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Reviews For: Elecraft KX3

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : Elecraft KX3
Reviews: 157MSRP: See Desciption
Description:
Elecraft KX3 Transceiver

Ultra-portable, all-band/all-mode high-performance transceiver for home, mobile, or field use.
* 160-6 meters (2 m with KX3-2M module)
* SSB/CW/DATA/AM/FM modes; 10 W+ PEP (100 W with KXPA100 amp)
* 1.7" x 3.5" x 7.4" (4.3 x 8.9 x 18.8 cm); only 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg)
* Current drain as low as 150 mA; internal battery (8 AA cells, any type)
* Advanced DSP provides dual watch, noise reduction, noise blanking, autonotch, stereo audio effects, audio peaking filter (APF)
* Software-defined radio (SDR) architecture plus optional roofing filters
* Operates in data modes (PSK31/RTTY) with or without a PC
* Includes RX I/Q sound-card outputs; works with PC RS232 or USB ports; free firmware upgrades
* Options: internal wide-range antenna tuner (KXAT3), interal NiMH battery charger (KXBC3), dual roofing filter module (KXFL3), attached high-performance keyer paddle (KXPD3), internal 2-meter module (KX3-2M), MH3 compact hand mic with UP/DN buttons, KXPA100/KXAT100 100-W amplifier and ATU

$999.95 factory assembled, $899.95 kit

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.elecraft.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001574.7
NR4C Rating: 2012-11-14
Wow! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I ordered my KX3 about 2 hours after the order site opened in December of 2011. I rec'd my kit a week before Field Day 2012. I was excited to say the least. I stayed up late and put hte kit together and it went very well. My only trouble was my aging eyesight and the neuropothy in my extremities made handling or picking up the small screws and spacers challenging, but it was worth it!
My radio was ordered with all the options except the headset as I already had several I could use. It was all in the box, except the battery chrger (which has subsequently been delivered) and I am happy to say that everything worked just about as expected. Reading the "Errata" sheet before assembly, alerted me to several changes made or variations to the manual and to "features" that had not been implemented as of that time. This simple ast of "READNG" saved me from anxiety over why my radio didn't work as described in the manual. I'm constantly surprised at some of the questions users ask on the Elecraft related reflectors because they didn't read the book!
But, I can't say that all was perfect. My paddles suffered from a few anomolies, and I and others made note of this to Elecraft. And, shortly the company sent me an upgrade kit to repoace some of the parts in the paddle assembly. I am happy to note that the paddles now work very nicely. I did, however make one small modification to my paddles. I am very fond of magnetic 'springs' in my paddles, so I had a friend with a maching shop to drill a 1/8" hole about 0.060 deep in the inner face of each finger-piece. I pressed in a 1/8 X 1/16 rare earth magnet in each, with the poles opposing, so that the magnets push away from each other. I find this to give a very nice feel to the action.
I took the KX3 to FD and it was the topic of conversation. Everyone was surprised by it's small size, and full set of features.
I have since made many contacts with my KX3, and have enjoyed my QRP experience.
I have also used the KX3 with a THP 50B amplifier putting out about 50 W with around 5 watts input. I have an old TenTec manual tunner that works really well. Waiting for the Elecraft amp for the KX3, maybe next year!
My feelings for this radio can be summed up with one simple statement. "I'm considering ordering a nice personalized 'Dust Cover' from Rose, for my K3, as it is gathering dust on my bench sice 'Little Brother' showed up!"
W2DL Rating: 2012-11-12
Does It All For Me! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I received my assembled KX3 in early August, s/n 1037. It is my only rig. I use it primarily for CW and primarily as a base station. Powered by a Gamma Research HPS-1a power supply, it occupies an amazingly small amount of desk real estate -- check out the photos on my QRZ page.

My first SSB contact was to Brazil on 20 meters. Filling out my logbook after the contact (579), I realized the power had been set to 3 watts, when I thought it had been higher. That about says it all.

Others have touched on the superlative receiver. I think the antenna tuner is amazing. The keyer fantastic. I'm still debating whether to buy the KXPD3 paddle for portable use or see what Begali comes out with for this market. I'm a huge Begali fan, as I use both the Begali Sculpture paddle and the Begali Blade straight key with this rig.

