[Elecraft] Hanging on to your K3

[Stewart Rolfe]

As the world gets ever more populated by the K3 there must come a time 
when we see a message here reporting K3 s/n *** has been stolen - 
fingers crossed it won't be K3 145.

It occurred to me that being software driven, it should be possible to 
password protect the K3 in such a way to prevent it starting up until a 
code or PIN has been entered at the keypad; once this feature became 
known amongst the low-life such individuals may think twice about 
lifting a radio that could well be unusable without a great deal of 
hassle. I'm not thinking about a permanent feature here, more something 
that can be invoked if for instance you're going away for a while or 
leaving the radio overnight at a contest field day site etc.

Ofcourse this would have implications; for instance doing a forced 
software upload would presumably overwrite any previously set 
protection. This would I assume involve putting a layer of security in 
the downloader to allow access only if you know the name of your mother 
or pet vulture, favourite war criminal etc, etc but this would also 
solve the inevitable problems when someone sets the security and then 
forgets the password..........

The point is that anything along these lines shouldn't add too much work 
either for the user or the folk at Aptos so wonder what, if anything, 
others think about this idea/request? Sensible suggestions only - I've 
already had my imagination going overactive and thinking about hidden 
micro-transponders buried deep in the bowels of the K3 which would emit 
a GPS traceable signal after 3 unsuccessful log on attempts, coupled 
with a hidden nozzle that would spray an oil based, infra-red dye over 
the room and occupants and which would show up on the next update of 
Google Earth; and if the security was cracked, an embedded code would 
accompany any signals radiated from the radio which will cause CW 
Skimmer to alternately flash the user's callsign and *STOLEN* in red 
letters....!

73,

Stewart Rolfe, GW0ETF (K3 - 145)