[Elecraft] K3 and its future external panadapter

[Bill W5WVO]

Excellent thoughts about this feature. I agree 100% with your reasoning, and 
if I decide to go with the K3 after learning more, I'll definitely go with 
the panadapter add-on unit when it comes out.

I just rejoined this list after hearing about the K3 on the OMNI-VII 
reflector. (I believe you obliquely aluded to this rig below.) <g> Have you 
yet published on this list or elsewhere any claimed RX bench metrics like 
noise floor, DR3, IP3, etc.? If not, when do you expect to come out with 
these metrics? The OMNI-VII has been independently measured (Sherwood) with 
a DR3 of 80 dB at 2 kHz spacing. Pretty good, but I'd like to get it up to 
85 dB, which many agree is kind of the "good-enough number" for this metric, 
a level beyond which you would never be able to tell the difference in the 
real world.

Bill / W5WVO


wayne burdick wrote:
> Sometime in the future (give us at least six months!) we'll be
> offering a very high-performance panadapter for the K3. Let's call it
> a "P3" for now. The P3 will work with any radio that has an I.F. tap,
> but it will be styled to match the K3. We're thinking 2/3rds of the
> K3's width, but the same height and depth. It may have a speaker
> and/or 20 A power supply. Your input on this would be very welcome.
>
> Early on in the K3 design process, we decided not to include an
> *internal* panadapter. Here's our reasoning:
>
>  - A panadapter takes up a *lot* of front-panel real-estate. So, if
> you want to
>    keep the radio at compact desktop size, you have to displace a lot
> of controls.
>    The displaced controls end up buried in menus or "soft keys,"
> making basic
>    radio operation much more difficult. The K3 has a menu for things
> rarely used,
>    but since there's no huge display, we were able to put every
> often-used control
>    at your fingertips, optimally placed with respect to the LCD. A
> good example
>    is our filter passband graphic, which is centered directly above
> the DSP controls.
>
>  - An internal panadapter adds a lot of cost. Many customers, we felt,
> would
>    rather have such cost be optional. If you want a panadapter, you'll
> be able
>    get our P3 and set it beside the rig. Then, if you want to grab
> your K3 and head
>    for the hills, you can optionally leave the panadapter on the desk
> (along with
>    its speaker and power supply).
>
>  - Internal panadapters often have severe performance compromises.
> There's at least one
>    very new radio on the market with a panadapter that takes over the
> rig during sweeps.
>    Many of them are sluggish or have user-interface issues due to lack
> of panel space.
>    Our external panadapter will be an entirely independent unit, so it
> will not interfere
>    with radio use at all, either operationally or due to overloading
> of controls.
>    That said, it will be highly integrated with, and controlled by,
> the K3 (or
>    attached computer).
>
>  - We may use a display technology that offers faster rewrite speeds
> than you can get
>    in an inexpensive graphic LCD such as the type most often used for
> internal panadapters.
>    With the panadapter in a separate enclosure, we'll be able to use
> very fast logic,
>    and possibly an exotic display such as an OLED (organic LED),
> without incurring
>    any RFI problems.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
>
>
> ---
>
> http://www.elecraft.com
>
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