K2/100 or K3/10?

[Darwin, Keith]

So, assuming it is one or the other, which do you think would be a
better choice for a CW operator who is mostly an east-coast rag chewer
with occasional DX chasing and light duty contesting?
 
I'm leaning toward the K3/10 since it can eventually be upgraded to 100
watts, but I wonder if 10 watts (3 dB more than QRP) is enough to keep
me happy for a year or so.
 
- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -
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[Dave, G4AON]

Keith

My favourite rig since 2001 is my ten Watt K2. There's plenty of DX to
be worked on 10 Watts of CW, even with my simple wire antennas I've
worked dozens of countries out as far as ZL. SSB would be another issue,
ten Watts of SSB is hard work compared to ten Watts of CW.

Given the improved design of the K3, I would opt for a K3/10 and then
upgrade it by adding the QRO PA when you can manage it. If you went the
K2/100 route you would always wish you had a K3.

Dave, G4AON
K1 #1154, K2/10 #1892 and hopefully K3 < #200 soon.
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[Dave Van Wallaghen]

Hey Keith,

I'm a new ham, so take this for what its worth. I have K2/100 #5099 and it
is my first transceiver. I did the split of the KPA100 into the EC2 with the
KAT100. This summer I operated almost exclusively outside in my yard with my
basic K2 and a small wire doublet up in a tree. I ran 5 watts all summer
long and made some really nice contacts and several lengthy rag chews
(sometimes condx kept the QSO's short). Most of the time I received "Wow" as
a reply to my power report of 5 watts. My furthest contact was with W7DAX
out in Liberty, Utah (I'm near Detroit) with many in the 500 - 700 mile
range on mostly 40m during the afternoons.

Although I have my K3 in the second order group, my guess is that for casual
CW rag chewing and contesting the K2 would suffice (I only say this because
I have no experience with other radios). But I am really looking forward to
using some of the really nice features (not to mention the better Rx specs)
of the K3 I saw demonstrated in Dayton and thoroughly discussed here. If I
could only have the basic K3, based on this summer's activity, I would have
no problem running it QRP for more than a year.

So if QRP might not be your bag, then the K2/100 seems like the best bang
for your buck. But if you can deal with QRP for a year, then the K3 looks
pretty nice. If solar condx improve starting this year... Obviously, if
price is an issue, the K2 fits the bill.

I'm sure, as you know, being a previous K2 owner you can't go wrong either
way.

73,
Dave W8FGU

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[Julian, G4ILO]

If the idea of needing to use CW to make QRP contacts seems
off-putting, you can always use PSK31. It's very popular now, and just
as effective as CW at low power levels. In that respect, the K3 with
its built in PSK31 support (and built-in CW decoder too) might be the
better choice.
--
Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392  K3 s/n: ???
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
Ham-Directory: www.ham-directory.com


On 9/25/07, Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Another way to look at it is that 10 watts is 10 dB (about 1.5 S-units)
> below 100 watts.
>
> That's enough to make a difference, but not a huge difference in who you can
> work and when, especially on CW. SSB is perhaps a little more of a
> challenge, but that might be because I'm a CW op too and only get on SSB on
> rare occasions.
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[Solosko, Robert B (Bob)]

 Just to throw a little theory in here, the ability to extract
information from a signal in a noisy environment is a function of both
the signal level and the information rate of the signal. CW has a much
lower information rate than does SSB (as does PSK, for example), and
thus an SSB signal has to have a much higher signal level relative to
the noise than does a CW signal to be understood. The 10dB difference in
power that 100 watts provides over 10 watts doesn't quite make up the
difference in information rate between a CW signal and an SSB signal,
but it goes a long way to equalize the difference. Scaling this up, a
100 watt CW signal should be more or less as good a KW SSB signal in
terms of understandability in a noisy environment.

Bob W1SRB

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Ron D'Eau Claire
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 4:13 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K2/100 or K3/10?

Another way to look at it is that 10 watts is 10 dB (about 1.5 S-units)
below 100 watts.

That's enough to make a difference, but not a huge difference in who you
can work and when, especially on CW. SSB is perhaps a little more of a
challenge, but that might be because I'm a CW op too and only get on SSB
on rare occasions.

Were I faced with that choice, I'd go for the 10 watt rig with more
potential for expansion and performance than the 100 watt rig.

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
So, assuming it is one or the other, which do you think would be a
better choice for a CW operator who is mostly an east-coast rag chewer
with occasional DX chasing and light duty contesting?
 
I'm leaning toward the K3/10 since it can eventually be upgraded to 100
watts, but I wonder if 10 watts (3 dB more than QRP) is enough to keep
me happy for a year or so.
 
- Keith N1AS -

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