[Elecraft] Price Comparison and Comment

[Bill Tippett]

K0WA wrote:
 > I am sure many of you have done this already....but it is 
interesting to me....and I thought I would share
 >
 >   1.  FTDX9000 Contest              $5699 (no extras)
 >   2.  Orion II                               $4395
 >   3.  K3                                     $3436 (Includes 5 filters)
 >   4.  FT2000D                            $3399
 >   5  Omni VII                             $3050 (with two filters)
 >   6  IC756PROIII                        $2999
 >
 >   No coupons were added or any reduction of price for this small 
study of price.
 >
 >   As I see if, you just save $330 from putting it 
together.  HMMMMM.  That kind of makes he happy and sad.  I had the 
fun of building the K2...but that doesn't seem worth it to build a 
K3.  Of course, I could be (and usually am) wrong in my thinking here.

         Be careful with comparisons like this!  It
depends very much on your K3 configuration, and it also
depends on how you value issues like the quality of the
Sub Receiver, etc.  The beauty of the K3 is that it can
be configured very economically depending on what your
needs are.  Elecraft has cleverly configured the K3 to
allow it to appeal to many different users:

1.  Budget minded DXers who need an exceptional RX.
Include the basic K3, no ATU, KXV3 (for RX antenna
input) plus 500 Hz filter equals $2149.  CW filter
depends on IMD/BDR measurements but most likely
the 500 Hz 5-pole will be entirely sufficient
based on my experience with Orion.  Build one
yourself for $1907.

2.  Budget minded contesters who need 2 for SO2R.
Twice the above for $4298 assembled or $3814 kitted.

3.  Those who need truly high performance Sub RX
for diversity or for use in very crowded conditions.
K3 + Sub RX + KXV3 + two 500 Hz filters for $2825
assembled or $2525 kitted.  IMHO this combination
cannot be duplicated by any of the above rigs due
to the quality of both K3 receivers (pending actual
IMD/BDR measurements of course).

4.  Those who want a truly high performance
panadapter/bandscope using the K3's IF output to
an outboard SDR (e.g. Softrock 40, Clifton Laboratories
Z90/91 Panadapter, etc.)  This gets tricky to price
but it's nowhere near the $10k range of a full
blown IC-7800 or FTDX9000.

         I'm not a fan of ATUs but you can add it
to the above if necessary.  Thank you Elecraft
and Ten-Tec for not forcing me to pay for an ATU
if I don't feel I need it (ditto for the 20 and
6 kHz filters I never use in my Orion).

         I simply wanted to offer a counterpoint view
to the pricing listed above.  I'm sure many others
would do things differently but I believe Elecraft
has been very clever in allowing us to configure
exactly what we need...and nothing more.

                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV