Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
Hello all. Thank you for tuning in again this week. There’s not a lot to mention for this past week related to amateur radio. I had caught some sort of bug late last week which took hold early this week and had me down for a few days. I didn’t get to play radio much while recovering from that.
Worth mentioning, I suppose, is that I’ve acquired a new radio. A ham friend of mine had been on the lookout for a portable HF station that he could use to work CW more often and the obvious options were the Elecraft KX2 or the Elecraft KH1. Both radios are made for portable operating and he was having a difficult time picking one over the other. A KH1 came up for sale on QRZ’s swap meet for a decent price and so he bought it. Of course, I got a little bit jealous since I was wanting the same radio to complement my Elecraft KX3 that I’ve been using for the last few months. So, I started a hunt for my own KH1 and sure enough, another one came up for sale on QRZ also for a decent discount and so I bought that one and it arrived earlier this week. Sadly, the KHPD1 paddle that comes with the radio arrived inoperable. Troubleshooting determined that the dit switch is broken and no longer functions as it normal. Since I don’t have the tools necessary for desoldering and resoldering micro surface mount components, I opted to just buy a new KHPD1 paddle from Elecraft. After mentioning the situation to the seller, he graciously offered to refund me the cost of a new paddle, so that worked out. But… the new paddle won’t arrive until late this upcoming week. With that, I also placed orders for some other accessories for the KH1. I ordered N6ARA’s paddle and KH1 adapter. I also ordered N5FY’s 30º whip adapter which might make handheld operating a bit more ergonomically enjoyable.
With the KHPD1 paddle being unusable, I’ve only been able to use the KH1 set up as a desktop radio, which is fine, but not ideal. By the end next installment of Expired Ham, I should have at least a few days of true handheld portable operating under my belt with this radio. The entire station can fit inside my laptop bag so I anticipate taking it everywhere. I’ll share more about it next week.
I also sold my Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 magnetic loop antenna system. The rigid radiator loop just didn’t elevate my experience with that antenna enough to keep it. Not to mention I haven’t used any mode other than CW in a month or so, having the mag loop antenna just lying around didn’t help. So, I sold it to fellow VWS club member.
I was hoping to do some POTA work this weekend since we’ve had an amazing week in terms of weather, but we also ended up getting a minor solar storm all weekend, the wife and I did other things that we needed to get done instead.
Anyway, enjoy your upcoming week.
HPE CUAGN. 73 DE K2MAS
K2MAS.net is not affiliated with any of the sites or products listed in this article. All opinions are the author’s own.
As a member of Amazon’s Associate program, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases made through referrals. This helps offset the costs of hosting this website and are greatly appreciated.
K2MAS.net 