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Show all reviews of the Elecraft K3
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of the Elecraft K3.
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K2MK
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 27, 2009 06:47
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An excellent purchase decision. No regrets.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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The K3 is a fine transceiver. Mine will be one year old in a few days. I will try to list some items that may have not been mentioned in previous reviews. The K3 replaced my FT-1000D which gave me 17 years of trouble free service. I have not regretted making the switch.
You would think it a big change to go from a huge front panel to a small one. It is for a day or two and then the K3 feels right at home. The knob and button sizes are fine. The controls and their proximity to each other (spacing) is really not much different from the 1000D. And in fact, some of the buttons along the bottom row of the 1000D were difficult to read due to the main tuning dial. All controls on the K3 are easy to read and access. The only control change I would have liked is if they switched the two filter adjustment knobs. I don’t use the “shift” knob too frequently but I’m always using the “width” knob. I operate the radio with my left hand which puts my thumb close to the main VFO tuning dial when I adjust the filter width. So there is a risk of bumping the main tuning dial. More during the first month of use then now. I suppose my coordination improved with practice.
The dual purpose buttons become second nature after a few days of use. The 1000D had individual band buttons which was a nice feature. On the K3 it is easy to set up quick access memories but it does take two button pushes to access those memorized frequencies. Not a problem for me, just different. A very nice feature permits you to set up 4 in-band buttons for each and every band. I have a quick access memory button set up for each of the 10 bands and 2, 3, or 4 in-band buttons to get to my favorite CW, RTTY, and SSB frequencies. It quickly changes the frequency, mode, and filter width to suit the mode. And of course after you do this there are still 90 more memories available for other uses. And memories can have a unique text description displayed on the screen.
The optional K3 sub receiver is excellent. The 1000D sub receiver wasn’t the same as the main receiver. The available filter widths were not quite the same as the main receiver and you could not use the audio peak filter or the width and shift control on the sub. Also, the sub frequency didn’t have the capability of tracking the main frequency. The K3 sub receiver is exactly the same as the main receiver. You can have the sub receiver frequency linked to (tracking) or unlinked from (non-tracking) the main receiver. And a third option is to use the sub receiver as a diversity receiver where the frequency and the filter settings follow the main receiver. And working split while still using diversity is possible because in diversity the VFO B dial and display are now free to be set to another frequency and do not have any effect on the sub receiver frequency. Sounds complicated but it’s not. And of course you can have the same or different antennas for each receiver with the push of a button. And if you don’t purchase the sub receiver you can still configure the main receiver to use a separate receive antenna using the front panel RX ANT button. Just chose your options correctly when you order.
Speaking of options, you only have to order what you need. Configure the radio to meet your needs and if your needs change you can order different modules later.
Digital modes are a pleasure. No external device is required between the K3 and your PC. Other conveniences like two separate key jacks, two separate headphone jacks (plus a separate PC output jack), and two separate microphone jacks (plus a separate PC input jack) make interfacing and cabling very easy. And the same serial cable you use to connect the K3 to your PC for contest software, digital modes, or rig control is used to download new firmware. A simple K3 utility program (free) makes firmware upgrades easy.
I operate mainly CW and the auto spot feature is excellent. It works in conjunction with the sidetone frequency that you choose. Auto spot works very well for both strong and weak received signals. A press of the button and the received signal will be centered in your filter passband and you will be perfectly zero beat.
You can easily set max power levels individually for each band. This works so well I have not found the need to use an ALC line to my amplifier. The 4 multi-purpose knobs that control power output, filter width, filter shift, keyer speed, mic level, compression level, vox & keying delay, and monitor level are all on encoders which means they have many turns. So making very fine adjustments is easy.
Customer support is incredible as everyone has mentioned. Send an e-mail and get a response the same day. Make a suggestion and it might just become a feature in the next firmware release. And there are two very active user reflectors. One from Elecraft and one on Yahoo.
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Product is in production.
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