My first Elecraft, KX3, sn 1239

[robfrick7]

This is my 1st Elecraft product. It is a bare-bone KX3-kit.

My shack currently contains an assortment of 'Made in the USA' gear.
(Gonset, SBE, Heathkit, Atlas, Eico, Ten Tec, Flex, Drake, and now Elecraft).

As well as 'Made in Japan' gear.
(Yaesu, Kenwood, and Icom).

1st impressions, with 2 hours to build and 2 days of on the air;
-Elecraft Engineering, Quality, Production, and Sales are all top-notch.
-Receiver dynamic range is a WOW+++.
-User Controls, per square area of front panel, are well thought-of.
-The very best 'Bang for the Buck'.

Transmitter audio reports, using my standard audio rack with an inexpensive studio-mic and my home-brewed 100 watt PA;
-80 meter SSB rag-chew reports are very positive.
-More unsolicited 'Great Audio' reports compared to my Ft-2000. The Ft-2000 was the top SSB Tx-audio champ with the Flex 1500 as the second contender.

The only, small, issue during the kit-build was a bag of hardware marked as 'rear-panel' or 'rear-cover'. That bag also contained hardware for the front panel.
Easy to think it out and no calls were made to Elecraft Customer service.

Why did I buy a kit?;
-Most of my gear was purchased as used and in need of repair. I did not need to repair my new KX3-kit.
-Have a history of dis-assembling and re-assembling New Gear before I actually use it. I did not need to dis-assemble my new KX3-kit, it came that way.
-I am an Automation-Instrumentation Technician for the food and paper industry. This hobby, and assembling my new KX3-kit, keeps me sharp.

If You are thinking of investing in a KX3-kit, stop the thinking and start the investing.

73's

Bob, kb8kco


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[Jim Brown-10]

On 8/21/2012 12:44 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> Transmitter audio reports, using my standard audio rack with an inexpensive studio-mic

Even better news -- you'll get those same great audio reports with
almost any mic that isn't broken using the built-in TXEQ.  Sell that
audio rack and buy more useful radio gear!  Since I'm retired from the
pro audio biz, I've got tons of audio rack and a bunch of good mics, but
I don't need any of that stuff with the K3 or KX3.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Bob,

I believe you can dispense with the external Audio Rack (unless that
studio-mic needs phantom power) and just use the TX EQ built into the KX3.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 8/21/2012 3:44 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> Transmitter audio reports, using my standard audio rack with an inexpensive studio-mic and my home-brewed 100 watt PA;
> -80 meter SSB rag-chew reports are very positive.
> -More unsolicited 'Great Audio' reports compared to my Ft-2000. The Ft-2000 was the top SSB Tx-audio champ with the Flex 1500 as the second contender.
>

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[Nate Bargmann]

* On 2012 21 Aug 15:39 -0500, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 8/21/2012 12:44 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
> > Transmitter audio reports, using my standard audio rack with an inexpensive studio-mic
>
> Even better news -- you'll get those same great audio reports with
> almost any mic that isn't broken using the built-in TXEQ.  Sell that
> audio rack and buy more useful radio gear!  Since I'm retired from the
> pro audio biz, I've got tons of audio rack and a bunch of good mics, but
> I don't need any of that stuff with the K3 or KX3.

Perhaps you should take that up with WB2WIK on the QRZ.com forums. :-)
He regards the K3 as "marginal on SSB" and further explained that any
time he operated one other ops reported that he never sounded as good.
I offered the explanation that the K3's tight transmit filtering was
probably the reason and that he should have enabled the ESSB option.
Regardless, I'd rather transmit tight, clean audio than use more
spectrum than necessary.  Thanks, Elecraft.

73, de Nate, N0NB >>

--

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us
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[Bill Frantz]

Most readers of this list would add top-notch Support to your list.

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

On 8/21/12 at 12:44, [hidden email] wrote:

> 1st impressions, with 2 hours to build and 2 days of on the air;
> -Elecraft Engineering, Quality, Production, and Sales are all top-notch.
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