Starting on the K1

Way back in my first blog entry (now in the April 2006 archives) I mentioned that one of the projects on my to do list was an Elecraft K1 kit. Well, this weekend I made a start. It was the weekend of the Commonwealth Contest and I managed QSOs with two new countries, New Zealand and Antigua. So working CW for a few hours got me thinking about the K1 and I pulled the box off the shelf.

When the kit first arrived, I had checked the parts against the inventory. So "making a start" this weekend really just meant looking through the instruction manual again, realising that I was two capacitors short for the first module (the 4 Band Filter Board), discovering that I didn't have them in stock, and deciding that it was too late to go to my local Maplin to buy them :-) So I have cleared some space on my shack desk and dug out my antistatic mat and wrist strap. The real work will beging during the week once I have the missing parts.