My KH1 and Some Speaker Wire

On Saturday, October 4th, 2025, I activated Alewife Brook State Reserve (US-8399) using my KH1 transceiver and a speaker wire antenna.

I got the idea from Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL. He used the same setup in his article, Elecraft KH1 + Speaker Wire = Pileup Madness on Bakers Mountain!.

I cut a 28.5-foot length of speaker wire, just like Thomas did. I connected it to my KH1 with a BNC binding post adapter.

The weather was perfect.

The map below shows I made plenty of contacts.

For some reason, my KH1 couldn’t tune this antenna for 20 meters. All my contacts were on 40 and 15 meters.

I plan to remeasure the antenna and try again. Maybe the wire is too short or too long. In Thomas’s video, his KH1 tuned a 28.5-foot wire on 20 meters with no problem.

I plan to remeasure the antenna and try again. Maybe the wire is too short or too long. In Thomas’s video, his KH1 tuned a 28.5-foot wire