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Reviews For: Elecraft K3

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

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Review Summary For : Elecraft K3
Reviews: 226MSRP: 1,399
Description:
ELECRAFT K3 Transceiver
High Performance • 160-6 Meters • 100 W
Dual 32bit DSP, "switched mode mixer"
Factory Assembled or No-Soldering Kit
160-6 meter ham-band coverage; optional general-coverage filters
• High-contrast, full-custom LCD with with alphanumeric text display
• 100-W or 10-W (upgradeable) models
• 32-bit I.F. DSP
• Rich I/O complement (see rear-panel drawing above)
• All modes: SSB, CW, Data, AM, FM
• Built-in PSK/TTY decode/encode allows data mode operation with or without a PC — use CW keyer paddle to send PSK/TTY too!
• High performance DDS/PLL Synthesizer with TCXO reference
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.elecraft.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002264.8
K5RM Rating: 2010-09-06
Great Rig! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have owned my K3 #3906 since February of this year. I have really enjoyed learning the rig and how everything works. Still have a lot to learn. This is a big step up from my Icom 737A which I still have for a spare. I really like the filters in this rig. I only have the 400hz cw filter and the standard 2.7 filter. I only work cw here. I bought the K3/100 kit and ATU and put it together in about 11 hrs. Did not want to mess it up so took my time. I enjoyed putting the kit together and the instructions were easy to follow. This rig got me back on the air more. Really can't say enogh about the rig IT's GREAT!!
KY6R Rating: 2010-08-27
QRM Fighting DX Machine Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Until the K3, the Ten Tec Orion II was the king of the hill as far as I'm concerned. My K3 is pretty bare bones - 100W, RX port and a 400 hz crystal filter - all for only $2500, and it very much reminds me of the Orion II.

At $2500 - it gives every other DX rig a real run for the money. In fact - I don;t see how any other DX oriented rig can compete. It makes the $10K rigs seem really silly.

As far as it being a QRM Fighting DX machine - especially for CW, there is no competition at this price point. My standard for comparison is simple - can the receiver pull out weak signals and can you separate out close stations in a huge nasty pileup with others calling 1 or 2 khz away?

