why the K3 is my favorite rig

[Dick Green WC1M]

Recently, there was a post on the FOC reflector to the effect that the FT2000 is a superior choice to the K3. Much of the criticism of the K3 centered around the size and "heft" of the rig, as well as the cost. Here are my thoughts on the subject:

 

Amateur radio is a diverse hobby with a diverse population of operators. It's unlikely that one rig can fit all, or even dominate a market. The way I see it, the K3 addresses a segment of the market that values high-performance. This includes, but is not limited to, contesters and DXers. As it happens, contesters and DXers make up a relatively small segment of the overall amateur population (though we are often the most vocal group!) Still, there's plenty of money to be made from this small segment because its constituents tend to commit considerable resources to the hobby (money, land, towers, antennas, time, and electronics.) Many of us are on a never-ending quest for that last 1 dB of antenna gain, that last bit of S/N, that last bit of selectivity, etc. Some of it is driven by competition (we don't like missing a weak station or losing out in a pileup), and some of it seems to be a perfectionist streak common to many contesters and DXers. Also, I think K3 fans tend to be somewhat more technically-oriented than others in the market. And I think some of us are getting old and our ears need all the help they can get!

 

I've used quite a few rigs over the past 25 years, and none of them has pleased me as much as the K3. Yeah, I liked the Drake twins, but keeping them tubed, aligned and operating properly was a chore, and the lack of features and flexibility would drive me crazy nowadays. Most of the rigs I've used suffered from poor selectivity (a choice between shallow filtering or ringing) and poor IMD rejection. Of the previous generation of rigs, the Yaesu FT-1000D and Icom 781 are probably the best I've used for contesting, but still suffer from those problems. Also, they're big, heavy, take up a lot of desk space and generate a lot of heat. Neither is particularly flexible. Neither is practical for the owner to repair, and spare parts are becoming hard to find.

 

The Orion was the first rig really able to deal with ultra-crowded bands and challenging propagation conditions. The combination of roofing filters and DSP filtering makes an incredible difference. The rig is very flexible, too. The box is large enough to look serious, the screen is large (in color on the O-II), and the knobs/buttons are large enough for most operators. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Elecraft), Ten-Tec designed the rig without asking customers what they wanted, and wound up with one of the worst user interfaces on the market. Some contest station owners won't let an Orion in the door because the learning curve for new ops is too high. To compound the matter, the firmware is poorly designed and poorly implemented. Some of the original performance of the radio has been lost in so-called firmware improvements. Since those were introduced several years ago, the firmware has not been updated at all. The hardware itself is fairly reliable, but there are a number of areas where substandard components were used and they tend to fail over time (encoders, relays, etc.)

 

When I first opened my Orion, I was amazed and somewhat disappointed by the large amount of empty space inside the chassis. I thought, "What a waste of space!". As we know from our K3 experience, Ten-Tec could easily have fit the circuitry in a much smaller box. I suspect they made the choice for a larger box based on the screen size, number of buttons and knobs, and a desire to make the radio look "serious".

 

I understand that the K3's form factor might mislead the casual observer to think that the radio is not "serious". This is clearly more of an issue with the observer's psychology than the K3's capabilities. Marketers do have to pay attention to buyer psychology, but they don't have to cater to the lowest common denominator if there are enough other buyers in the market with different psychology.

 

I guess I'm one of the latter. The K3 is by-far the best and most capable HF radio I've ever used, and I really don't care what the package looks like. In fact, I've come to appreciate the small form factor -- it takes up very little space on my desk and it's much easier to get the radio out of its operating position and onto the workbench for upgrades and mods. I haven't taken it to another station for guest operating, but based on my previous experience lugging a 1000D and an Orion, it'll be a pleasure to take the K3. I can't see how the K3 could fail to become the DXpedition radio of choice -- this is where the small form factor is worth gold.

