The K3 and the future
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I've been quiet lately, working on getting back on the air at my new
QTH. But I am thinking about the future. The K3 is still a great transceiver. For my purposes, there is nothing better out there for a reasonable price. But the competition isn't sitting still. And as everybody knows, there are some areas in which the K3 could be markedly improved (cleaning up the audio artifacts in QSK is my personal favorite). The KX3 is apparently a great field radio. I don't need another field radio, though. I am never going to give up the K2 I built myself. The KX3, in my opinion, is not suitable for a home station, because of the form factor, the way accessories are connected, etc. Again, this is just my opinion, but I know some others share it. So my question is, will Elecraft maintain its dominance in the home station transceiver market? Will the K3 be markedly improved, both hardware and firmware? Will there be a K3b or a K4? I understand that the firmware/hardware of the K3 represents a huge investment. So maybe the best approach will be incremental. Let's say that Elecraft started producing a K3b with hardware modifications in key boards, and a firmware branch to support them. New K3 purchasers would get the K3b, while existing owners could buy new boards to upgrade their units. The K3 utility could detect the version and load the appropriate firmware. Someone who is happy with his K3 as it is would not have to upgrade, and it would still be possible to improve K3 firmware, although probably the really good stuff would require a K3b. This would be less expensive to do than a K4, and could leverage the experience of the designers that they have gained with the KX3. -- 73, Vic, K2VCO/4X6GP Rehovot, Israel http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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On Sat,9/20/2014 11:34 PM, Vic Rosenthal K2VCO wrote:
> The K3 is still a great transceiver. For my purposes, there is nothing > better out there for a reasonable price. But the competition isn't > sitting still. And as everybody knows, there are some areas in which > the K3 could be markedly improved (cleaning up the audio artifacts in > QSK is my personal favorite). Hi Vic, You've been busy moving, and may have missed this. k9yc.com/TXNoise.pdf This report, which simply compares and analyzes ARRL measurements, shows that in the realm of producing a clean signal, the K3 is an order of magnitude better than its closest competitor, the TS590S, two orders of magnitude better than Icom's "best," and FOUR orders of magnitude better than Yaesu. For the non-math folks among us, an order of magnitude is 10X. So the K3 is more than 100 times cleaner than ICOM's most expensive stuff, and more than 10,000X cleaner than even the most expensive of current Yaesu rigs. BTW -- I was hanging with K6RBtodaypreparing for CQP, and he's hoping to look you up on an upcoming trip to 4X. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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No, I didn't miss this.
There is nothing like the K3 for multi-transmitter contests, DXpeditions and field day. I hope 4X4DK has one -- I can see his beam from my roof! But there are still areas of improvement for the K3. If Rob comes to visit, I have a comfortable couch/bed he can sleep on. My station is set up and my license renewed, but the bureaucracy is grinding very slowly on the "non-ionizing radiation permit" that I need to put up my antenna. On 9/21/2014 10:49 AM, Jim Brown wrote: > On Sat,9/20/2014 11:34 PM, Vic Rosenthal K2VCO wrote: >> The K3 is still a great transceiver. For my purposes, there is nothing >> better out there for a reasonable price. But the competition isn't >> sitting still. And as everybody knows, there are some areas in which >> the K3 could be markedly improved (cleaning up the audio artifacts in >> QSK is my personal favorite). > > Hi Vic, > > You've been busy moving, and may have missed this. > > k9yc.com/TXNoise.pdf > > This report, which simply compares and analyzes ARRL measurements, shows > that in the realm of producing a clean signal, the K3 is an order of > magnitude better than its closest competitor, the TS590S, two orders of > magnitude better than Icom's "best," and FOUR orders of magnitude better > than Yaesu. For the non-math folks among us, an order of magnitude is > 10X. So the K3 is more than 100 times cleaner than ICOM's most expensive > stuff, and more than 10,000X cleaner than even the most expensive of > current Yaesu rigs. > > BTW -- I was hanging with K6RBtodaypreparing for CQP, and he's hoping to > look you up on an upcoming trip to 4X. > > 73, Jim K9YC > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [hidden email] -- 73, Vic, K2VCO/4X6GP Rehovot, Israel http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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I shudder to think, but must ask: What is a "non-ionizing radiation
