My success with the KX3 activation a few days ago made me dust off an Elecraft K1 transceiver that I built a decade ago as a kit. The K1 is a 5 watt CW QRP transceiver, and came in a 4-band or 2-band version. By the time I was making my K1, they had run out of 4-band options, so I made mine for 30m and 20m. I also made the internal antenna tuner.
Sure enough the radio still worked, and the only thing I had to do was adjust the VFO calibration, which was about 300Hz low. With that done, the rig produced 4 watts with a 12.1 VDC input, and 4.8 watts with 13.0 VDC. Close enough to 5 watts for me.
In the photo above, I was using a USB-C power bank to run the radio using the 12.0 volt USB-C to barrel connector adapter.
Conditions weren’t great today on 20m. Lots of slow deep fades. Nevertheless four stations picked me up on the RBN – not a booming signal, of course, but not bad for 4 watts.
I plan to use this for a POTA, but will try to use my full 17′ whip (not the hamstick).