 

The K3 has another advantage that may have been overlooked by appliance operators: there's no other full-featured, high-performance HF rig that you can buy in kit form. To me, the value has not been so much the cost saving, but the opportunity to understand how the rig works and the ability to fix it myself. I'm not your average consumer: I'm obsessive about trying to fix all sorts of electronic gear myself. The thought of having to ship a piece of gear back to the factory bums me out like nothing else (it's a control thing.) I can't stand the waiting time and the potential for shipping damage. I'd sooner violate the warranty than ship it. Not only does the K3 make it possible for me to fix the radio myself, Elecraft wants me to do so! For me, it doesn't get any better than that (well, if I had my own spare parts inventory... :-)

 

A very obvious "next act" for Elecraft would be to repackage the K3 in a larger box, add a bit-mapped color screen, add a few more buttons, make the knobs larger, and perhaps include an internal power supply. Voila: the K4! I'm sure many (not me) would pay $5K or more for such a radio, provided the hardware looks and feels expensive. If this idea is rattling around in the minds of our Elecraft wizards, my advice is to focus on the cosmetics and resist the urge to make lots of "improvements". A K3-K4 shared hardware and code base will dramatically lower costs. Significant performance improvements can wait for the K5... ;-)

 

Just in case you think I've joined the ranks of Elecraft "groupies", please remember that one of my first posts to this reflector warned against blind devotion to rig manufacturers, and advised consumers to hold their vendors accountable. While I've been very impressed with the K3 and Elecraft's service (and attitude), the company will have to keep on delivering to earn my praise. So far, they've done an admirable job.

 

73 and HNY,

Dick WC1M

 

_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

[Paul Fletcher]

Hi Dick,

Enjoyed reading your posting. I'm not a contester (yet) and my QTH prohibits chasing DX - but I do agree with the points you make, in particular the one about the compact nature of the rig. We annually run a trip up to the Scottish islands and size really does matter. We have to get as much stuff as we can in to as small a number of vehicles as possible to keep the cost down. The K3 is ideal for this purpose as it has all the performance needed in a relatively dinky box. We've tried smaller radios such as an IC7000 and FT857 and while they take up less room they struggle with some of the pileup's and the incoming signal strengths that our beach located antennas generate.

On a slightly humorous note, this year one of the op's brought his FT1000D along and the most risky part of the trip for me was unpacking it and packing it away again (manual handling injuries anyone?) - it is a fine rig though.

We're fortunate enough, now, to have access to a contest and field day site that overlooks the sea so I'm looking forward to having a bash at some contests with the K3.

73 Paul M1PAF

[Bill W4ZV]

Dick Green WC1M wrote

Recently, there was a post on the FOC reflector to the effect that the
FT2000 is a superior choice to the K3. Much of the criticism of the K3
centered around the size and "heft" of the rig, as well as the cost.

In that message he referred to the K3 costing $3300.  Where did he get that mistaken idea?  The beauty of the K3 is its modularity which does not force me to pay for unwanted options like AM, FM, ATU (I use a tuned input amp and resonant antennas), General Coverage RX, etc.  An unassembled K3/100 with KXV3 and a 500 Hz filter costs $2050.  The FT2000 has a minimum "3 kHz" roofing filter which actually has been measured at ~5 kHz by Sherwood and others, so I could subtract another $100 for the 500 Hz filter to be more comparable (i.e. the K3's 2.7k vs FT2000's 5k) but I don't want the absolutely terrible BDR and IMD performance of the FT2000 that would result so I left that in.  Add a KRX3 and another 500 Hz filter and you have $2750 for the *only* rig on the market with True Diversity using two high performance receivers.  Having used diversity for ~6 months now I will never have another rig without it.  

Duplicating all the whistles and bells of the FT2000 would make a K3 cost more, but I much prefer unexcelled performance to unnecessary whistles and bells.  IMHO the choice between a K3 and FT2000 amounts to a basic intelligence test, and this guy failed the test.  At least he didn't spend $10k... that definitely puts one into the "more money than sense" category.  :-)

73,  Bill  W4ZV

[Mike Short]

And then wait a few years when support and parts are no longer available.
Changes? Forget about it! What is the better value?
Elecraft fully supports all of their products, not the latest one.

_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com