New Elecraft Rig: KH1 (Part 3)

The first 6 arrived in the EU a few days ago.
73 Matt

Did they get ce marked? According to the elecraft site, they can’t ship to the EU. I know Lutz, the reps, are in Switzerland, and Switzerland is not in the EU, but is in the single market. Does this mean they can only be sold in Switzerland, or can they be shipped from Switzerland to EU member states?

They buy the kits (no need for CE certification) and build them for you if you want. Shipping to EU.

See link above:

KH1 “Ready-Built” option | Building the kit into a finished device and a quick test of basic functions CHF 99.90

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I received my KH1 from Lutz Electronics two days ago. The “ready-built” option is pretty much mandatory. I initially ordered the “kit” only, as I wanted to built it myself. However, I was later told by Lutz Electronics that Elecraft does not supply any KH1 kit building instructions whatsoever, as it is intended to be built and tested by distributors only. So in order to also avoid any problems in case of warranty claims, I grudgingly paid the additional fee, bringing the total to CHF 1500 :money_with_wings:

First impression: the rig itself feels solid, operation is easy to learn, the received audio sounds good, and the built-in tuner does a good job of tuning up the whip antenna. The plastic parts (cover, whip and pen clips) feel a bit flimsy to me, the cover on my KH1 is slightly warped, and it looks a bit (but not quite) as if these parts were 3D printed. I wonder how long they will last. At least the whip clips are already available as replacement parts for around $10 :joy:
As others have remarked, the paddle takes some getting used to, as the keying action has a soft/spongy feel to it.

Today I took my KH1 on its inaugural activation. A first activation in HB/TI seemed fitting for the occasion. Pizzo Coca HB/TI-124 was chosen, a summit that like so often in Ticino is not very difficult, but requires a long ascent (1900 m, 7.5 km), and pathless bushwhacking in 35-40° terrain for the last 500 vertical meters. It was nice to have a lightweight rig given the already heavy backpack.

At the summit, a fierce wind welcomed me, but luckily it didn’t take much more than a minute to get on the air with the KH1. I made 20 QSOs within 20 minutes on 20m and 17m. I did not log anything myself, but instead had the KH1 record the sent CW (firmware 1.22). With the soft paddle, cold fingers and gloves on, it was a bit tricky to send cleanly so that the decoder would decode and log it correctly, but aside from @GI0AZB’s callsign, which I messed up several times, it was doable.

Back home, I dumped the log data using the supplied serial/USB cable, and ran it through the converter provided by Christophe @ON6ZQ at ON6ZQ | ELECRAFT KH1 & KX2 log converter. This gave me an FLE file that I only had to do some minimal edits/corrections on. Merci, Christophe! :blush:

So, is the KH1 with its whip antenna the ideal CW rig for quick activations when weight or weather conditions are an issue? I think so, at least near the maximum of the solar cycle. Is it worth CHF 1500? Not sure…

73 es mx de Manuel HB9DQM

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The plastic parts are 3D printed, but on a very expensive industrial printer. The material is durable.

I replaced the spring in the paddle with magnets. This was a big improvement to the ‘feel’.

I love the logging feature as well. Since the KH1 can hold a lot of data, there is no reason to ever turn the logging off. I just clear it once in a while. If you press the ‘menu/msg’ button (switch 4) you can enter notes into the log (the TX will not be keyed). VERY handy for entering SOTA REFs after you have an S2S so they are captured in your log.

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The set sounded really good on the air and in Northern Ireland.
Thanks for the activation.

Ian.

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Could you share a picture and the dimensions ?

The magnets are 5mm x 2mm. I used a #9 drill to enlarge the existing spring retention holes on the paddles just very slightly. The magnets are a good press fit into the holes and no glue is required.

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Maybe Elecraft should be making donations with all this free advertising, definitely better images and information being provided by fellow enthusiasts on the reflector.
Looking forward to logging a few summits during the holidays with those lucky to get hold of a KH1.

Seasons Greetings
73
Graeme

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For those that have ordered the KH1 they are still not finished shipping the orders made on Oct 20th. Elecraft is awaiting parts and intend to ship Mid-January.

DE VE7ESE

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made 1st activation with kh1 today



also tried 40m with loading coil
i am verry impressed

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Is the loading coil part of the package ?
If not, which one did you use ?

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is an extension for ax1 antenna, comes with coil and longer radial

see also

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have been on 2000m Summit minus 5°C - orig Elecraft Penball does write
but not shure at colder Days…
so i made a Pencil smaller to fit in KH1 Holder

tried the logging feature - but with KH1 Paddle some errors… so will use Pencil
hoping for 3rd Party Paddle

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Maybe you could try the modification with magnets that Josh did (see above) ?

yes i already have some Magnets on order…
by the way i activated 2 Summits yesterday,
what is the best way to seperate the two summits in logging-file, your converted file or in FLE ??
73
klaus

Well, I was about to reply that you can just insert a “mysota” line where appropriate in the FLE file (“mysota AB/CD-123”).

However, I tried, and FLE 3.3 does not appear to handle that: the last “mysota” line is used for the whole log.

I tried also with FLEcli, but it behaves the same way (“Processing errors:
Attempt to redefine MySOTA at line 49”).

It looks to me like a possible improvement to these programs, and I’ll write to their authors to suggest considering it.

In the mean time, a simple workaround is to save the FLE log twice (in two separate files), set the “mysota” value in each file and only keep the part of the log that is relevant for that summit.

The KH1 also allows to store “notes” in the log. They are honored by the ELECRAFT2FLE converter, so you could also “note” the summit reference when you start the activation.

From the manual:
Transmitted CW is logged in UPPER CASE. If you enter TX TEST mode, characters will be logged in
lower case—useful for entering callsigns or other notes. Tapping MSG temporarily enters TX TEST
mode for quick note entry.

But just uploading a raw FLE file to the DB with multiple MYSOTAs works fine.

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mni tnx for fast reply
Unfortunately i have wasted downloadet KH1 file
i will give it a try next sota summits
FLE upload i have never tried - will do next activation
best 73 and hny
klaus

my paddles does not only move left/right but rather up and down
noticed that the metal threaded sleeves are little longer as the sleeves of the plasic paddles
so i honed down the metal sleeves and the behavior of the key is better :slight_smile:
i have already magnets on order - so will see when they arrived
73 and hny
klaus