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Reviews For: Idiom Press/Ham Supply Logikey K-3 Keyer

Category: Keyers & CW Keyboards

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Review Summary For : Idiom Press/Ham Supply Logikey K-3 Keyer
Reviews: 65MSRP: 129.95
Description:
Although the Logikey K-3 Keyer has been replaced by the CMOS 4 and K-5 Keyers, K-3 repairs and support are offered by Ham Supply. See Website for details.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.hamsupply.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00654.7
K3GM Rating: 2005-01-21
Excellent product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After 23 years of service, my Heathkit uMatic gave up the ghost. I loved that little box! It could do almost anything as far as spacing and weight was concerned. So when I decided to replace it with the K-3, I waited eagerly to get it in my hands to play with it, and to see what 20 years of technological advances went into it. Well I was a little dissapointed. Yes, it's a little easier to use than my Heathkit, but it can't do some of the things my 23 old keyer did. Two things that I've noticed immediately after only 1 week of ownership. It won't do Farnsworth, like 25wpm characters with 17wpm spacing; can't do it. Secondly, it can't send the prosign BK. It's limited to 6 elements. Anything over 6 and it truncates them. My uMatic keyer had a pseudorandom code practice built into it. It was great for practice and without a doubt, it helped me get my 20wpm back when it was a little harder to obtain Extra. ;) The K-3 does not. I expected more I guess. Still it's a very good keyer and is extremely easy to use. I look forward to working with it further.
EA8AY Rating: 2004-12-07
The best keyer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Very nice product, the best keyer you can buy.
G4ZFE Rating: 2004-11-25
Smoother CW at last! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After using the internal keyer on my FT1000MP for the last 3 years switching over to the K-3 has been a revealation. No more playing about with the very small keyer control on the radio as the K-3 has a large and linear speed control. Two minor comments:

1. Appropriate plugs should have been supplied with the keyer
2. The internal monitor is too loud

Otherwise I wish that I had bought one years ago...
W8GND Rating: 2004-10-28
Dot memory Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's an ok keyer (just got it). Only complaint is
that the thing tends to miss a trailing dot (as in the letter "r") unless you're very careful. Must have had 15 iambic keyers. None of the others were that picky.

But that's the only flaw. Would be nice to have a way to turn off the keyer output, but that's not
important.

A minor problem, but I just hate fighting a keyer. Still prefer the Curtis chip to anything else!!!

73 jerry w8gnd
W3PH Rating: 2004-06-10
Superb keyer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My operation is 98% CW, and I've used many keyers, back to a homemade version of the W9TO keyer, and the K-3 (and CMOS-4) is the best.

I probably use 10% of the features - the ones that matter most to me are:

1. Ability to switch dot and dash - all of my paddles were wired backwards from what the K-3 expects - no problem, press 2 keys and all is well. No rewiring.

2. Accukeyer emulation - I spent years using a WB4VVF accukeyer and got used to the way it worked. The K-3 emulates the accukeyer nicely (I don't notice the issues with auto-spacing that others have mentioned, as long as I'm in accukeyer emulation mode).

3. Keying compensation - CW on my Pegasus sounded awful until I realized that I could fix the switching delay by setting the K variable (15 seems to sound OK, still experimenting).

4. Memory buttons - I only use 3 or 4 of these, but at least I send my own call correctly thanks to button #1 ;-)

Wish list: I added a pot to control the monitor volume (was way too loud) but still don't like the sound of the built-in sidetone - I suspect the speaker is too big. Solution - shut off the sidetone and use the rig's sidetone.
W2XS Rating: 2004-06-06
Auto Character Space Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I agree with KV1E on the automatic character spacing problem, and received the same response from the factory. I have the original CMOS Super Keyer 1 and the Super Keyer 2, and bought the 3 and 4 when they first came out. The original was all digital hardware, and the later ones are mostly software based. The original does not have the problem at all, but all of the other versions seem to have the same software implementation in them. At higher speeds, the characters run together often enough to be slightly annoying and this causes what sounds like a mistake. Many people do not use the auto character spacing feature, and may be perfectly satisfied with the timing. Since building the WB4VVF Accukeyer many years ago, I am hooked on keyers with that auto character spacing feature. In the end, I sold the Logikeyer 3 and 4 and kept the 1 and 2, the 1 being the smoothest of them all. I was disappointed because I liked the looks of the keyers very much.
KV1E Rating: 2004-06-06
A tweak would make it excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My opinion of the K-3 matches most all of the other reviews here. It's the best keyer I've used.

The only flaw I've seen with it resulted in a flurry of emails back and forth between me and Idiom Press concerning the "auto-spacing" feature. I use the auto-spacing feature (with dot/dash memory turned off) and noticed that one can run characters together. The keyer does not have character auto-spacing. Idiom Press maintains that true auto-spacing is "..too difficult to use according to their tests" so they programmed it to be "forgiving" when auto-spacing is enabled. Their method results in the feature being much harder to use than if they had programmed it properly.

WA3ELQ Rating: 2004-05-20
Exceptional Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The K-3 is truly a superior product. It performs flawlessly and delivers everything promised. The instructions included are clear and detailed, the functions work well and are easy to use, and the unit is easy to operate. It is the best keyer I have ever used.
DF7FE Rating: 2004-04-29
Simply the best Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is the best keyer I ever had!
N7DM Rating: 2003-11-22
**BEST**....yet Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my K-3 for two years. It replaced a pretty good home brew job, with home brew paddles. I have been on The Music Mode for 51 years. I have run J-38's, Bugs, Bug substitutes...and electronic keyers. I can send better on any of them, than I can type, so NO keyboards! I have built a few keyers. I owned and used an old Hollow State gizmo called a Mon-Key, in the 50's. None of these... I say N O N E ...comes close to my K-3.

Points I like : (a) I can set my Weighting. It is different between running barefoot, and thru my solid state amplifier..so I set 57 for barefoot and 67 for amplifed..and from the sound in my monitor receiver, that is perfect. (b) I can set the range of my speed pot. I like 22 to 32 wpm..nice to NOT have critical knob from wasted space on the bottom or top of rotation. (c) I can select Hand-Key.. prop the keyer on it's left base edge...and join in on Straight Key Night !
(d) The programming is very easy; I have all six buttons set for things I like...Short CQ, Long CQ, QRL?, QRL (w/id)?, QRZ?... and my favorite. a 4 X 2 CQ DE CALL (pause) QSK...[repeat]. I can leave the thing running as I make a cup of coffee, and when I hear somebody thru my QSK, I run over, tap the paddle and answer them !!!! (e) It seems to run forever on a bank of AA batteries.
(f) I can set the monitor tone and speed.

*THE* point I don't like : No volume control on the built-in speaker....unless it is so obvious that I've missed it...[not addressed in the book]

Two boxes go in my coffin with me : my Corsair, and my K-3...

73 DM N 7 D M