Home KH1 Hand-Held 5-Band CW Transceiver Firmware and Utility

KH1 Hand-Held 5-Band CW Transceiver Firmware and Utility

Important - Please read before installing the latest Production Firmware

KH1 MCU 1.25 2-14-2024

All KH1’s ordered today will have Production Firmware loaded as they come out of the box. Monitor the Elecraft Email Reflector where announcements are made when new releases become available.

Elecraft delivers new features in firmware. As a result, you should consider the Release Notes as an extension of the Owners Manual. Documentation for the new features will be found there and will not appear in the Owner’s Manual until the next major manual revision is released.

 

Current Production KH1 Firmware Release Notes

KH1 MCU 1.25, 14 Feb. 2024 

  • SIDETONE LOUDER & BETTER TONE: There’s now much greater sidetone volume available at the headphone jack. Also, tone is warmer (less reedy) at all sidetone volume settings for both speaker and phones.
  • See KH1 Firmware Release Notes for complete revision history
  • Download the latest KH1 Firmware. 

Important - Please read before installing the latest Production Firmware

Production Firmware Installation Instructions are found in the Utility Help Facility

  • All Production Firmware is loaded with the KH1 Utility. It will take care of the download and installing Production Firmware
  • Before loading Production Firmware, please ensure you have installed the latest version of the KH1 Utility.
  • See the Help → Getting Started pull-down menu in the KH1 Utility for the steps to install firmware in your radio. Firmware installation is also covered in detail in the UPDATING FIRMWARE section of the KH1 owner's manual.

 

 Download and Install the KH1 Utility for your Operating System

Follow the links below to download and install the latest version of the Utility for your Operating System.

You will be using the KXUSB cable to connect the KH1 to a computer. This was shipped with the KH1 from the factory.

Minimum Operating System Requirements for Elecraft Utilities

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 through Windows 11.
Apple Mac: Apple OS: OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) or later

Windows

KH1 Utility (Windows Version 1.23.11.8)  November 18, 2023
Note: This KH1 Utility version can be used to load KH1 Firmware versions 0.27 and above to your KH1.
Macintosh

KH1 Utility 64 BIT (MAC OS X Version 1.23.12.12N)  December 15, 2023
Note: This KH1 Utility version can be used to load KH1 Firmware versions 0.27 and above to your KH1.
X86 Linux

KH1 Utility 64 BIT (LINUX.tgz Version_1_23_12_12) December 15, 2023 
Note: This KH1 Utility version can be used to load KH1 Firmware versions 0.27 and above to your KH1.

Files are in TAR archive (gzip-compressed) format.

Dependencies

The following libraries and dependencies should be installed on your Linux distro:

GTK+ 2.8 or later, glibc-2.4, libstdc++.so.6 and cURL. 
Installing the FTDI driver

Follow this link to the FTDI Site for drivers: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Depending on the Operating System you have, the driver needed for the Utility to communicate with the KH1 will need to be loaded.

All Elecraft products in production use the FTDI chipset for this function. The FTDI driver allows your computer to create a virtual COM port so that the Utility can communicate with the Elecraft product.