Hard to come up with a "wish list." Mine would be for a push button to toggle between headphones and external speaker and a more user friendly battery pack. The rig is intended primarily for headphones and I do, in fact, use them 90% of the time. I use the Delay/Simulated Stereo audio function 100% of the time. Very pleasing audio. The external speaker works just fine in a relatively quiet environment. If one opts to install internal batteries, one has to be careful not to pinch battery wires or disconnect the flex cable; plus take normal ESD precautions. It should be mentioned, however, that you can opt not to use internal batteries but go with an external battery. I suspect the next version of this unit will improve in this area. Understand, however, that I'm being "picky" here and striving for objectivity with a rig that I love. The KX3 is a solid "5." In fact, probably a solid "6" for Fabulous is more appropriate!

I've monitored the Yahho KX3 Group/Reflector for the past year and it's a very good group. Wayne Burdick (N6KR), the Elecraft co-owner and lead technical guy jumps in frequently. Anyone considering starting a company should study Elecraft and Begali customer service. They are in a league of their own.

Bob
W2TAC
WB2LQF Rating: 2012-11-12
A Depressing Thought Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had my KX3 now for several months. Everything written about this remarkable product and the top shelf company behind it is true. I can't add anything of practical value to the positive comments appearing elsewhere in eHam and in the technical press. I've experienced no shortcomings or problems during my many months of 100% QRP CW use. I enjoy building and operating Elecraft products; I also own a K1, K2, K3, and KX1. With the advent of the KX3 I am hard pressed to imagine what possible transceiver product Elecraft could possibly develop as a follow-on. Thus my wish-list is presently empty and there's nothing to dream about. This is a depressing thought ;(
W2NLS Rating: 2012-11-11
Better Than I Hoped!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received my KX3 on Thursday and just had the time to begin using it Saturday morning and am extremely impressed. It's a fully-loaded unit with the paddles, roofing filter, ATU, charger and cables and as it was assembled the setup took me all of five minutes. I have it hooked up to my home station antennas -- a TH5-DX beam up 50 feet on 10, 15 and 20 and an inverted vee hung off the tower for the other bands. Results have been little short of spectacular.

I have yet to call a DX station who could not hear me. Yes, the antenna has gotten me DXCC and various awards but the audio of the Elecraft has turned many DX Ops I have spoken with into amazed listeners. I spoke with a few Australians yesterday and one of them had me at S8 and the other at S9, both thought the audio and the compression sounded good. Today I popped in some Enerpool batteries and worked all over Europe at 5 whiskey!

The receiver on this little brick is just wonderful I can A/B it with my Icom 756 Pro III and it is a better receiver in most situations. I think the DSP on the Icom is a little more adjustable but, overall, it is usually the KX3 that wins the A/B war.

I have the I/Q output working with iSDR in my iPad 3 now. It is a perfect panadapter for this unit and (sorry my old friend) surpasses the one built-into the 756 Pro III. I did have HDSDR running on the computer but I think iSDR is a prettier way to do the panadapter and I don't really care about controlling the KX3 through the SDR program as I prefer the KX3's controls. Also the OmniRig setup to make HDSDR work with the KX3 seemed far, far, far from trivial and I decided not to bother and save burning off too many brain cells.

I was impressed with the PSK-31 and RTTY and CW decoding. But I have to say that it works far better just simply hooking it to Ham Radio Deluxe (which was easy) and using that program's DM780 subprogram for PSK-31 and other digital modes (CW being digital too of course). Still like a dancing bear you have to respect the KX3's digital areas -- it is amazing that the bear can dance you don't expect it to win Dancing With the Stars! Of course if you ever use it portable or don't have a computer handy sending with the paddles is a fantastic idea.

I did find one way to operate PSK-31 that wasn't clear in the manual that seemed to work for me. Apparently when you turn on CWT and Spot, the tuning will not actually hold a frequency but move to whatever signal is strongest in the bandwidth. Anyway, I would call CQ using a programmed macro in the KX3 terminal program and first turn off CWT so as to make sure the frequency didn't change on me. It was pretty obvious and probably everyone else figures that out in ten minutes but it took me a good hour of having to retune lost signals.

