This photo shows metal cased elements, many of the earlier elements used two‑piece black plastic cases, like this one.   Later elements used anodized aluminum housings - either blue or gold.   The gold ones were generally the higher accuracy ones.   The newest metal jacketed channel elements are generally natural aluminum colored.   Here is a photo of a blue metal element.

If you look closely the K1005 and 1007 elements have 3 pins in a 4‑pin body, as shown below.   Not shown is the KXN1029 that also has 3 pins.   All the other Micor elements have 4 pins.

If you look carefully you will see that the lower right "pin" has no metal insert in the plastic body.   Moto used the same plastic base in both the 3‑pin and 4‑pin elements.   The three pin channel elements were used for either receive (non‑AFC) or phase modulated transmitters.   The four pin channel elements used the extra pin as modulation audio (transmit) or AFC control voltage (receive).   One classic trick is to swap a K1007 into a transmitter that normally uses a KXN1019 and watch the new tech spend hours trying to figure out why there is no transmit audio.

Micor Channel Elements See the end of this writeup for the Palm Pilot version The element schematics and layouts were reverse engineered back in the 1980s and were donated... If anybody wants to do any more and donate them please do so...
Element Part Number	1=see note below Usage1	Accuracy2	Notes, etc.
K1003	Low band and mid band receiver	0.0005%
K1004	Low band and mid band transmitter	0.0005%	Not for use with DPL (see KXN1028)
K1005	High Band receiver 5	0.0005%	Station, mobile and railroad
K1006	High Band receiver	0.0002%	Must be used with the TLN1362A or TLN4440A AFC Amplifier Used in Station, mobile and railroad radios
K1007	High Band transmitter (PM - 3 pins)	0.0005%	Station, mobile and railroad
K1036	High band transmitter	0.0002%	Station, mobile and railroad
K1037	Low band transmitter	0.0002%	Mobile
K1038	Low band receiver	0.0002%	Mobile
KXN1019	High Band transmitter (FM - 4 pins) 7	0.0005%	Station and mobile, PL or DPL KXN1019 Schematic and Layout
KXN1021	Low band receiver 6	0.0005%	Used only in the second receiver of dual receiver low band stations (has the IF shifted to 5.36MHz)
KXN1022	High band receiver 5, 6	0.0005%	Used only in the second receiver of dual receiver high band stations (has the IF shifted to 11.8MHz)
KXN1024	UHF receiver	see notes 3 and 4	Station, mobile, EMS mobile, etc. KXN1024 Schematic and Layout
KXN1028	Low and Mid band transmitter	0.0005%	DPL transmitter
KXN1029	UHF 8 and 900MHz 9 receivers	0.0002%	Station, mobile, mobile EMS, trunked station, trunked repeater (non‑AFC)
KXN1044	Low band DPL transmitter	0.0005%	Mobile DPL
KXN1045	High band DPL transmitter	0.0005%	Mobile DPL
KXN1050	High band DPL transmitter	0.0002%	Mobile DPL
KXN1052	UHF transmitter	0.0002%	Station only 4, 7
KXN1068	800MHz trunked receiver	0.0003%
KXN1071	800MHz trunked transmitter	0.0001%	C45RCB, etc.

Notes:

1)   Low band = 25‑50MHz, Mid Band = 72‑76MHz, High Band = 136‑174 MHz, UHF Band = 406‑512 MHz.   PM=Phase Modulation, FM=Frequency Modulation

2)   Regular accuracy is 0.0005%, high accuracy is 0.0002%

3)   The KXN1024 is nominally 0.0005% but with the AFC working properly it can hold 0.0002%, but that does not get around the written type acceptance rules that require KXN1029s in 0.0002% environments such as GMRS.

4)   The UHF mobile uses one KXN1024 element for receiver, transmit simplex and transmit repeat.   Kevin wrote an excellent article on the theory behind the UHF Micor mobile that explains how it all works.   The UHF station uses a KXN1024 (0.0005%) or KXN1029 (0.0002%) for receive and a KXN1052 for transmit. The KXN1052 is a FM element and is used in the Station for voice, PL, and DPL modulation.

5)   For receivers in the 144‑148 MHz range order your crystals for HIGH SIDE injection.

6)   There is no difference inside the element between one made for a second receiver and one made for a primary receiver except for the element part number on the outside of the housing. The changed part number just clued the rock chippers to cut for the alternate IF frequency. For example, if you need a KXN1022 (rare!) you can use a K1005 (very common), just be very, very specific when you order the crystal that it is for the 11.8 MHz second receiver IF.

7)   The UHF station transmitter uses a highband element because it is a high band exciter followed by a tripler to 450. To my knowledge the KXN1019B and KXN1052A are exactly the same with the exception of a few internal resistor values that lowers by 2/3 the amount of applied audio delivered to the modulator that is inside the element. This change is necessary, of course, because of the multiplication factor of the UHF unit operating at 3 times that of VHF. This change in value allows for a similar setting position of the "IDC" control to result in 5 KHz deviation. I suspect (but have not tried this) that you could plug a KXN1019 into a UHF transmiter and as long as you were very, very careful with the deviation setting it would work just fine.

8)   As said above, the UHF mobile uses one KXN1024 element for receiver, transmit simplex and transmit repeat.   If you "flip over" the injection as part of moving the radio from commercial to amateur frequencies you will discover that the receive AFC will pull the transmit frequency off frequency. The cure is to flip over the AFC diodes (difficult), short out the AFC (easy) or swap the KXN1024 element for a KXN1029 element (which ignores the AFC pin, and is waste of a high accuracy element). While AFC is not as important these days as when the Micor was new in commercial service, you really want to read the article mentioned in note 4 above for more details.

9)   The 900MHz uses a KXN1029 element that has a spec of 0.0002%. It also uses a multipler of 48 times the crystal to generate the local oscillator injection frequency. The simple frequency drift caused by the temperature swing from a cold night to a warm day when multiplied by 48 is more than the receiver bandwidth. On 900MHz you really, really want to send the element back to the crystal house for temperature compensation. In early 2007 a new crystal installed and compensated was about $50 from International.

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Palm Pilot version of the Micor Channel Element List (for ID'ing elements at hamfests) In "Usage" L=Low, M=Mid, H=high, U=UHF, 8=800, 9=900MHz, R=receiver, T=transmitter, RR=railroad "%" column below is accuracy, 5=0.0005%, 2=0.0002% Element Usage % Notes, etc. K1003 L/M R 5 K1004 L/M T 5 non-DPL K1005 H R 5 Station, Mobile and RR K1006 H R 2 TLN1362A or TLN4440A AFC Amp needed K1007 H T 5 Sta, Mobile and RR (3 pins) K1036 H T 2 Sta, Mobile and RR K1037 L T 2 Mobile K1038 L R 2 Mobile KXN1019 H T 5 Sta and Mob PL or DPL (4 pins) KXN1021 L R 5 second RX KXN1022 H R 5 second RX KXN1024 U R 5 Sta RX, Mob, EMS mob, etc. KXN1028 L/M T 5 Sta DPL TX KXN1029 U/8/9 R 2 non-AFC KXN1044 L T 5 Mobile with DPL KXN1045 H T 5 Mobile with DPL KXN1050 H T 2 mobile with DPL KXN1052 U T 2 UHF Sta TX KXN1068 8 R 3 KXN1071 8 T 1

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Copyright © 2004 by M. Scott Zimmermann N3XCC, Neil McKie WA6KLA and Mike Morris WA6ILQ
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Page originally created and posted on 01-Sep-2004

This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors.   All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.