Product Review & Short Takes Columns from QST Magazine March 2001 Product Reviews Elecraft K-1 QRP CW Transceiver Kit Idiom Press Rotor-EZ with RS-232 Short Takes DX4WIN/32 Copyright © 2000 by the American Radio Relay League Inc. All rights reserved.
PRODUCT REVIEW Elecraft K-1 QRP CW Transceiver Kit Reviewed by Al Alvareztorres, AA1DO, ARRL TIS Coordinator, with technical assistance from Zack Lau, W1VT, ARRL Senior Lab Engineer The first radio I ever assembled was the “Official Cub Scout Crystal Radio Set.” The receiver was built right on the cover of its cardboard box using pictures of the components as a guide. That was 1951.
the direct command of a PIC16C77. This allows for multifunction control keys; display flexibility; built-in test and troubleshooting capabilities; an extensive control and configuration menu; and CW keyer and memory features. While most QRP kit transceivers use simple switches, potentiometers and analog tuning dials— just like the commercially built amateur transceivers produced decades ago—the K1’s processor-based control architecture is similar to that found in contemporary factory assembled amateur gear.
Table 1 Elecraft K1, serial number 00108 Manufacturer’s Claimed Specifications Measured in the ARRL Lab Frequency coverage: Receive and transmit, any 80 or 150 kHz segment of any two bands covered; 3.5-3.65; 7-7.3; 10-10.15; 14-14.35; 18.068-18.168; 21-21.45 MHz.1 Receive and transmit, as specified. Modes of operation: CW. As specified. Power requirement: 9-15 V dc, receive, 50 mA (no signal); transmit, 0.8 A, at 13.8 V. Receive, 57 mA (maximum volume, no signal); transmit, 0.
–60 –70 Reference Level: - 60 dBc/Hz Vertical Scale: dBc/Hz –80 –90 –100 –110 –120 –130 –140 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Frequency Sweep: 2 to 22 kHz from Carrier 22 Figure 1—Worst-case spectral display of the Elecraft K1 transmitter output during composite-noise testing. Power output is 5 W at 7.020 MHz. The carrier, off the left edge of the plot, is not shown. This plot shows composite transmitted noise 2 to 22 kHz from the carrier. turned out to be easier than I had expected.
Figure 3—An internal view of W1VT’s K1. The Front Panel Board plugs into the main board along its front edge. The Filter Board, which determines the two bands covered by the transceiver, is towards the rear of the enclosure (the forground in this photo). It’s positioned above the RF Board and connects to it through three 8-pin headers. Three small screws secure it in place. arranged in a column along the right edge of the front panel.
Idiom Press Rotor-EZ with RS-232 Reviewed by Ward Silver, NØAX QST Contributing Editor Of all of the operations in the average ham shack that have been interfaced to a PC over the last few years, one of the last holdouts has been antenna rotation control. While computer-controlled rotator systems and substitute control boxes have been readily available for quite some time, they have historically been rather pricey.
tions and applied power. Success! All of the smoke stayed in the components and the rotary CALIBRATE control and switches all appeared to behave properly. I followed the calibration instructions and had the rotator system back in operation within four hours of initially opening the case. The Instructions and User Manual Figure 4—The Rotor-EZ with RS-232 kit as delivered. The 33/8 × 33/16-inch doublesided circuit board is solder masked and silk screened with component outlines and parts numbers.
Figure 7—The electrolytic capacitors, the relay (the white plastic cube) and the diodes in this photo are a modification that I added a few years back to provide a brake delay. This— and any other circuit changes that have been made—must be eliminated before Rotor-EZ installation begins. solder pads themselves are rather small. Since I received my kit, the silk screening has been improved and Idiom Press has indicated that they intend to increase the size of the pads at some point.
SHORT TAKES DX4WIN/32 DX4WIN/32 from Rapidan Data Systems is a software package that adds new meaning to the word “multifaceted.” It does all standard logging tasks such as award tracking (DXCC, WAS, WAZ, IOTA, VUCC, TenTen and more) and label printing. It even includes features that are quickly becoming standards in the rest of the software logging world such as rig control, multiple log access and so on.
