John wrote: > Being new to the QRP universe, I was wondering how backpackable a K1 > is and if anyone does it.
The K1 is one of the best backpacking rigs that has ever existed. I've owned one for almost 11 years. Backpacking or day hike use was the reason I purchased one. The KX1 has somewhat displaced the K1 for that purpose, but as I outlined in a post I made on 11 April 2011 at http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/elecraft/2011-April/147873.html there are good reasons to prefer the K1 as THE best choice when ham CW band RF performance, even when out in the boonies, is an important factor. Most notable, the K1 is capable of 15-meter operation, but the KX1 is not. When buying a new K1, there are two important options that should be exercised: (1) Get the LCD backlight option. This is trivial to install when the K1 is being built, but a *real* aggravation to backfit afterwards. It's very much worth the money. (2) Get the four-band filter board. Its band-pass filtering is better than that of the two-band filter board, plus it more than doubles the utility of the K1. I made another posting later that month that addressed batteries for backpacking and the current consumption of the K1 at various power levels: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/elecraft/2011-April/148720.html If you are interested, I can send a pdf-file describing the multi-band dipole that I use with my K1 (or other rigs) at camp sites. Only the recently-announced but unavailable KX3 will have any chance of displacing my old K1 as my favorite outdoors QRP rig, at least sometimes. 73, Mike / KK5F K1 SN 175 (November 2000) ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
