Radio Preppers

General Category => Morse Code => Topic started by: gil on February 14, 2017, 02:13:39 AM

Title: KX1 Discontinued.
Post by: gil on February 14, 2017, 02:13:39 AM
Hello,

Sad news :( The KX1 has been discontinued by Elecraft. There aren't many small CW radios left with batteries and tuner inside the case. The only one I can think of coming in kit form and reasonably cheap is the PFR-3: http://qrpkits.com/pfr3.html (http://qrpkits.com/pfr3.html)

If anyone has been thinking of getting a K1 I'd also suggest hurrying... I bet Elecraft is liquidating their last stocks of kits; same for the K2. Too bad, I really like Elecraft kits. They are now falling in the "boring" category of manufacturers unless they come up with something new. I would love an updated K1 in surface mount components, with a similar, maybe slightly smaller case. The KX2 is not a replacement for the KX1, being much more complex and expensive, and not coming as a kit  (screwing a board in a case isn't a kit).

The list of available CW kit radios seems to dwindle while cheap CW Chinese built rigs are popping up left and right... Thanks to Steve Weber and a few others we still have a few decent kits, but isn't it time for new technology to come into play? Surface-mount kits aren't harder, even easier in some aspects, although actually seeing the components is getting harder :o

RIP KX1.

Gil.
Title: Re: KX1 Discontinued.
Post by: KK0G on February 14, 2017, 08:36:38 AM
Sad news indeed, I love my Elecrafts. My KX1 already has all the available options but there are several options for my K2 that I've just been waiting to order "someday", looks like I better make that day pretty soon.


I'm like you Gil, the K3 line just doesn't excite me. No doubt they're a great performing rig but the reason I love my Elecrafts is because they're high performance, full featured radios that I got to build at the component level......... slapping pre-populated boards into a chassis and screwing the covers on is not a kit in my opinion.