The answer is yes - absolutely.
KF6VCI Rating: 2010-08-21
bought 2 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Yes, i let someone use my K2 and it was returned in abysmal shape. Totally misaligned and screwed up. Read my lips, the K3 offers real bag for the buck and is in a price class of its own. But there will always be folks who swear their Heathkit or whatever has been the best one ever built. 73 de Chris KF6VCI HS0ZFE MI1ESG
KC6ICA Rating: 2010-08-18
Amazed, 5+ rating Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have been researching the replacement of my aging, but very faithful Kenwood TS-520S for the last few years. I even had my wife perform the same study. The Kenwood had additional filtering and external DSP. A few months ago, the Kenwood required some cleaning and realignment. During its absence, my mobile rig, an IC-7000, made its way into the shack. Using the 7000 for about a month, I found the use of the internal DSP and ease of use, attractive. Our research resulted with two transceivers: one japanese, with a wide range of operating modes and very happy owners; and the K3. The entry price of the K3 being the high end mark. After reading, for very many hours, the different forums on the options of the K3: for SSB and CW, 2.8, 1.8, and 0.4 filters; 100 watt PA. was to be the target. The price difference between the two rigs was significant. The decision to spend more for the K3 was difficult, but I could not be happier. Every time I use the K3, I am amazed. I could go on and on about the K3, most operators have already written about its capabilities. 73 Guy KC6ICA
K1WHS Rating: 2010-07-28
A smooth rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I first purchased a K3 10 watt version in 2008. I liked the radio so much that I ordered another in 2009. My first radio was a 10 watter outfitted for VHF operation, while K3 #2 was a 100 watt unit tricked out for HF. I have been a ham since 1962 but was never a big HF operator. I concentrated on VHF contesting DX and moonbounce. I am now getting serious about HF and the second K3 is for DXing on 160 and 10 meters. The axiom is that you have to hear them before you can work them. I place the utmost importance on receive performance and close in dynamic range. The K3 is the best that I have seen. A simple bench test with an HP 8640B signal generator will confirm what your ears hear on any ham band full of signals. The K3 is literally bulletproof. On my first 160 meter CW contest, I found that I could pull out stations from within 200 Hz of the big powerhouse stations who were really strong. I used a 400 Hz roofing filter. Simply switching to a 1 kHz filter made things significantly worse. I feel sorry for those hams using "up converting" radios that are stuck with 10 and 15 kHz roofing filters!
I enjoy the K3 on transmit as well. I get unsolicited audio quality reports many times. The speech compression, which is a form of RF compression, is especially effective, and many claim that I sound even better with a fair amount of speech compression employed over no compression. Listening to my own signal on a second receiver tends to verify that claim. On CW, it sounds just as good, with nice rise and decay of the keying to reduce any key clicks to a minimum. The K3 has enough bells and whistles, including great CW and voice keying options, freq memories, DSP de noisers, noise blanker,and demodulation schemes. The noise blanking is quite good. I would rate it as more effective than most radios. In short, it is an immense pleasure to operate. As a testimony to it's function, a very good HF and VHF contester (hired gun) used my K3 on in an ARRL contest on 144 MHz for his first time in 2008, and after 32 hours and many hundreds of QSOs said that the rig felt almost transparent. He said it was as as if it wasn't even there. I don't think he even read the manual.
Every radio has its quirks. The K3 has very few. They are so minor, that I have trouble remembering them! The great things is that these quirks all tend to disappear over time as the firmware gets updated every month or so. The radio I bought in 2008 is now much better than it started out being! What can I say that has not been said? I would also offer one last comment. I had a commercial lab power supply that seemed to produce spikes that killed an over voltage protector diode in the radio. The second time the diode failed, I mentioned it on the Elecraft e mail forum. A day later I got a call from Elecraft tech support, and the fellow said he would send me a few parts free of charge so I could solve my problem. I never even contacted the company. They called me!! A great bunch of fellows to deal with for sure. While many hams want everything as cheap as they can find it, I value customer service right up there with rig performance. Elecraft excells in both areas.
K5ND Rating: 2010-07-06
Top Notch Transceiver Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have a K3/10 that I use for QRP CW DXing and Contesting. I've installed the KAT100 antenna tuner and roofing filters for 250, 500, and 1000 Hz. I wish that I could say that I've worked everything that I can hear but there are a lot of stations that can't hear me with my vertical antennas. However, over the past year have worked/confirmed 75 countries and all states. I love this rig as it keeps my shack simple and I know that I have the best transceiver going --- the frequent firmware updates ensure this is so. Great service from Elecraft and the rig is the best.
K3GM Rating: 2010-06-29
Amazing receiver. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently completed a K3/100 with the second receiver, and just about all of the options and filters that are available. Assembly went fine although the synthesizer board for the second receiver had a visually defective part and would not function. Elecraft sent a replacement cross country, and I had it within 3 days. I installed it, and it fired right up. When set up correctly, receiver performance is spectacular. With a tight roofing filter selected, you can be right up against another station, and there's no AGC pumping that you often experience with other receivers. In fact, you might not even know that he's there. I also got the 2 meter internal transverter wich is easy to install. It's performance is good, but unremarkable. Firmware updating is really slick, and can be set up to check the Elecraft site every 6 hours. The process is very smooth, and Elecraft LISTENS TO THE USERS, making improvements and mods to the radio's performance, and abilities. There are some complicated set-up menus within the radio, but with the software utilities available, setup becomes very easy with the PC link. I'm waiting for the memory manager utility to be released. This will allow quick setup of memories, and will permit the sharing of memory files between users.

A couple things of note that I would change but don't detract from my overall impression of the radio:
1)I would change some of the assembly sequences. Some steps seem near impossible to do, especially with a fully optioned radio.

2)The little coaxial TMP connectors gave me fits. I bent one, and in general had a difficult time with several inserting the plug into the jack. I found the jacks to be a little flimsy, and wish they might be improved on.

3) I found a couple of errors that were not addressed on the errata sheets. These items were noted, and sent to Elecraft.

