my head. Pedestrian mobile is certainly a good way to force me to dispense with the pencil. After my play session I turned around and headed for home. Just as I turned into my front yard, a white car with a big Blaine Police emblem on the side pulled up. I flashed a smile as the constable rolled down his window. "What are you up to?" he asked. "Oh, I’m testing out some gear for the the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service," I volunteered, thinking about tonight’s RACES meeting. Now he grinned, too. "Where do you live?" he pressed. "Right here!" I answered in triumph. As I disassembled the Outbacker and carefully laid the K1 on the porch I wondered, was it the Outbacker or the dragging horse-tail with its collection of autumn leaves or the K1 in its bright orange TacPack that attracted all that attention? Just in case it was the latter, maybe it would be wiser to order a demure black TacPack next time! TacPacks are available in black or orange from Mountain-Ops Communications, Gigaparts, Ham Radio Outlet and W4RT Electronics. There are models for the Elecraft K1 and K2, the LDG Z-11 Auto Tuner, the Yaesu FT-817 and FT-100/D, the Icom IC-706/MKII/G, and the SGC SG-2020. 72, Bruce Prior N7RR ++++++++++++++++++ From: "Wallace, Andy" To: "'Elecraft at mailman.qth.net'" Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 09:48:31 -0400 Subject: [Elecraft] K1 does FB /P at lake in NH Went to a lake in NH for R+R. Took the K1 along. I strung up a 60' randomwire from the porch of the cottage to a flagpole down by the lake -- probably 7' off the ground at most. Worked MUCH better than I expected! In fact, I had not brought along a ham prefix list because I did not expect to work any new countries! I figured I would be lucky to work France or something else pedestrian like that. Places I worked were: (new ones for me in all caps): Florida, COLORADO, Texas, Georgia (the state), NEW MEXICO, Germany, Canary Islands, Croatia, European Russia, Yugoslavia, ALBANIA, Massachusetts, SCOTLAND, Poland, Illinois, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovenia, IOWA, Ukraine, Bosnia, Hungary, MAURITIUS, MADEIRA ISLANDS (still need Portugal!!!), Bahamas, Norway, Italy, GEORGIA (the country), LATVIA, Canada, Yugoslavia, England, Sweden, Maryland, MOROCCO, Algeria, and CHILE. I tried working a guy from Alaska sending CQ CQ CQ FROM ALASKA at about 8wpm but he originally gave me a signal report, then asked me to QRS and gave up -- he never did get my call. Oh well. Mauritius (3B8/W8MV on 20m) astounded me. All in all, an excellent trip. Just goes to show what 5W and a lousy antenna will do. My K1 has the built-in internal automatic antenna tuner and it had no problem tuning the randomwire. Did not even bother with a counterpoise ground -- just stuck the wire into a banana plug and then into a BNC<-->SO239 adapter. When the bugs got bad, I dragged the K1 into the cottage and operated from the coffee table. What fun! This makes 67 ARRL DXCC countries using the K1. I'd recommend the K1/KAT1 to anyone. And get SOME kind of antenna up. You'll make contacts, no matter how lousy it is! (almost) -Andy ++++++++++++++++++++ From: "Trevor Jacobs" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" , "Elecraft Mailing List" Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 01:10:56 -0700 Subject: [Elecraft] TTF at Mt. Palomar - Here's the write up and pitures Hey Gang, Finally got around to putting up the web page for our last TTF trip to Mt. Palomar. Here's the link: http://www.qsl.net/kg6cyn/Mt_Palomar_05_01_03.htm Hope you enjoy it! See you on the air! 73's Trev KG6CYN http://www.qsl.net/kg6cyn ++++++++++++++++++++