Tuesday, October 31, 2023

THE ELECRAFT KH1 HAS ARRIVED! (A FEW PHOTOS…) by THOMAS WITHERSPOON

I’ve gotten a lot of email and comments asking when my KH1 would arrive and I’m happy to report that I picked it up this morning at the post office!

I ordered the “Edgewood” package, thus the KH1 with all of the trimmings. I was shipped the full radio kit save the logging tray/cover.

The logging tray had a last minute hardware change. Elecraft kindly shipped the radio first and the logging tray will follow in a few days.

I must say: the KH1 is even smaller than I imagined.

Quick video

I made a very short video as I opened the box for the first time. To be clear, it doesn’t likely meet the requirements of an “unboxing” video, because, frankly, I really don’t understand those types of videos. It’s just me opening the box and holding the radio for the first time.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Hunting POTA!

I popped the included battery on my Elecraft fast charger and gave it a good 90 minutes of charge while I did some yard work.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to hop on the air, so I attached the whip antenna and the counterpoise, then hit the ATU button for a 1.2:1 match on 20 meters.

I then opened POTA.app and tuned to a couple of POTA activators.

First up was KK4WDP who was activating K-0784 in Washington DC.

I was still sorting out a few of the adjustments on the KH1 (keyer speed, sidetone level, AF gain, etc.) so I can’t say my exchange was “graceful.” (If you’re reading this, Josh, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.)

I moved slightly off frequency to delineate my tone, which I think helped punch thorough. On this end, I could hear a couple of strong stations calling at the same time. DC is almost too close for 20 meters this time of day, but I received a 22N report. Thanks, Josh!

Next, I tuned to 14059 MHz where NR1D was activating K-1706.

I called and got a reply on the first try. I can’t remember the report he sent, but he was a solid 5NN. Thanks so much for working me, Kent!

Photos:

I haven’t seen a lot of up-close product photos yet, so I thought I’d share some here. Again, note these don’t include the logging tray, but I will post more photos when it arrives soon.