P3 - very early impressions

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P3 - very early impressions

Craig Smith
P3 SN 67 arrived earlier today and went together in only a couple of hours
with the usual "Swiss watch" Elecraft mechanical precision and excellent
instructions.

Longest single step was doing the K3 firmware upgrade to support the P3.
All worked well right away and I checked out most all of the functions.
Here are some very preliminary impressions:

WOW - great bright high resolution display with excellent usage of color.
Lots of flexibility built in and quite easy to assign the 8 PF buttons to
the functions of your choice.  Amplitude calibration seems to be right on.
Very readable display.  Will be even better when external monitor capability
becomes available.  

No opportunity to check it out in a CW contest yet.  But definitely a fun
and useful addition for HF, SW and MW DXing.

The feature I would most like to see that doesn't exist in this level of P3
firmware is the ability to fix the frequency range rather than have it
centered on the K3's tuned frequency.  For example, if you are working near
the lower edge of the CW band, half of the display horizontal space is
"wasted" outside the band.  It is possible to redefine the center frequency,
but this then changes when you tune the K3.  This capability was a P3 design
goal, so I would expect to see it in a future firmware upgrade.

My overall impression is quite positive.  The P3, in its present
configuration, is well worth the $$.  With the expected future hardware and
firmware enhancements, it should be a "must have" for the serious DXer or
contester.

73    Craig   AC0DS




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