Re: [Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever
wayne burdick wrote: We're pleased to announce that the KX1 is now a 4-band radio! Many KX1 owners have asked for 80 meter coverage, notably Bruce Prior, N7RR, who pointed out that 80 meters is a great band for traffic handling at night (in both the CW and SSB segments). Up till now, Bruce has been taking his KX1 and a second rig that covers 80 meters on his extensive backpacking trips. Our new KXB3080 option will lighten his load a bit. 80 meters is also a popular field day and QRP band, and is especially active in the Eastern U.S. and in Europe. Band noise is lower in Winter, so this is the perfect time to give 80 meters a try. Hooray! Elecraft does it again and we thank Wayne and Eric! How about a kit version of the KXB3080 for those adventurous souls who have some SMT experience? Just thought that should in NO WAY detract from this felicitous news. Happy New Year to the Elecraft gang and all who read this reflector 73, Joe, W2RBA ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever
YES I received a building request yesterday for a complete KX1 kit. I will wait until this kit is available and I will upgrade mine also a new Elecraft familly member near my place again in 2006 !! Happy New Years to all Elecraft group !!! Best 73 88 !!! Le 05-12-29 à 23:37, wayne burdick a écrit : We're pleased to announce that the KX1 is now a 4-band radio! Many KX1 owners have asked for 80 meter coverage, notably Bruce Prior, N7RR, who pointed out that 80 meters is a great band for traffic handling at night (in both the CW and SSB segments). Up till now, Bruce has been taking his KX1 and a second rig that covers 80 meters on his extensive backpacking trips. Our new KXB3080 option will lighten his load a bit. 80 meters is also a popular field day and QRP band, and is especially active in the Eastern U.S. and in Europe. Band noise is lower in Winter, so this is the perfect time to give 80 meters a try. The dual-band KXB3080 module installs in the same location as our 30-meter-only module, the KXB30. The KXB3080 is very easy to add to your KX1, since all but two components are surface-mount, pre- installed at the factory. (This was necessary in order to provide both bands in such a small amount of space.) Also supplied is a small PC board that mounts in place of the original low-pass filter inductors (L1 and L2). This board includes a relay that configures the low-pass filter for efficient operation on either 80 or 40/30/20 meters. The KX1's firmware has been updated in conjunction with the KXB3080. The new firmware adds: * Full 80-meter band coverage on transmit and receive * Additional receive-only coverage: 1000 kHz to 5000 kHz (reduced sensitivity outside the 80-m band) * Programmable scanning (great for monitoring quiet bands, waiting for signals to show up) * Variable-rate fast tuning: 1 kHz in ham bands in all RX modes, 5 kHz outside ham bands in USB/LSB modes We have several beta testers lined up for the KXB3080, and will be supplying them kits in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I've been having great fun on 80 meters with the first 4-band KX1, even with a wimpy 40-foot random wire. In addition to 80 meter transceive operation, I can copy many AM stations from 1.0-1.6 MHz. This broadcast band coverage should prove useful feature for field operation. If you have any technical questions about the KXB3080 option, feel free to send them to [EMAIL PROTECTED] One question I'm sure to get is whether the KXAT1 ATU is usable on 80 meters. The answer? Yes, but the KXAT1 wasn't designed to cover this band, so it will only help with specific end-fed wire antenna lengths to be determined. It will of course help with tweaking of nearly-resonant antennas, such as portable whips and ad-hoc dipoles. * * * N O T E * * * Please don't call about the KXB3080 or new firmware just yet. We will announce the price of both in late January, and take orders then. (Eric made me say that :) * * * * * * * * * * * 73, Wayne, N6KR --- http://www.elecraft.com ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com = JEAN-FRANÇOIS MÉNARD / VA2VYZ ELECRAFT KX1 #999, K2 #4130 FISTS #11896 Pour visitez mon site Internet / To visit my website : http://homepage.mac.com/jfmenard = ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever
