Elecraft K1

The Elecraft K1 is a qrp cw only rig. It comes in kit form with a standard 2 band board or an optional 4 band board and a host of "add ons" including ,internal atu and an internal battery compartment along with small mod kits now available like the backlight mod kit.The kit allows the builder to determine things like bandwidth and a choice of bands at the building stage..I won't go into the spec as this can easily be had on the net. If you love qrp and you like going /p then this little rig is hard to beat.Iv had mine around 2 weeks and can't put it down.

It took me a day or two to work my way around the functions and menu on this radio after being used to the 817 being my main radio both at home and portable.. The difference is day and night in my opinion but both have advantages over each other. The first thing that i found was a real bonus was the current consumption , a big issue in the world of portable operating unless you don't mind walking around with a massive battery pack. The K1 consumes roughly 55mw on RX and comparing this to the likes of the 817's 450mw is a real bonus . TX is roughly 1 amp compared to the 817's 2 amp. There is a very handy programmable message recorder so you don't have to sit sending calls out if the band is a bit quiet, a quick tap of a button and a call is sent.

The internal atu is a real bonus and adds very little weight to the unit at all. The vswr bridge can be used with the tuner or independently if another antenna is being used that is tuned manually. I used the miracle whip on this radio and was able to tune by bypassing the atu but still using the bridge.

On air

Using the K1 is a breeze once you have the menu sussed. I have made quite a few contacts on it hooked up to a 142 foot loop and using the internal atu. Audio quality doesn't seem as good as my 817 and can be a bit "hollow" if thats the right word and i have noticed some strong stations can overload the front end.. To be fair i think the rig could do with an alignment. This is very well explained in the construction manual.I bought this rig second hand and so as im not the constructor it may be better me doing one anyway.This will also get me familiar with the workings also..