QRV with KX1 on 30M; no contacts
I finished my KX1 30M option. The installation instructions weren't making sense. It turns out I'd put one of the "G" wires in the wrong "G" through-hole on the board. It does say not to do that, but I thought it was referring to the G near the 2003 on the main board, not on the option board. Duh. It went together fine but didn't work; it turns out I'd put the nylon shoulder washer for the final transistor back in the wrong place when it fell out. It is supposed to go between the tab and the standoff, not between the tab and the case. The case insulation is provided by the Sil Pad. Once I fixed that it worked great and re-aligned quickly. My G5RV hears little and gets out even less on 30M, so I took two pieces of teflon wire (24 ft each) like it says in the KX1 FAQ, and used my Z100 to load it up with a bananna jack and an alligator clip, on top of a hill at work at lunch time. I had forgotten to bring two pieces of Coax, I hooked the Z100 to the rig with a stack of BNC->UHF->BNC adapters, and then the power/swr meter with the coax, and then the antenna. It was difficult to find a match on 40M but it would match on 30M and 20M. I called CQ a few times on all 3 bands and answered a few, but no takers.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:41 z