[Elecraft] K3 #125, My saga after 4 weeks

[John Buck]

I ordered my K3 on May 1. 
The kit arrived at my QTH  on The Big Island of Hawaii  late in the day 
on Tuesday, December 4. 
It was shipped without incident by UPS.
The 100 watt radio with tuner was calibrated and running on Friday, 
December 7.

There were no technical issues or problems during assembly and testing, 
using the provided documentation. 

The parts fit and precision of sheet metal and brackets was beautiful.  
There was no bending to fit.  When you laid the parts together the 
screws invariably fit into the center of the holes. 

I spent some extra time during inventory because the screws were not 
always in the packages defined.  But they were all there, once all the 
packages were opened and counted.  Even the two I lost later by flipping 
a container off the table, sweeping the floor and recounting, had been 
there during the initial inventory.  By the way, about a week after 
Dremel cutting two new screws to fit from longer ones I had in the junk 
box, I noticed that my surplus box had the two missing screws in it.  I 
think I found them on the other side of the room.

It was useful to upgrade to the latest available firmware as soon as 
possible once the radio was running and before completing calibration.

This was the first time in my 50+ years in ham radio that I ever ordered 
a new product, sight unseen, within 2 or 3 days of the first showing, 
and knowing that less than 20 Beta units and no production units were 
"out there".  My confidence in the Elecraft team was based on my 
experience with the K2 and other products from this amazing group.  
Since I have some experience with transitioning from development to 
preproduction to production I expected that my "late" order 1 day after 
the mass rush at Visalia might take some time to deliver.  I greatly 
admire the commitment of the management to hold delivery until the 
quality of the units, the documentation, and the firmware, met their 
high standards in spite of the slings and arrows cast by some 
disappointed instant gratification seekers.  This takes a form of 
courage on the part of the decision makers that is missing in too many 
companies.

I expected the Elecraft team to provide a superior product, with some 
positive technical surprises, and to meet their technical goals of 
providing performance meeting or exceeding the competition.  I have not 
been disappointed.  I am still exploring the features of this radio and 
it just gets better with each firmware update.

I have had for several years one of the competing top of the line 
radios.  The Orion radio offers possibly the best receiver previously 
available to hams in some of the critical specifications related to 
digging our  weak signals from very strong adjacent signals in a crowded 
contest or dx pileup.  It took several months and many firmware updates 
for me to be able to make good use of that radio's capabilities.  I am 
still waiting for firmware updates to fix some obvious issues that I can 
work around.

Two days after finishing the K3, I did an A/B test with the other radio 
on some very weak signals.  There was no question that the K3 was able 
to dig out a weak ssb signal as well as the Orion.  I could not say that 
the K3 was better, but I feel it was at least as good.  And I was just 
beginning to explore the  K3.  I was skilled with the other radio and 
just learning the K3.

It appears that the K3 firmware is well structured and that features are 
being fixed and added without losing the handle on other firmware 
components.  I strongly recommend quickly moving to the latest K3 update 
to get new features. 

In addition to the superb performance, I really like the sound of the 
K3, the front and rear microphone/headset selection and setups, the 
monitor test mode so I can optimize settings off the air, and the 
intuitive feel of both the controls and the menus.

Here are the few things that I am missing or have found room for 
improvement.

I really miss not having the second receiver and the ability to scan 
nearby frequencies.  I am on the list to get the second receiver very 
soon now and I may have to make a SoftRock panadapter to satisfy my use 
of features that have become second nature.  Of course the promised 
Elecraft panadapter will solve that problem, but now that I have the K3, 
I want it all now.  OOPs!  I think I just downgraded my image of patience.

I was able to use the K3 smoothly with Dx4win and with the Steppir 
beam.  However, initially I was unable to get the K3 to communicate with 
the Steppir without running the computer and Dx4win.  I found I can run 
the K3 command AI1; and then the Steppir reads the K3 information and 
behaves normally even if the computer is turned off.  But I have not 
figured out how to make the K3 retain the AI1 broadcast mode through a 
power cycle.  The feature may be available and I just have not 
discovered it yet or it may be a subject for a future firmware feature 
request.

I note that the image rejection specification is "only" greater than 
70db.  I have not had time to investigate how good it really is, but 
expect no problem given the other great performance capabilities of the 
radio.

A slight misalignment of the rubber belt finger grip on the main tuning 
knob makes it appear to wobble slightly while spinning the knob.

I managed to chip off a bit of paint on the top edge of the top cover.  
A black marker made the 1/8 inch line of exposed aluminum nearly 
invisible, but I know it is there.  I also noticed that tightening the 
cover screws tends to peel some of the paint in the countersink area for 
the screw heads.  Some day, when I get a mid western ice storm at my 
3000 foot elevation on the Big Island and cannot use my radio for a few 
weeks because the ice has drooped the elements to the ground, then I 
might take the cover off and see if I can powder coat the cover.  
However, since the snow on Mauna Kea, about 18 miles south of my QTH, 
seems to always stay above the 7000  foot level, I think it will be a 
looooong time before I worry about that minor issue.

By the way, did I say that I like my K3 and that my excellent nonsmoking 
Orion will be for sale as soon as I get the K3 second receiver?


Aloha and 73,
John "I like my K3" KH7T