I was told by a friend that the price of the Elecraft KH1 handheld radio is more than £1000 if the radio if purchased from an EU dealer and imported into the UK, and that was without accessories.
What do Yorkshiremen and Scotsmen think of the price I wondered?! I know what I think, but I am keeping my own council. As an owner of the Elecraft KX3 who likes sitting down when he sends CW, good luck to anyone who tries to send some code with the MH1 in their hand walking along with a wire trailing along behind them - a ridiculous concept to my mind!
Did you try it with a counterpoise? I’ve always found 41’ with 17’ CP (and a 9:1) works great on most bands and doesn’t require a whole lot from the ATU. The one band that it sometimes struggles on is 30.
I think it will work out, but I will continue to record my log on paper until I know for sure. S2S will still need to be logged on paper because the rig only captures what you send. Anything you send via the keyer memory is not captured in the log, so you would want to program in your CQ and your QRZ? messages to keep the captured text to a minimum. On the KX2 everything you send is decoded and shown on the screen, so you would need to make sure when you send back the call that you get it right (i.e. send clean code with correct timing). I think it will take some practice and experimentation, but has the potential to work very well.
It’s not cheap. There again neither was my KX2 with ATU and IO board. Ah but the KX2 does more you say and yes it does. But quite a few of the things the KX2 does are of no interest to me. (built in data modes, logging, 160/80m etc.) So I paid for stuff I wont use. A CW only radio with whip and ATU on 40-12m scratches most of my HF itches.
Here’s the deal (as the US cops say on Youtube before the break the law)… I want a KH1 because… Because what? Because it’s shiny and I want one! There’s lots of things I want but can’t have. Like a 250GTE MKIII RHD 2+2 5speed but certainly not in red. But the KH1 is affordable though my wallet will cry a lot.
I have too many HF rigs and couldn’t justify a QMX to myself never a KH1. But now it looks like my 706 will be moving on to a new home so there is a slot in the shack. All of a sudden a KH1 with ATU and whip is tempting. I’ll be morbid now: this current HF cycle peak is likely to be the last when I can climb proper GM hills for SOTA, because if I’m still here for the next peak, cycle 26, I’ll be 74/75. So now is the time to have a KH1 when the higher bands will work well for QRP powers and antennas.
So if the 706 goes for an OK price I’m thinking I’ll have a KH1 and use it / keep for 3 years then move it on. It’s why I wanted to hear the one mentioned earlier on but we just got chat about the packing etc. I wanted to hear it as it’s a real radio not SDR. I think my KX2 sounds as rough as a 5 o’clock shadow on CW. Sure it works really, really well and I wont be getting rid of it but it sounds ‘meh’. I think the QCXs I have sound nicer sound! And just listen to Josh WU7H’s Ten Tecs (Century 22 and Argonaut V) or his K2 and K1 in Dusted off the Ten-Tec Today and then listen to the KX2.
Like you Phil, I like to sit down while activating. I also like to log on my phone with a bluetooth keyboard. Perhaps someone will find a way to replace the note pad on the side of the KH1 with a smartphone (which would have to be put in flight mode). It would be very handy for my hike & fly activations, but at over €1000, I don’t do enough of those kind of activations to justify the expense. Klaus OE6KYG, on the other hand, always activates standing up using a very short wire antenna and his KX2. There is quite a flurry of excitement about the KH1 here in OE6.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
It seems to me that the kx2 is rediculous regarding decoding. If I try to record a message it gets it wrong 80% of the time. And I know my code is clean enough for rbn to pick it up every time. I’ve never recorded an activation but if it’s that fussy then it seems most of the code would be incorrect.
Unfortunately I have to confirm that. The Android app Morse Expert is leagues better than the KX2 decoder. It works via sound without connection to the TRX, even in noisy conditions.
Very good Matt, most telegraphists I know like to operate CW sat down.
Some of the comments and hype about this radio are quite amazing and some are laughable, despite this, the hype does seem to be encouraging many to order the KH1! Some say they are buying them as an incentive to learn CW, it won’t happen that way for many unfortunately… There was an American ham on the Elecraft reflector saying he could carry the 13 oz (369 grams) weight radio with accessories installed, in his shirt pocket. They must have some large and strong shirt pockets in the USA…
Go on guys, go get this must have radio, get your orders in! As a SOTA chaser I’m looking forward to working some of you fortunate to have the money for one in the coming weeks and months.
This is the key point, what gets logged is what the activator heard the chaser’s call to be, not what is decoded, so decode ambiguity is avoided. The realtime clock timestamps the record in memory.
This feature could be added to many MCU-based rigs, as long as the MCU includes USB for downloading the data file, or, even Wifi, in which case the radio could be ‘queried’, but I think the latter is beyond a low power MCU. Can you transfer ASCII / text data over a Low Energy Bluetooth link? (The answer is ‘yes’).
I thought that was just me. How can I be able to communicate with others if I cannot send a simple CQ was my first thought. After 20-30mins I gave up and used the USB lead to program the memories.
@K7GUD I might have misunderstood your point. If your comment is about the recording of internal memories from the paddles, this of course is likely to be similar to what is logged when recording a QSO.
However, for the limited number of KX2 logs I have seen so far, I could not notice major issues, except maybe many spaces between characters (and this could be an issue when recording memories).
I suggest you give this experimental KX2/KH1 log decoder a try. This would allow us all to make our mind about the usefulness of the internal TX logging
No it’s not just you having trouble recording CW memories using the paddle. When I first got my KX2 and tried to record a memory message using the paddle, the recored message was always incorrect. I thought there was something wrong with my radio. I contacted Elecraft support and this was their response:
Hi Pat,
Thanks for contacting Elecraft.
Entering CW memories using the paddle interface is a skill acquired over some time.
The precision of code elements is severe, and inflicted by the mercilessness of the microprocessor in the radio.
It recognizes your CW as smaller elements/characters when you are sending larger element letters.
For example C .. is perceived as _ ._. or TR
Q _ . is perceived as _ _ ._ or MA
We encourage you to keep up the good fight and keep practicing, and if necessary, use the KX2 Utility, Windows version linked here, to program the CW memories with a keyboard and computer.
Also, I found a thread on KX2 / groups.io about trouble recording CW memories. One suggestion was to turn the keyer speed to around 12 WPM. That seems to work. But I don’t want to activate a peak at 12 WPM so the logging feature is useless. You’d have to send “machine code” for it to record correctly.
So now, I try to use the KX2 utility to record messages before I go out in the field. If I forget, I just send the summit reference manually because it takes too long to record it correctly.
(The answer is ‘yes’).