KX2 VFO knob hack

You might like this. If you’ve been in the field and had to turn the KX2 VFO knob 50 or 100 kHz, you know it just doesn’t do that well. The tiny knob will not cooperate and it takes forever. I even bought the off-market heavy metal knob and it’s no better. So try a cable tie as shown below and see what you think. Enjoy,
Scott kw4jm


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I had for a time the heavy VFO knob as well and agree with you. I put the stock knob back on with a rubber O ring on it. It worked great until I was fooling around with it on a summit and it took a trip. Could never find it before heading down.

Malen
VE6VID

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A great hack Scott.

cheers Geoff vk3sq

To make larger frequency steps, I simply switch temporarily to FM.

73 Armin

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Hi Scott,

You might want to update the title from “KX2 VFO knob hack”, as this small high speed tuning assistance “hack” will work for any radio - not just the Elecraft KX2.

I’ll be trying it on my Xiegu G90 for example.

73 Ed.

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Scott,

Unfortunately, your problem description does not contain any detailed information regarding the operating mode used (e.g. CW, CW with APF, SSB, …, DATA).
Furthermore, the smallest possible KX2 VFO setting step is 1 Hz (with DATA or CW with APF), so is “50 or 100 mHz” probably a typo?

As a CW-only operator, I have set the per-mode VFO coarse step of 1 kHz. This allows you to quickly switch between 10 Hz and 1 kHz with the RATE button (of course only with APF OFF). With the 1 kHz setting, frequency changes of up to 100 kHz can be done very quickly in this way.

For even larger frequency changes (in my case e.g. to check the antenna resonance point e.g. at .000, .150 and .300 kHz), I use the per-band Quick Memories.

All this and much more is described in detail in the KX2 Owner’s Manual …

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Thank you for the hack Scott! Done. Let’s see how that works next time I’m trying to go from 14.347 down to 14.228 chasing some summit to summit.

I use DL6GCA suggestion, works FB

Tnx Armin

VFO A Knob = 1 Hz
VFO B knob = 500 Hz CW, 1KHz SSB (adjustable)
More info in the UG and on the Elecraft web site.

Custom VFO Coarse Tuning Steps
Using the VFO CRS menu entry, you can select coarse VFO tuning steps independently for each operating mode. In SSB mode, your choices are 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.5 kHz per step. The default is 0.5 kHz. Bonus feature: If the OFS/VFO B knob is in the OFS setting (OFS LED lit), you can use the VFO B knob to move VFO A in coarse steps while leaving the VFO A knob itself set for fine steps (10 Hz).

Cheers, Bruce

This is what I do as well Heinz… works very well! I didn’t even know about the per band quick memories for the first year that I owned my KX2, but I use them all the time now. Very useful.

73

There is also the direct frequency entry method which is pretty quick.
I admit to preferring spinning the knob to pushing buttons, though.

David N6AN

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Hi David - thanks for the S2S yesterday =)

I wish the KX2 would allow direct frequency entry via the paddles like my MTR does… love that feature!

I don’t use the direct entry on KX2 enough, so it’s always awkward for me to find the right buttons to push!

Like getting to Carnegie Hall, it takes practice, hi!

73

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I only discovered this method for myself a few weeks ago.
With every input it gets smoother and I am happy about this fine option from the elecraft people.

73 Chris