I took some time this morning to finally install the KX2 Windcamp side arms and cover which I received last week.
Just a heads up for anyone who hasn’t done this, be prepared to have your heart in your mouth while doing the BNC side arm. Those locking nuts are more fiddly than Lester Piggot’s accounts. I nearly had a Connery when one of the locking washer nut things came apart.
Top tip with this thing is to just take your time with it. It looks great once installed. Has anyone wired up the charging port on their Windcamp side arms kit? I’ve left mine alone for now until I decide what to do about the charging unit board, it might make that port redundant.
I just installed the charge board and clock in my KX2. Never bothered with the Windcamp socket.
Amazing radio. Use it a lot for digital work. Took it travelling to Namibia last year and lost my main antenna for a week. Had to use the short whips I took in my hand luggage until I got my bags sent to meet us at a camp. Made a lot of contacts using just a short whip from remote locations.
That looks like one of the MFJ HF whips. They made them from 40m up to 6m. I’ve used the 20/15/12/10m versions and they’re great with a KX2 with an ATU.
With MFJ out of business, we’re left with homebrew versions or the Elecraft whips.
Yes indeed an MFJ antenna. I have two, one for 15m and one for 18m. Setting up from camp in the evening I was regularly getting into North America from V51 with the antennas and 5w FT8. Not quite SOTA on this occasion but yes might as well have been the moon!
I forget who posted about this the other day, but I just wanted to say thanks for the steer I was given the other day (a helping hand, not a castrated bull ) about that little AliExpress DC charger they were using for their KX2 battery - you know, the one that’s made from saffron, myhrr and fingerite and costs more than the GDP of China.
Anyway. It arrived today and I gave it a whirl using those little barrel connector things the same person also recommended. Works a treat! That plug is handy as well as it appears to stop charging once full - the LED also goes from red to green to show this, plus the heat from the plug and battery dies off and goes cold again.
To be 19.8% more certain than I was prior to charging the battery, I jabbed the probes from a multimeter I also got off AliExpress about a year ago for the vast sum of about 7p in to the DC connector and tested the voltage.
I’ll second this! Get the BNC to banana adapter and some wire and have fun! Here are some combinations that I have used with my KX3 and KH1 (Radiator/counterpoise, in meters):
4.6/2.3
8.7/8.7
11/5.2
12.4/5.2
I’m not sure if they ship to the UK, but Tufteln has some nice accessories like a 3D printed cover as well as a no transformer antenna kit that is compact, but the BNC-Banana adapter accomplishes the same thing.
Just curious, are there any good AX1/2/3 alternative whips for the KX2 to connect directly for pedestrian mobile?
I’ve found some 2.5mm mini banana plugs on Amazon so will build a counterpoise. I have an old 27Mhz whip doing nothing that I might be able to use on 10 with the internal ATU possibly?
I’ve had a lot of success with a MFJ-1830 (10MHz monoband) 138-cm-long whip directly connected to my KX2 and with a short counterpoise wire (operating stationary not /PM).
) about that little AliExpress DC charger they were using for their KX2 battery - you know, the one that’s made from saffron, myhrr and fingerite and costs more than the GDP of China.
