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Pascal Villeneuve, VA2PV, va2pv@arrl.org
Product Review
K1EL K45
CW Modem
Reviewed by Paul Danzer, N1II
n1ii@arrl.net
This lightweight (12 ounces), compact (4.25 × 3.25 × 2.1
inches) unit is known as "the Swiss Army knife of CW
keyers." Its predecessor, the K1EL K16 (reviewed in the
February 2017 issue of QST), had a set of 39 com-
mands, in addition to message storage and processing,
numbering, and any function you might want in a keyer.
However, in addition to four pushbuttons, it was Morse
in, Morse out. The K45 adds a USB port for a keyboard,
a four-line-by-20-character display with status indicators,
an audio input jack for a CW reader, beacon capability,
and several other features.
For manual CW it retains the K16 CW command lan-
guage, but when a keyboard (not included in the
package) is plugged in, there are several pages of allow-
able commands. Some of the functions may come as a
surprise; for example, there is the capability to lock the
transmit speed to the receive speed. There is a 44-page
online manual that includes detailed interface instruc-
tions. A summary of interface cable connections is also
available, and it is best to read the "Quick Start"
(Appendix B) information in the instruction manual and
then the one-page supplement. One capability I found
useful — which is often missing from other keying units
— is pressing
to toggle transmit on and off. This
CTRL T
is helpful for checking power out, SWR, and the like
when using paddles rather than a straight key. Addition-
ally, built in is a Morse tutor, with functions like the K1EL
Morse Tutor (reviewed in the May 2020 issue of QST).
Please note that the K45 has a WinKeyer mode that
allows it to work the same as the K1EL WinKeyer USB
product, so both products are included in one box.
The
and
Keys Are Important
CTRL
ESC
The commands for setting up and controlling the K45
are selected by using two keys:
(escape). Control commands are immediate. As soon as
you press the
key and a selected letter, the
CTRL
resulting command takes effect. For example,
34
December 2022
QST www.arrl.org
(control) and
CTRL
ESC
CTRL T
toggles the key down (tunes) on and off;
73 de (your call stored in F11); and
There are approximately 15 such commands.
brings up a list of these commands (see Figure 1). You
can scroll through the list vertically by using the key-
board up and down arrows.
The
key controls various options and settings
ESC
through a set of menus. To call up the menus, press
followed by
. The top-level menu contains five
ESC
C
parts, one of which is shown in Figure 2. Each part has
eight selections. See the sidebar, "Using the
at www.arrl.org/qst-in-depth for more details.
Figure 1 — Partial list of
CTRL
on the keyboard or the front panel rotary control will move to the
rest of the list.
Figure 2 — One of the five menu screens brought up by
Bottom Line
The K1EL K45 CW modem has a large set of
capabilities and is adaptable to just about
every sort of CW operation.
sends
CTRL B
sends 5NN.
CTRL R
CTRL H
Key,"
ESC
commands. The up/down arrows
ESC+C
.
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