After returning from Canada this summer, I had a number of projects on the table including three radios to evaluate and a number of DIY projects on our investment house. The home projects took priority, so for the month of August, I did very little in terms of POTA activating.

In September, there was one radio in particular I was very eager to take to the field (besides the Penntek TR-45L). That was my Elecraft KX1, “Ruby.”

Before leaving for Canada, Ruby went into surgery once again under the care of my good friend “Dr.” Vlado (N3CZ).

I couldn’t figure out why she kept dropping power output to nil after being on the air for 20-25 minutes. I knew Vlado would sort out the issue.

Vlado discovered the source was a cold solder joint that was failing when the radio would become warm from operating. He fixed this and checked a number of other spots on the board.

He then tested the KX1 on a dummy load for and hour and she performed flawlessly after the surgery.

He fixed Ruby in early June and then we went to Canada for two months. I never put Ruby on the air in Canada.

After our return to the States, I was eager to take Ruby out to the field again and that’s exactly what I did on Sunday, September 11, 2022.

Lake James State Park (K-2739)

Lake James State Park–along with South Mountains State Park–are the easiest parks for me to hit during my nearly weekly travels on Interstate 40. I feel so fortunate that both are superb POTA sites with loads of spots to operate.

I arrived in the late afternoon and to my surprise there was hardly anyone at the park (I think it was a little too close to evening mealtime for families).

I set up my station at a table close to the parking area just to keep things simple. I was looking forward to enjoying at least 30 minutes on the air and seeing just how well Ruby might hold up.

I decided to use the Tufteln End-Fed Random Wire antenna knowing it would be a quick to deploy and frequency agile.

I tried to use the KX1 ATU to tune the random wire, but I wasn’t pleased with the SWR. Frankly, it was doable (1.9:1 on 20 meters), but I wanted something much closer to 1:1 since I was already only pushing 2.5-3 watts output.

Keep in mind, the KX1’s internal ATU is not in the same league as the ones in the Elecraft KX2, KX3, or T1–the KX1 ATU has a much smaller matching range.

Also, I suspect Ruby’s ATU wasn’t built for optimal performance by the original builder. I do plan to re-work her ATU as best I can at some point in the future.

I pulled out the Elecraft T1, put the KX1 ATU in bypass mode, and hooked it up to the antenna. The T1 had no problem at all finding 1:1 matches across 40, 30, and 20 meters, of course.

Gear:

• Elecraft KX1 Field Kit
• Pelican 1060 Weatherproof Case (affiliate link)
• Sony SRS-XB12 portable wireless speaker (no longer produced–eBay search)
• Elecraft T1 ATU
• Tufteln Elecraft T1 case
• TufteIn EFRW QRP Antenna Long Wire
• CW Morse CNC Machined Aluminum Paddle
• Spec-Ops Brand T.H.E. Pack EDC
• Camera: OSMO Action Camera with Joby tripod (affiliate links)

On The Air

I started calling CQ POTA on 20 meters hoping to catch a few west coast stations as the sun started setting.

Within 13 minutes, I worked the ten stations needed to validate this activation. I worked an additional four stations in 6 minutes on 20 meters, then QSYed to the 30 meter band.

30 meters was hopping! I worked station after station–15 stations in fourteen minutes. I was very pleased.

I would liked to have continued the activation, but I needed to grab dinner and move on to my next destination.

Here are my (somewhat legible) logs:

QSO Map

Here’s what this 3 watts or less activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map:

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time.

In addition, I have monetization turned off on YouTube, although that doesn’t stop YouTube from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Good check up

I was very pleased that my little KX1 held up during this activation. I took Ruby on another activation in September, so you’ll see that activation and field report soon, too.

As I’ve said before, I have a small obsession with the KX1 and really do want to have one in full working order at all times. I suspect tweaking and repairing Ruby will be a pretty constant thing, though, as more cold solder joints and other issues potentially appear. I do plan to completely re-work all of the solder points that I can this winter.

Thank you!

Thank you for joining me on this short activation!

I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon and the Coffee Fund.

While certainly not a requirement as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

Thank you so very much!

Cheers & 72,

Thomas (K4SWL)