[Elecraft] K3 Performance

[David Yarnes]

Things have really been hectic here over the holidays, and more to come. 
But I did get several chances to give my K3 a little exercise.  The main 
problem is that the bands have been pretty lousy--at least here at my QTH. 
The QSB is horrible, and most QSO's end up being pretty short lived.  The K3 
has great QRM fighting tools, and great QRN fighting tools, but I just can't 
find a QSB button anywhere!

I'm really impressed with the DSP features on the K3.  It's taking some time 
to get really familiar with the best way to set things up, but without 
question it works, and works well.  And I think the K3 has be best noise 
blanker I ever used.  It sure does a number on the chinese radar problem.  I 
made a couple of short comparisons with my Orion II.  The DSP on the K3 has 
it all over the Orion.  I think weak signal reception is better as well. 
Even the QSK seems better on the K3.

One fellow I worked early on with my K3 said it sounded very good, but he 
thought the keying was a little "soft".  Now, I tend to respect this guy's 
opinion, as he is what I consider to be a first class CW op and homebrewer, 
but I'm not sure I agree with him on this.  He is pretty "finicky", and may 
have been overly critical, but I've worked 8 or 10 other K3's so far, and I 
rather like how they sound.

I'm also pretty impressed with the built in ATU.  I'm having no problem with 
excursions all across 40 meters, and I'm using an R7 vertical.  The ATU in 
my older Mark V wouldn't handle the phone portion of 40 meters (the R7 is 
optimized for the CW portion of the band), but the K3's ATU gets it down to 
1.1 to 1, and fairly quickly.  Heck, I was even able to load the R7 on 75 
and 80 meters, and that antenna isn't supposed to even work there! 
Obviously that antenna sucks on 75/80, but at least the radio was happy!  I 
think anyone who orders the K3, but doesn't order the ATU, is making a gross 
error.

Overall, I'd say the K3 is performing very much as advertised, if not 
better.  I know some features are still not "turned on", but otherwise it's 
a real winner.  I've only noted one thing that isn't "as advertised", and it 
certainly isn't very important.  The K3 supposedly goes down to 500 khz (but 
not below that).  Here in Tucson we have a station at 580 khz, and it is 
pretty strong normally.  But I can't even hear it on the K3.  I'm not sure 
exactly where the K3 starts hearing, but by the time I get to 790 khz 
(another local station), it does fine.  I think there is a Phoenix station 
on 620 or 640 that I can usually hear otherwise, but not on the K3.

Every other K3 owner I've talked to is a very "happy camper"--no exceptions. 
And several of these are very particular about their equipment.  Comparing 
the "hands on" experiences of K3 owners with commentary on other reflectors 
of owners of other new radios, I'd say the K3 has been exceptionally well 
received to date.  I suspect the folks in Aptos have mixed feelings about 
what kind of year 2007 has been.  However, I think 2008 will be a great year 
for them.  Production will hopefully be more or less on autopilot soon, and 
they can relax a bit, and dream up all kinds of goodies to add to this 
superb piece of gear.

Dave W7AQK