[Elecraft] K3 #338 - Alive and well

[Dave Van Wallaghen]

Hi all,

Just a couple of notes on my build of K3 #338.

Here are some pics and notes on my web site:
http://w8fgu.home.comcast.net/~w8fgu/k3build.html

It arrived here on 2/6 and was built in about 9 hours on 2/8. I did a
thorough inventory and was only a couple of 1/4" black pan head screws
short. I substituted a couple of 3/16" screws until replacements arrive
(they were on one of the panels). The packaging of this thing was amazing
and very well organized IMHO. The documentation (Ron) was outstanding -
anytime I wasn't clear on what I read, there was always a good picture or
illustration to light the way. Like others have said, if you follow the
instructions to a tee, you cannot go wrong. It really went together quickly
and was a pleasure to assemble.

I found it interesting that all of the talk around this radio has been
mostly performance spec related (as well it should be), but I found the
mechanical engineering equally as impressive. There are some really tight
tolerances on this radio and when it is assembled, it really shows through.
I did have some difficulty with placing the front panel PCB on the front
panel itself. The two small led's over the power control were slightly bent
to the left. I carefully moved them back in place and all mounted well.

I only had a couple of problems - and both were my fault. I "torque'd" down
one of the jack screws for the RS232 connector snapping it off. I was able
to remove the KIO3 board and remove the rest of the screw. Fortunately, I
had another one lying around to replace it.

The second was a little stranger. All calibration went as expected, but I
noticed when playing around with the radio that when I adjusted the power
level from 12 to 13 watts (when the relay to engage the KPA3 would kick in),
I would hear a noticeable drop in signal level and see a 4 - S-unit drop on
the meter.

I pulled the KPA3 module and began to inspect it when I noticed that I had
crushed Q9 near the plug in connectors while placing it on the KPA3IO board.
What was worse is that just days prior, Larry Phipps, N8LP, had just told me
to watch out for that very thing in an email. In my case, the leads were all
shorted together, but it was still intact. So, I carefully bent it back to a
somewhat normal position and it seems to work just fine. I ordered a new one
from Elecraft and will replace it when I receive one.

Yesterday, after playing around with the receiver for a little while, I
wanted to see if I could make a contact. I usually like to hang around the
slow cw portions of 40m, but with the WPX contest going, I opted to try it
out on 30m. I called cq just a couple of times and worked WB0YRM, John, in
Longmont, CO with 50 watts and received a nice signal report. I felt kind of
bad, because I was not totally attentive to our QSO, playing around with all
of the nice features on the K3. With an unfamiliar radio, it is real easy to
make the other ops signal disappear ;-)

Just playing around with the DSP noise blanker and noise reduction settings,
I'm amazed at what I can get rid of compared to my K2. I've only just begun
to scratch the surface of what I can do with this thing and I look forward
to all of the firmware upgrades.

Speaking of firmware upgrades, after downloading the upgrade utility, it
downloaded and upgraded my K3 without a hitch. Nice job on that utility. 

The RX equalizer is a nice touch as well. I thought that my K3, through some
computer speakers, sounded a little thin compared to my K2. I adjusted the
equalizer while listening to an AM broadcast station and everything else
sounds great to me now. 

Back to playing some more tomorrow.

73,
Dave W8FGU
K2 #5099
K3 #338 - KAT3, KPA3, KBPF3.