[Elecraft] K3: 7.2 pound tuning knob

[S Sacco]

Hi Bill -

Cooling is also accomplished with "sink" area, which is how some of
the other manufacturer's have (claimed) to accomplish it.  "Cast
aluminum", and all that.   As I said, it works, no doubt.  More power
to them if they can do it without 10 pounds of aluminum.

WRT the firmware, I stand by my position.  Remember the disappearing
functions?  Didn't the NB go away once?  The multiple times/week
updates is less a tribute to their ability to fix issues, and very
much a function of shipping it before it was properly tested.  I'm a
software developer, and one of the truisms of that field are that "the
firefighters get the good publicity" - that is, folks who swoop in on
problems and figure out how to get things working again are highly
regarded, but the dirty, ugly work of properly designing and testing
is infrequently acknowledged.

Regarding the 7700 a really important thing to recall is that ICOM
never promised that they'd ship, what, two months after the
introduction.  Elecraft did, and they missed, and they didn't tell
anyone until after the fact.  Then they missed again and again, and
they still haven't shipped the KRX3, which is an option to which they
give special emphasis.

So, who introduced early?

Regarding the design of the K3, I wholeheartedly agree!  Time and
again, I've been amazed.  Some were the little things, like the fan
testing functions.  Obviously, that it can do all that on-board
calibration is fantastic, and I applaud the brilliance of the software
writers.   I have a copy of the User's Manual at work, and study it at
lunch, and keep being amazed by the flexibility they've build into the
radio.

How they got the holes in all those panels to line up perfectly is
beyond me, but it was cool and impressive as all get-out to see.

Well....back to work....the shack awaits my labor.

73,

Steve NN4X



On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Bill Tippett <btippett at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
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