Wayne, this is very exciting news to me; with 80 being quite alive thanks to winter, and active, thanks to poor propagation on higher bands, adding 80 comes at a great time; I look forward to the release of the module, and will jump in line to buy it! Keep up the good work! 73 de Dave, W5SV wayne burdick wrote: We're pleased to announce that the KX1 is now a 4-band radio! Many KX1 owners have asked for 80 meter coverage, notably Bruce Prior, N7RR, who pointed out that 80 meters is a great band for traffic handling at night (in both the CW and SSB segments). Up till now, Bruce has been taking his KX1 and a second rig that covers 80 meters on his extensive backpacking trips. Our new KXB3080 option will lighten his load a bit. 80 meters is also a popular field day and QRP band, and is especially active in the Eastern U.S. and in Europe. Band noise is lower in Winter, so this is the perfect time to give 80 meters a try. snip ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Fwd: re; [Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever
Whoops, originally sent from the wrong account so this won't make it on the Elecraft list the first time. Michael Begin forwarded message: From: Michael Babineau [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: December 30, 2005 2:01:33 PM EST To: wayne burdick [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: re;[Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever wayne burdick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote : We're pleased to announce that the KX1 is now a 4-band radio! This is great news. I can hardly wait ! One question I'm sure to get is whether the KXAT1 ATU is usable on 80 meters. The answer? Yes, but the KXAT1 wasn't designed to cover this band, so it will only help with specific end-fed wire antenna lengths to be determined. I would suggest that someone investigate how well a 26.5 meter (ie approx 87 ft) long wire matches with the KXAT1. This is one of the magic lengths suggested as a good compromise for matching on most of the amateur bands, by Alan Chester, G3CCB (SK) in his RADCOM article titled Taming the End-Fed Wire. This may be your best bet for a wire that will easily match on 80m/40m/30m/ and 20m with a tuner, as it avoids multiples of half wavelengths (high impedance) on these bands. I have used this length in the field with my 4 band K1 and KAT1 with good results. Unfortunately I don't think I ever tried it with my KX1 (I'll have to check my notes) as a shorter 28 foot wire matches well on 40m through 20m and seems to be fairly efficient. I use the #24 AWG Teflon coated wire that N2GO sells and I have found that an 87 foot length will spool up nicely on to one of those plastic YO-YO sized camping clothesline reels that Walmart sells, with some room to spare. Michael VE3WMB P.S. Note that this 26.5 m length is very close to the 84 foot length suggested for a W3EDP, which was arrived at experimentally by starting with 100 feet of wire and repeatedly chopping 4 feet off until the best results were obtained. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: re; [Elecraft] New Elecraft product: 80/30 meter module for the KX1 transciever
On 30-Dec-05, at 2:01 PM, Michael Babineau wrote: wayne burdick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote : One question I'm sure to get is whether the KXAT1 ATU is usable on 80 meters. The answer? Yes, but the KXAT1 wasn't designed to cover this band, so it will only help with specific end-fed wire antenna lengths to be determined. I would suggest that someone investigate how well a 26.5 meter (ie approx 87 ft) long wire matches with the KXAT1. This is one of the magic lengths suggested as a good compromise for matching on most of the amateur bands, by Alan Chester, G3CCB (SK) in his RADCOM article titled Taming the End-Fed Wire. This may be your best bet for a wire that will easily match on 80m/40m/30m/ and 20m with a tuner, as it avoids multiples of half wavelengths (high impedance) on these bands. I went back through my notes and it looks like I actually did try an end-fed 87 foot wire with the KXAT1 (sometimes it pays to write things down) . 87 foot inverted L supported by two 20 foot fishing poles and using five 16 foot radials on the ground KXAT1 20m 1:1 SWR 30m 1.2:1 SWR 40m 3.9: 1 SWR * BTW, using the same wire but in an inverted U configuration with the same two fishing poles and radial system I had the following results with the K1 : KAT1 17m 1.0:1 SWR 20m 1.0:1 SWR 30M 1.1:1 SWR 40m 1.7:1 SWR * It looks like lengthening the wire to perhaps 28 meters (about 92 feet ) would improve the match on 40M, as 26.5m is almost a no-go length for 40m. This however might negatively impact the match on 30m. Eighty meters and 20m should be ok with a slightly longer wire. One option would be to use a 26.5m wire but have an extra 5 foot clip on section to help with the match on 40m, some experimentation would be required. Michael VE3WMB P.S. If you don't care about the match on 30m it looks like a 15m wire (about 49 feet) should be a good length to try for 80m / 40m and 20m. In theory, this should be a very easy length to match on 80m as you would only need about 10 to 14 micro-Henries of series inductance to achieve a match in the 25 to 50 ohm range. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
