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Reviews For: K6XX Zero Beat Indicator Kit by WB3AAL

Category: Ham Radio Kits

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Review Summary For : K6XX Zero Beat Indicator Kit by WB3AAL
Reviews: 1MSRP:
Description:
The purpose of this circuit is to light an LED in your radio when you tune to within +- 20hz of a cw signal. This makes it easy to zero beat a cw signal by eye rather than by ear.

There are four versions of this kit. Three are designed to be installed in Elecraft radios. The fourth is for other radios. It is up to the builder to work out the details for installing in other radios.

The K6XX CW Indicator Kit utilizes Surface Mount technology or SMT. It uses subminiature devices on a printed circuit board.
Product is not in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
K4KRW Rating: 2011-12-20
Really handy zero beat tuning aid. Great kit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This circuit gives you a visual indication that you are tuned 'zero beat'. If the LED is flashing in time with the signal, you are there.

My FT-897D has this type of circuit built into it. I got a bit spoiled by it so I used this kit to add the feature to my Wilderness Radio Sierra. It samples the audio from the received signal. It was very easy to install and align and it works very well.

The PLL does cause the LED to flash randomly at times. But, I have not found this to be a big issue. If the LED flashes in time with the received signal, you are zero beat.

The quality of the board and components was very good. The instructions were also very good. The only extra items I needed were zip ties and heat shrink to tidy up the wiring and a mounting bezel for the LED. The yellow LED provided is very bright and works wonderfully. If you want something different, you can provide your own.

This is a surface mount kit. But the components are relatively large for surface mount components. So, it is a great kit to use to get experience with SMT. You will need a small tip on your iron and will need magnification.

Don't remove all of the capacitors from their marked packing at once unless you have a way to keep up with which is what. They are all unmarked (normal for surface mount). Two capacitors have the same value but one is temperature stable. You don't want to mix them up.

In summary, read the instructions carefully and make sure you understand them before assembling and installing. Once installed, you will find it works exactly as advertised.

This is really a handy device. I intend to add it to more of my radios.