In summation, I'm impressed! I could sit down in front of the radio for the first time, and actually operate it without a manual. The button layout is very intuitive and easy to learn. From the short time I've used it, I believe the receiver performance easily rivials my IC-756 ProIII. I'm excited and looking forward to getting the P3 Band Scope which at this writing (6/10) was not yet releaased. I can see this radio being my only transceiver that I'll use in the future.
WR2I Rating: 2010-06-28
AF section/AGC issues Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I used two K3's (CW only) during FD test 2010. While the radio obviously has a lot to offer in RX performance, they left me flat. The radios did not belong to me, so I cannot say what SW versions were implemented, or what menu settings were dialed in.

A manual had to be taken out to try to rectify the problems, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Radio 1 had low headphone audio, speaker was okay. Radio 2 had sufficient headphone audio, but had severe AGC overshoot.

I prefer to have a simple interface when in CT mode. Particularly when I lack familiarity with the gear I am using. I want all of the radio feature settings at my fingertips. I do not want to read the manual to change a critical setting.

I seriously doubt that this radio would provide any benefit over a good older high performance transceiver. My opinion is that in the situation I was in this past weekend, the 27 year old TS-930S (PIEXX digital board installed) with cascaded INRAD CW filters I had in the trunk of my car, would have been more effective in completing Q's than these two K3's.

I realize that a setting or software may have been a problem here, but the manual was taken out by the owner and as I said before, the problems were not fixed. This is just not what I would expect from a radio that has such a high regard from users in this forum. Bottom line, the K3 did not live up to the hype.

VK4BOF Rating: 2010-06-10
A wonderful radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
So far it seems that most of the reviews of the K3 have been from mostly CW operators with vast experience on the HF bands.

Well, one thing I am not is a CW operator and to boot, I have hardly used any of the HF bands as well!

My main interest has always been with 6M and up using SSB with a smattering of digital stuff thrown in for good measure so I will endeavour to give my impressions of operating a K3 on the higher bands.

My previous rigs were: My beloved Yaesu FT847 for 6M and up & Kenwood TS480SAT for HF + 6M mobile.
For awhile I had a Yaesu FT897 too.
(And what a god-aweful radio it was!)

All those radios are now sold and only the K3/100 graces my desk.

I bought mine factory built and with the 6M pre-amp, the 2M internal transverter, the DVR and the TCXO. Filters fitted are 13KHz, 6KHz, 2.8KHz, 2.1KHz and 400Hz.

Just recently I have been operating the K3 on 2m SSB and all I can say is WOW, the transverter does a wonderful job, compared to my old FT847, its just as or even more sensitive than the 847 and certainly way more selective!

My wonderful neighbours all possess plasma TV's which creamed the front end of the 847, not so with the K144XV, it's a joy to be able to use 2M again.

The same goes for 6M, operating 6m from home was such a chore that I gave up and only ever operated as a portable station, I have found that I can now operate on 6M from home again,the radios selectivity is just so much better than any other radios I have used and heard that I am now wondering why I didn't change over sooner.

To sum it all up:
For me, the K3 provides me with the radio I have craved for some time.

It is sensitive, it is selective, it has the features that I wanted and none of the crap that I didnt.

It is light enough to take anywhere for my portable operations and strong enough to withstand a few (small) bumps that go with that.

It's display is excellent, even in full sun, it's controls are easy to use and the menu system is fairly easy to come to grips with.

It's power output on any band (even 2M) is more than sufficient for either stand alone use or operation with an amplifier.

Would I change anything?
No, but I would ask Elecraft to add something, an internal 70cm transverter, ala the K144XV 2M unit.

Overall, its the radio that you SHOULD have in your shack (or in your motorhome, your SUV, your field day camp) and you will be as happy with it as I am.

73 de
Jeff Cochrane - VK4BOF
VE9KK Rating: 2010-06-10
More than lives up to it's reviews Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had the K3/100 for almost a year now I am a CW op so that is were my review will focus. The rig is fantastic it's true you can hear more with this rig than most others. I have the Inrad 200 250 and 500 hz 8 pole filters, KAT3,KTCXO3-1 TCXO and the KXV3A.I put the radio together myself and it was very well laid out in the manual. Being able to update the rig over the internet is very cool. I have done it many times and works just fine. I suggest reading the manual very carefully. This radio does so much and learning what it can do is your best tool to having the radio shine. The only problem I had was the KAT3 was damaged in shipping and it was one phone call and another was on the way.
Over all I recommend the radio and still enjoying my positive and progressive learning curve of the K3.