Elecraft KX1: Building the KXAT1 Automatic Antenna Tuner

This was an easy job, taking but a few hours. Once again I am at a standstill regarding calibration until I get a dummy load and a resonant antenna, but I tried it out on the 40m hamstick and it seemed to handle a mismatch of around 9:1 without giving any error message or releasing any smoke.

I'm not sure what all the hand-wringing over winding toroids is about; after reading the Elecraft reflector all these months I was expecting this to be a difficult, painstaking process that would surely end in disaster. Not so, this went smoothly for me during both the KX1 and KXAT1 builds.

So now two of the three major components are done, only the 80m/30m kit left unbuilt. I will give that a go maybe next weekend. An end-fed dipole antenna is on the way, so I will hopefully have the chance to make first QSO soon. Meanwhile, I'm listening as much as can and my CW skills are steadily improving. Who knows, maybe I'll be contest-ready by the time CQWW rolls around...