New Elecraft Rig: KH1 (Part 1)

Are you insane? Surely it’s only worth $50 at the most? :rofl:

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Not pedestrian mobile but my solution to get my K3s/KPA500 to a contest location plus a KX2 to wilderness trailheads.

Terrible gas mileage and when modifying a Jeep it stands for Just Empty Every pocket.

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101!!

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Or at least they have faith the buyer can…

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Seems like a very nice cw rig. But since I have a kx2, which is only 7 oz more weight, i probably won’t be buying one.

On the other hand, as Owl Cricker says, you can’t have too many QRP rigs.

If I could get my hands on one…

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A cool little “spy like” radio for sure, but only 7oz less than the kx2, fewer bands AND a 50% tx power cut from a KX2? And a kx3 with proper battery gives 3 times the power (15w) AND all hf bands AND 2m. Also perhaps I missed it but I didn’t see any mention of silent TX relays in the KH1 or digital modes TX at least with a phone.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool looking little radio with a really niche application. It would be neat as an every day carry along radio just in case I had time to operate so I might be tempted to get one if they are reliable and tough but I’m a bit disappointed.

73,
Tom, N2YTF

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Hi all
we launched our site about the KH1 yesterday: ELECRAFT KH1 | Lutz Electronics

As Official Distributor from ELECRAFT for Switzerland and Europe we’ve already a batch of the new KH1 in the backorder with the manufacturer and hope to get the first delivery soon. So, European customes arte welcome to place your orders directly with us :+1: :nerd_face: :nerd_face: In our offer 24 months of Warranty is included, and we’re also Official Repaircenter of ELECRAFT: Reparaturservice | Lutz Electronics (lutz-electronics.ch)

If you have any questions, please send us a short mail to info@lutz-electrnics.ch

We look forward to go on-air on a SOTA-activation with the new KH1 as soon as possible :grin: :grin:

vy 73 de René, HB9NBG + 73/88 de Carine, HB9FZC

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Stupid price.
Construction does not look very rugged.
Not waterproof.
Primarily designed for handheld ops, ergonomics look poor for use with the unit laid on the ground

I’m out already, but did get excited initially. Holding out for something nice from Yaesu as a ft818 replacement - hoping it will be more innovative than a ic705 clone.

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That is something we already heard, when the KX2 was launched: Not waterproof, doesn’t look very rugged, etc… Our experience is: Don’t worry about that! My YLL Carine, HB9FZC and I are using the KX2 since 2016 now, and we’ve made around 600 activations with it - most of it in the Swiss Alps, and also on rain, snow and very hot conditions - no problem at all: The KX2 is still the reference, if you want to be active in SOTA seriousily :+1: Have a look at our newest SOTA-Video. The KH1 is absolutely unique concerning its size in the range of High-performance Shortwave-Transceivers. We’re sure, that a lot of SOTA-activators will love it, as they already love the KX2. We look forward to get the first KH1 soon, and then we will show it in a video :nerd_face: :+1:

We wish you a lot of fun with SOTA and vy 73 de René, HB9NBG + 73/88 de Carine, HB9FZC

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Interesting rig. Interesting that they’re focusing strictly on CW with no TX SSB. Not for me, but I’m sure it’ll fill a niche somewhere.

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The design is based on the intended purpose, pedestrian mobile. That is going to affect the style massively. It’s a bit like a European car that was never sold in the US/Canada, the Fiat Multipla. That was one seriously ugly car. It was like it was the fruit of the Ugly Tree had fallen and hit every ugly branch on the way down. It almost made peoples eyes bleed if they saw one! (Not as ugly as a Porsche Panamera though, nothing is.)

mul1

It’s not pretty. But it was designed for a niche purpose. If you have a nuclear sized family (2 adults, 2 children) then most cars adequately carry them and their possessions about, the size and space is simply a function of how big your wallet is. But if you have 3 children… the market narrows. There are cars that have 6/7 seats but they achieve this by normally having 3 rows of seats (2 seat up front, 3 in the middle and 2 in the rear. Often the rearmost are size compromised. Or you get a true MPV (more expensive). Any of you as parents will know that there are times when driving when you need to improve the behaviour of your crotch-fruit with a well judged clip round the ears. If you have 3 rows of seats then the furthest away kids can get up to serious mayhem and you can only sort things out by stopping and getting out of the car.

The Multipla solved this with an ever-so-simple solution: 2 rows of 3 wide seats.

mul2

It was very simple allowing a not expensive car meet the passenger and luggage carrying capacity of larger families. It wasn’t much bigger than the “normal” family car it was based on and drove just like a family car. You could drop the rear seats to get quite a prodigious luggage capacity. Despite its looks and all the people who found blood in their tears, it was quite successful once you got over the visuals.

This radio is just the same as the Multipla. It will look wrong, odd, ugly etc. to many people but it’s how well it handles the radio needs that matters.

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It’s kind of an interesting TRX…

But anyway:

My choice for CW only would be more like:

2 x QMX (80 - 10m)
Tuner Elecraft T1
Eremit battery
BamaTech TP III
…all in a LowePro bag…

What excites me, however, is that a lot of development has been done just for a pure CW device… that means that CW is not completely dead yet… (…CW is not dead - it just smells funny )

73 Armin

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Same bands as my 5b MTR but with a built in ATU and larger screen would be tempting, just in time for Christmas.
Noticed this at the bottom of the description, may be a wait for the sales to the EU.
We currently cannot ship the KH1 to any EU country.

73
Graeme

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Could this be the 1st true benefit of leaving the EU ? :rofl:

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The family sat in the carpark is an accurate comparison with the base model elecraft. If you want an engine and exterior it is available as an accessory that doubles the price

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Go and look at Armin’s list. That comes to around $850US without an antenna suggesting the listed price is not that excessive.

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It says “pedestrian mobile”. So how many of you guys can walk and send CW even at 12wpm?

Give me QMX from QRP-Labs anytime.

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It is indicated on the elecraft website that the KH1 cannot be sent to Europe because it is not CE certified.

So,it cannot therefore also be sold in Europe until it is certified.

For those who are interested, you will have to wait…

73’ Alain

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Bit of a disappointment. Was hoping for a successor to the KX1. A radio with an entry level price , the $500 sounded about right but it gets north of $1000 very quickly.
Looks like the “look how clever we are” engineering design team were not listening to their market research team.

Declan
ei6fr

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It’s a conversation that’s not really going anywhere. As a wannabe CW fanatic, a CW only rig that’s been proper sorted and aligned, with AATU is an exciting prospect. I do like the idea behind the rig. The price in a ‘normal’ market would be far too high, but we all know that hams generally ‘must’ have the latest and greatest despite the cost, and of course, if you’re bringing a new product to markey, especially a niche product without many competitors, you’re going to charge what you think you can get away with. I have no dounts at all that the KH1 will sell in big numbers. I don’t think I’ll ever have the means to justify the cost of a KH1, so it looks as though I’ve been priced out of the market, but again, I don’t think the people at Elecraft will lose any sleep whatsoever.

A shame, but I have plenty of means to generate a workable CW signal on most HF bands. I’ll carry on as I was and I’m still having fun!

I have a Fiat 500L, arguably the replacement for the Multipla, although with only 5 seats. The 500L is a very practical car and I think it’s quirky styling is pretty cool! I’ve had a few waves :wave: from other people passing in 500Ls too - it’s almost like driving an old Mini!

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