K3 Portability
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The K3 is light for what it does, and simple. I have no doubt that if the K3 were wrapped with bubble wrap and double boxed, it could be dropped from almost any height without harm. Some of the K3 contemporaries, I'm not so certain about. FT2000 - yikes. There is a power supply in there and there are so many interconnected boards spread over a large area. Nice reliable looking radio in there but I wouldnt want to test drop it for any reason. I would be nervous about sending it in for repair that some little thing could work itself out of position, etc.
Orion is better but still a lot of unsupported open space. FLEX - ;-) ha - my PC falls apart just sitting on the floor. I am constantly slapping my DELL back together. Fairness to FLEX, they are not racing with Icom to be the Dxpedition transceiver of choice. There is an old school term for some gear, MTBF. It just seems to me looking at the K3 simplicity, that there is a whole lot less to go wrong, even though Elecraft is always the first one to make anything that may happen, right. So I am wondering. I have an FT101 from 1975 that's still going great and it's as complex as heck inside and so many moving parts to stick, caps to harden, bandswitch contacts to foul. How long will K3 go, in comparison. After burn in, years I'd guess, lots of them. Seems that like jets, daily expansion and contraction might be it's biggest stresser. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html |
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The only real moving parts that look like they'd be time limited to me would be the relays used in the bandpass/lowpass filters and the ATU. And those probably last forever..
The K2 and K3 both otherwise lack the trouble spots I'm used to from my older rigs - wafer switches, tube sockets, big heavy wiring harnesses, cruddy interconnecting plugs, etc. So mechanically it's hard to find any high wear/maintenance stuff in either of these rigs. They're definitely designed for schlepping. My K3 I'd be a little more reticent to drag around than my K2 but mostly just because it's more expensive hi hi. Maintenance-wise, they're head and shoulders above anything else I've seen too. Especially the K3, where zoning boards (if necessary) is an easy job for everything except perhaps the RF board. Not to mention the fact that if something is wrong, Elecraft is actually reachable by email/phone and won't stop until your rig is working again.... So I' say the K3 ought to last pretty much indefinitely.... 73, LS W5QD |
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In reply to this post by Don Rasmussen
Don,
I don't follow. Why are you faulting Flex due to the way your computer is built? Have you ever looked inside the case of a 5000A? Kirb - VE6IV -- Don Rasmussen wrote: > The K3 is light for what it does, and simple. I have no doubt that if the K3 were wrapped with bubble wrap and double boxed, it could be dropped from almost any height without harm. Some of the K3 contemporaries, I'm not so certain about. FT2000 - yikes. There is a power supply in there and there are so many interconnected boards spread over a large area. Nice reliable looking radio in there but I wouldnt want to test drop it for any reason. I would be nervous about sending it in for repair that some little thing could work itself out of position, etc. > > Orion is better but still a lot of unsupported open space. > > FLEX - ;-) ha - my PC falls apart just sitting on the floor. I am constantly slapping my DELL back together. Fairness to FLEX, they are not racing with Icom to be the Dxpedition transceiver of choice. > > There is an old school term for some gear, MTBF. It just seems to me looking at the K3 simplicity, that there is a whole lot less to go wrong, even though Elecraft is always the first one to make anything that may happen, right. > > So I am wondering. I have an FT101 from 1975 that's still going great and it's as complex as heck inside and so many moving parts to stick, caps to harden, bandswitch contacts to foul. How long will K3 go, in comparison. After burn in, years I'd guess, lots of them. Seems that like jets, daily expansion and contraction might be it's biggest stresser. > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html |
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