Overall I am thinking that when the amplifier comes out and the 2M module I just may raise some money to buy those by selling the Pro III. Although, I haveta say that I still love the Pro III but the KX3 could easily become my main rig.

Elecraft -- kudos to the chefs!
N7RCS Rating: 2012-11-10
Well-designed and worth every cent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I operate QRP CW exclusively. My previous radios were the NorCal 40a and the Oak Hills Research 100a, both of which I built. Nice radios as far as they go and I have enjoyed building and operating them. The KX3 is, as you might expect, far beyond these two rigs. I agree with the other reviewers who give very high marks to Elecraft for designing such a fine, well-made and well-designed QRP radio that is a pleasure to operate. I would add one caveat about the KX3, and it is minor, though I believe important, especially for portable operation on batteries.

My experience has been with running the KX3 on Sanyo Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries, which provide about 3 hours with fairly heavy use at 3W. My caveat is that frequent opening and closing of the KX3 can become problematic if you are not careful. You may inadvertently disconnect one of the main cables inside the unit. It can be easily snapped back onto the board, but over time this could lead to a broken or bent pin. In addition, removing the batteries can be a little tricky and you may either bump internal boards or, if you're not careful to ground yourself before opening the case, you could create ESD by accident.

All that said, there's a simple solution. Keep your batteries outboard. Doing so offers two advantages: first it is much faster to change the batteries in an outboard battery holder (cheap at Radio Shack), second, you avoid the hassle of having to crack open the KX3, which could be much more risky outdoors.

Ultimately, this is a fabulous rig. My first QSO from my Idaho QTH running 3W to a dipole clinging to my house at 20 feet, was with Japan, my second was with Grand Cayman Island.

I am a very satisfied customer!

Jim
N7RCS
AE5KA Rating: 2012-11-10
Very Impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
For background, I have an ICOM IC-7000, Elecraft KX1, K2/100, and now a KX3. I'm not a contestor or aggressive DXer. I operate almost exclusively CW these days.

Excellent little radio and very easy to use. The most used controls are accessible from front panel knobs and buttons. Somewhat less commonly used functions are available with an additional press or press and hold of knobs or buttons, but still easy to access. More esoteric settings are available from menus, but if you commonly access particular items they can be assigned to one of two custom function key presses.

I am particularly impressed with the continuously variable bandwidth filter. As I narrow the bandwidth down on a CW signal, it seems to "pop" out of the noise without ringing. What noise there is also seems to lack the often harsh quality I've experienced with some other radios. The APF (audio peaking filter) with this DSP version doesn't seem to me to help much.

Also impressive are the CW and RTTY decode features. CW decode is as good as any I've seen on the computer, and the CW paddle to RTTY feature works well too. If your CW speed isn't quite up to that of the contestors, but you still want to make a few QSO's during a contest, the decoder and the CW memories will let you make the contest exchange without too much trouble. In the same way you can participate in an RTTY contest without the need of a computer, or just ragchew using the CW paddle to RTTY capability. PSK31 should work the same way, though I haven't tried.

The firmware of this SDR with knobs is still improving. Some hams wanted greater stability for weak signal digital modes, it wasn't long before a new firmware and procedure was released to perform a custom temperature compensation. You can expect continued refinement and feature upgrades from Elecraft. As it is, this little gem is easier to use and more effective than any other transceiver I've owned or used.
K2ACK Rating: 2012-11-10
Fantastic Portable HF Radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My previous radio (2 years) was a Yaesu FT-817ND with Elecraft T1 tuner. I love my 817, but I always found it tough to operate with the tiny front panel and forcing the operator to use shifted menu modes , etc. This was very cumbersome. Once I finished the KX3 build and fired it up I was amazing at how easy it was to operate. I also realized something else very quickly. My FT-817ND is deaf. The receiver on the KX3 is amazing. My first contact was to cuba, SSB - my first QSO with Cuba for that matter. I added 10 DXCCs in a few short hours, able to hear things that I just could not hear before.

The dual-watch function is excellent for working split pile-ups. It almost makes it easy.

