Just a couple of months ago, on December 7, I purchased a KX1. It was a
replacement to the KX1 I had built several years ago: my entry into the
Elecraft world. I thought I had "outgrown" it so I sold it.
Fast forward through my K1, K2, K3, KX3, and now KX2/KXPA100 setup (plus
other stuff like the K2 amp, the KAT100, the PX3, an earlier KXPA100 for
the KX3....lots of other stuff plus the mini-modules) and we come to
today. Elecraft has made a small fortune on me!
We're having a blizzard in New York. My picnic table out back has over
12 inches of snow on it. As a prisoner of the house, I decided to do a
little operating; However, 40 meters was dead and so was 30 meters. It
wasn't so hot on 20 meters either. I went down to the living room and
built a fire. But gosh, I really wanted to operate...
So I brought my KX1 down to the living room. I stretched a 40 foot
length of {high loss} RG174 from my shack to the fireplace. I have a 67
foot bent up doublet in my attic managed by an SGC231 autocoupler and
that's where one end of the RG174 extension coax went. The other end
connected the antenna to my KX1 on AA batteries. With less than 13.9
VDC, the KX1 doesn't have the oomph required to kick the autocoupler
into tune mode. No problem. I just used my QRO setup to find the match
on 14.030. That would give me a few kHZ either side with a good SWR.
So there I am, sitting in front of the fireplace with a rig on batteries
putting out maybe a watt +/-, a high loss connection to the antenna, a
coupler with some degree of loss, a freakin' blizzard outside, a bent up
antenna in my attic and a foot of snow on the roof and conditions on 20
meters reportedly "Fair."
Well, guess what. I worked a whole pile of stations - Minnesota, New
Mexico, Florida, Hungary, Ireland, Germany and the Bahamas. After an
hour, I brought the rig back to the shack and promptly worked V53DX, a
new QRP country for me.
Thus, it was with more than a little sadness that I logged onto the
Elecraft website and saw that the KX1 has been discontinued! I don't
recall seeing any email announcements about this or any chatter on this
reflector about it either.
I certainly understand that business decisions must be made and change
is inevitable. In fact, I'm surprised that the K1 didn't go before the
KX1.
I just thought I'd take the time to salute one of the greatest QRP rigs
I've ever had the pleasure to build and operate - twice - and WOW - I'm
happy that I gave this new KX1 to myself for Chistmas!
During the period of time between my first KX1 and this new one, I
explored lots of other QRP rigs because I was curious. I spent a lot of
money too! They were all well engineered. They all worked. They all
had their own uniqueness. BUT the KX1 distinguished itself because it
had everything one needs to operate right there onboard. The LNR
Mountain Toppers, for example, were about the size of a pack of
cigarettes. However, the operator had to have an outboard key, an
outboard power supply and an outboard antenna tuner. That's more like a
full carton smokes. Same for the LD-5 and LD-11.
The thing about the KX1 was its apparent simplicity which masked its
elegant design and robust menu. I love my KX2 with its dual watch
function, autospot feature and filtering. But now it's hooked up to the
amplifier and it's no longer a candidate for "grab and go" operations.
The KX1 was (and IS for me) just plain FUN and all in one nice package.
Sorry to see it go west.
73, Stan WB2LQF
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