Lee, the answer is neither-yet. You will get a lot of advice on this. Here's mine.
Buy my Ten-Tec Scout 555 for a low price and get on the air immediately with good QSK and 50w. Then save for the K3, buying the base model and building on it as you can afford it.
The K2 is a fine rig, I built #6688. It is my favorite portable rig, it is a blast to build, and will give you years of fun. However, the K3 is a monster. Before I got my K3, when a neighborhood ham got on the air I had to get off the air. Now I move a few KHz away and forget about them. The K3 was my first high-end rig, so maybe they can all do this, I don't know. I can even work extremely weak signals like 2M moonbounce, 6 KHz away from W6YX who is S9+40db at my house. Unbelieveable.
The K3 is still growing and improving whereas K2 development has pretty much stopped. Nothing against the K2.
When your K3 is where you want it, then buy a KX1 or K1 kit to get your build on.
To sum up, my plan for you is 0) Ignore all other advice. 1) Buy my Ten-Tec Scout for a very low price that will get you on the air now. I will sell it to you low enough so you will get all or nearly all your money back for the final push for your K3/10. 2) Sell the Scout and buy a bare-bones K3/10 kit when your finances are ready. 3) Buy a K1 or KX1 kit when finances allow. Do no more than 5 steps in the assembly manual at a time, then contemplate how much fun you are having for 4x the time you actually spend building. This way you simulate the 60 hours of building bliss from a K2. :-)
72...73
Eric WD6DBM
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