Assembly was fairly easy as long as you measure and check the hardware you are using with each step. I find imperial hardware confusing compared to metric, but with care it went smoothly.

I purchased the roofing filter and battery charger options and quite like them. One thing to note if you are selecting a travel power supply, you want to ensure that you have Vcc > 13V so the charger can operate, at 12V you simply get a Low Volt error when engaging the charger.

I liked this radio so much that when I had a chance to buy a used K3/10 at a fair price, I didn't hesitate. Elecraft's reputation, customer care and service is amazing. Especially compared to my experiences with other manufacturers.

Elecraft continues to update and release firmware all the time and the radio continues to improve over time. A hard act to follow.
KJ4RWQ Rating: 2012-10-26
CAN'T PUT IT DOWN!! Time Owned: N.A.
Hello Everyone,

I still am amazed by this rig and hold Elecraft in very high regards for pushing the boundaries and making such an innovative product and consistently offering superior customer service. As a fairly new HAM who was intimidated by CW, I am extremely delighted that I can work CW with confidence now. Yes, I'm sure a lot of older HAMS will consider this a cop-out, but I'm more than delighted now that I can guage my progress based on really listening and reading as I develop my fist. I know quite of few people have been complaining about the speakers, but my speakers seems to work just fine with no distortion. I've also been using Bang&Olufsen Form-2 headphone and what a delight with some of the Dual RX and Equalizer settings in the radio.

Also, the receive on the radio is just superb. My only wish is to be able to use the P3 Panadapter with this rig. I also can't wait for the 2 meter module along with the 100 watt amplifier that is now in final development. I am currently using a Tentec Model 418 amplifier with the KX3 an it is just a joy to use. Yes, the amplifier doesn't do that good of job auto-sensing, but as long as the SWR is low, there are no issues. Moreover, even with only 10 watts I still get good audio reports and am asked constantly if I am using a fancy microphone.


I don't think Elecraft anticipated selling this much of this truly innovative product. The only thing I can say that's negative is having to wait what I considered to be an eternity for all products to become available. Well, it felt like it anyway, but man was it worth it. I hit Hawaii with only 5 watts from Florida, and recently worked my first Australian station with only 60 watts using the Tentec Model 418 Amplifier.

I've pretty much tried the radio in just about every capacity: outdoors, indoors, etc. As for SDR, I've used DSP Radio 1.3.5 on Mac, HDSDR on PC, and it works as advertised. The only software I've yet to have any luck with in terms of setup that I do see support for K3 is SpectraVue. For some reason, I cannot get it to work.

This is a solid rig and is truly revolutionary. My only wish is for Elecraft to keep up with demand without resorting to losing their personal touch that most small companies suffer from when they transition to a big company.

My highest regards,

Wayne and to all the Elecraft staff for doing what I consider a descent job in keeping up with demand. Please update your website regularly so we can wet our beaks and not have to check your site every hour despite communication when things will be available. A lot of us just want to see some sort of process and progress.

Best Regards,

73, KJ4RWQ


AA2LD Rating: 2012-10-13
Wonderful Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had this radio for a month and just made a 10w voice contact across the Atlantic with excellent audio reports. I find that I'm using this radio more than my Jupiter. I am a mixed voice and CW operator. I also have Elecraft K2/100, Elecraft K1, Elecraft KX1, Icom 718, Ten Tec Jupiter.

Wonderful things:
1. The audio is incredibly clear
2. The tech support is wonderful---I reloaded the radio configuration with the help of Elecraft after an early glitch
3. The CW tuning is great with a 'spot' feature which is very helpful
4. The inboard tuner is the best I've had in any radio
5. The CW decoder is very accurate

I don't mind too much that the 2meter and the battery charger aren't ready yet. The rest of the package is more than impressive.

I just can't imagine anyone regretting getting one of these.
M5FRA Rating: 2012-10-06
Superb rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Without doubt the best RX I have used, a reall killer for the price. Still learning to use the rig and have not been /P yet so will add more later but at the moment I am very impressed. There are a few minor niggles but maybe that is more about getting used a new rig. First Elecraft rig and cannot fault the customer care.