permit?" ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Vic Rosenthal
I think the KX3 form factor works out well as a home station. The face
is larger than a lot of other radios and in my opinion the ergonomics are better than the K3. My KX3 station (KX3 and KXPA100) is my second home station to my FTDX5000MP and the the station I take to my second QTH when we go there. I have been through many current rigs for this use until I settled on the KX3, primarily due to the great specs, but also due to the super flexibility. The one feature I also wanted was something that could run of batteries for emergency use and the KX3 is vastly frugal compared to anything else out there. Don't discount the KX3 setup as a great home rig. Gary Mitchelson NC3Z Davidsonville, MD FM18 NC3Z/4 Pamlico County, NC FM15 http://www.mitchelson.org/ On 9/21/2014 02:34, Vic Rosenthal K2VCO wrote: > The KX3, in my opinion, is not suitable for a home station, because > of the form factor, the way accessories are connected, etc. Again, > this is just my opinion, but I know some others share it. > > ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Vic Rosenthal
On Sun,9/21/2014 1:25 AM, Vic Rosenthal K2VCO wrote:
> There is nothing like the K3 for multi-transmitter contests, > DXpeditions and field day. It matters a LOT more than that -- KE1B is 8 miles from me with an ICOM 7600 and tube amp. On CW, he regularly wipes out 10 kHz of whatever band he is on for me and for K6XX. SSB is worse. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Bill-3
Non-ionizing radiation is electromagnetic radiation, like HF - UHF radio
waves, that doesn't have enough energy to knock electrons off of atoms. X-rays, Gamma rays, ultraviolet light, etc., is ionizing radiation. We know ionizing radiation can be dangerous. Some people think that non-ionizing radiation is dangerous too, so for example they tell you not to hold your cellphone to your ear for 20 hours a day. In Israel, in response to national hysteria about the 'danger' from cell towers, the government passed laws requiring approval of all transmitting antennas. A ham is supposed to file an application, including calculations of field strength at various points around his antennas, and it has to be approved before he can put up an antenna (or even request planning permission for an antenna). In the US, the FCC has an "RF safety" requirement but it's just pro-forma. On 9/21/2014 2:00 PM, W2BLC wrote: > I shudder to think, but must ask: What is a "non-ionizing radiation > permit?" -- 73, Vic, K2VCO/4X6GP Rehovot, Israel http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Jim Brown-10
Jim,
Your problem may be the stations you call out. There are several problems with some of the gear on the air. First, is phase noise from the L.O. being amplified as well as the intended signal. That's a design issue with the basic radio. The other problem may be the operator. I have noticed that there are narrow band signals on the air and some not so narrow band signals, particularly with amplified SSB signals. The not so narrow band signals can be attributed over drive of the amplifier, improper driver adjustment, and probably to a lessor degree design. If you are running a panadapter or equivalent, you'll see what I have found. I live in the midst of a number of hams, some are running amps and one is just under a mile away. My KX3 has tolerated this "abuse" without me needing to do something special. Hopefully, you'll be able to work something out. 73, Barry K3NDM ----- Original Message ----- From: "jim" <[hidden email]> To: "elecraft" <[hidden email]> Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 1:19:43 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] The K3 and the future On Sun,9/21/2014 1:25 AM, Vic Rosenthal K2VCO wrote: > There is nothing like the K3 for multi-transmitter contests, > DXpeditions and field day. It matters a LOT more than that -- KE1B is 8 miles from me with an ICOM 7600 and tube amp. On CW, he regularly wipes out 10 kHz of whatever band he is on for me and for K6XX. SSB is worse. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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