K3 Performance

[w7aqk]

Things have really been hectic here over the holidays, and more to come.
But I did get several chances to give my K3 a little exercise.  The main
problem is that the bands have been pretty lousy--at least here at my QTH.
The QSB is horrible, and most QSO's end up being pretty short lived.  The K3
has great QRM fighting tools, and great QRN fighting tools, but I just can't
find a QSB button anywhere!

I'm really impressed with the DSP features on the K3.  It's taking some time
to get really familiar with the best way to set things up, but without
question it works, and works well.  And I think the K3 has be best noise
blanker I ever used.  It sure does a number on the chinese radar problem.  I
made a couple of short comparisons with my Orion II.  The DSP on the K3 has
it all over the Orion.  I think weak signal reception is better as well.
Even the QSK seems better on the K3.

One fellow I worked early on with my K3 said it sounded very good, but he
thought the keying was a little "soft".  Now, I tend to respect this guy's
opinion, as he is what I consider to be a first class CW op and homebrewer,
but I'm not sure I agree with him on this.  He is pretty "finicky", and may
have been overly critical, but I've worked 8 or 10 other K3's so far, and I
rather like how they sound.

I'm also pretty impressed with the built in ATU.  I'm having no problem with
excursions all across 40 meters, and I'm using an R7 vertical.  The ATU in
my older Mark V wouldn't handle the phone portion of 40 meters (the R7 is
optimized for the CW portion of the band), but the K3's ATU gets it down to
1.1 to 1, and fairly quickly.  Heck, I was even able to load the R7 on 75
and 80 meters, and that antenna isn't supposed to even work there!
Obviously that antenna sucks on 75/80, but at least the radio was happy!  I
think anyone who orders the K3, but doesn't order the ATU, is making a gross
error.

Overall, I'd say the K3 is performing very much as advertised, if not
better.  I know some features are still not "turned on", but otherwise it's
a real winner.  I've only noted one thing that isn't "as advertised", and it
certainly isn't very important.  The K3 supposedly goes down to 500 khz (but
not below that).  Here in Tucson we have a station at 580 khz, and it is
pretty strong normally.  But I can't even hear it on the K3.  I'm not sure
exactly where the K3 starts hearing, but by the time I get to 790 khz
(another local station), it does fine.  I think there is a Phoenix station
on 620 or 640 that I can usually hear otherwise, but not on the K3.

Every other K3 owner I've talked to is a very "happy camper"--no exceptions.
And several of these are very particular about their equipment.  Comparing
the "hands on" experiences of K3 owners with commentary on other reflectors
of owners of other new radios, I'd say the K3 has been exceptionally well
received to date.  I suspect the folks in Aptos have mixed feelings about
what kind of year 2007 has been.  However, I think 2008 will be a great year
for them.  Production will hopefully be more or less on autopilot soon, and
they can relax a bit, and dream up all kinds of goodies to add to this
superb piece of gear.

Dave W7AQK

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[w6jd]

The QSB button IS coming. Add second receiver, antenna of opposite
polarization, and WHAMMO diversity reception...QSB greatly reduced.

Doug, W6JD
K2/100 #1626
K3/100 #23

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "David Yarnes" <[hidden email]>

> Things have really been hectic here over the holidays, and more to come.
> But I did get several chances to give my K3 a little exercise. The main
> problem is that the bands have been pretty lousy--at least here at my QTH.
> The QSB is horrible, and most QSO's end up being pretty short lived. The K3
> has great QRM fighting tools, and great QRN fighting tools, but I just can't
> find a QSB button anywhere!
>
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[Vic K2VCO]

David Yarnes wrote:

> One fellow I worked early on with my K3 said it sounded very good, but
> he thought the keying was a little "soft".  Now, I tend to respect this
> guy's opinion, as he is what I consider to be a first class CW op and
> homebrewer, but I'm not sure I agree with him on this.  He is pretty
> "finicky", and may have been overly critical, but I've worked 8 or 10
> other K3's so far, and I rather like how they sound.

The K3's keying is a bit softer than most commercial rigs these days,
the rise/fall times being about 5 ms. It is easy to copy at any speed
that I am capable of sending, which is about 45 wpm. I don't think
harder keying would be helpful until above 60 wpm.

The shape of the K3's keying is excellent from the point of view of
transmitted bandwidth (that is, key clicks), something which can NOT be
said of many other radios. The ARRL test reports now include a "worst
case spectral display" of CW emission which shows the results of key
clicks, phase noise, etc., and I imagine that the K3's graph will be
superior to almost anything else out there.

To my ear the CW keying is absolutely perfect, the way I would adjust it
if I could adjust it. I believe that Wayne intends to make it possible
to change the rise/fall times, so the 65+ wpm operators may want to do that!
--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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[Jan Erik Holm]

The K3 is NOT free from key clicks, the question might be
how much we accept. Personally I would have liked it better
with the keying "a bit" softer, that is a little bit better
key click performance.
It would have been nice if there was some adjustment allowed,
lets say from 5 ms up to 7 ms or so.

SM2EKM
----------------------------------------
Vic K2VCO wrote:

>
> The K3's keying is a bit softer than most commercial rigs these days,
> the rise/fall times being about 5 ms. It is easy to copy at any speed
> that I am capable of sending, which is about 45 wpm. I don't think
> harder keying would be helpful until above 60 wpm.
>
> The shape of the K3's keying is excellent from the point of view of
> transmitted bandwidth (that is, key clicks), something which can NOT be
> said of many other radios. The ARRL test reports now include a "worst
> case spectral display" of CW emission which shows the results of key
> clicks, phase noise, etc., and I imagine that the K3's graph will be
> superior to almost anything else out there.
>
> To my ear the CW keying is absolutely perfect, the way I would adjust it
> if I could adjust it. I believe that Wayne intends to make it possible
> to change the rise/fall times, so the 65+ wpm operators may want to do
> that!

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