[Elecraft] K3: 7.2 pound tuning knob

[Bill Tippett]

NN4X:

 >I'm still wondering why/how Elecraft gets away with such little
surface cooling area for the PA.  It must work, but I've always
wondered why the other manufacturers seemed to put more into that
area.

         What counts in cooling is air flow over the heat sink.
With dual 4-speed fans I'm sure cooling is not an issue.  When
I operated my first contest in December, I kept an eye on the PA
temperature just to see what happened.  I never saw it go much
above 40C before the fans would bring it back down, and the best
thing about the K3 fans is their near total silence.

 >The K3 was shipped 8-9 months too soon, given the immature state of
the firmware.  This behavior would have been wildly and viscously
attacked if exhibited by a Japanese manufacturer.

         Remember when Icom introduced the IC-7700 at Dayton?
Since then the K3 has shipped over 600 production units...and the
7700 just started.  So which manufacturer introduced prematurely?

         Being primarily a CW op I haven't felt the firmware was
immature.  Granted, if I were waiting for AM or FM, I might feel
differently.  The beauty of the K3's modular approach is that
I wasn't forced to pay or wait for functions like those that I
never use, and yet I can wait for other options I want without
paying for them until they are shipped (e.g. the KRX3).  I do
often marvel at the forethought that went into the K3 design
to allow this modularity.  I also marvel at the electrical and
mechanical design which allows customer assembly using pre-
calibrated board assemblies.  Simply elegant and simply amazing.

                                         73,  Bill  W4ZV