[Elecraft] Very good radio K3 - #845

Mon May 12 19:14:11 EDT 2008

Hmmm.  Serial number 845!  My serial number is 844!  I wonder if they
compared notes while sitting at the factory.  Mine is also assembled and
arrived on May 6 as well.  And I'm still sorting it out.  So far I am very
impressed.

I am using a Heil Proset.  But I also have a PR 40 attached to another radio
and I am thinking about trying on the K3.  Did you use the straight Kenwood
cable?  Any problems?
So far I haven't altered the TX equalizer but I have been getting good
reports.  Do you use any compression?  I have played with the RX equalizer
and it has smoother the response at least with the Heil headphones  but I'm
sure I will revisit that later.

The K3 appears to have been well worth the wait.  I am still waiting for the
second RX and the DVR, both of which are, of course, on back order.  But
last Saturday I worked a number of military stations on cross band with no
problems after I figured out how to do it.  One possible gotcha:  Unlike
most of my other radios, when in split VFO B is the default transmitting VFO
and VFO A is assigned to receiving.  That is the reverse of my other radios
when operating split.  I haven't figured out yet whether that scheme can be
changed.

Bruce - W8FU

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Roland Guidry
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 7:36 PM
To: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] Very good radio K3 - #845

I received my K3 Serial #845 factory assembled last Tuesday, May 6 and have
been learning and operating it daily. I downloaded the latest firmware
versions before beginning to use the radio. I ran into two problems that
were resolved easily and have had nothing but success with this radio in all
modes of CW, SSB and RTTY. I have a Microham MicroKeyer II attached to the
radio. I had also ordered the second receiver, but decided to bypass that
for the moment. I will try using this radio on split mode before I decide on
the second receiver for the future.

I am using a Heil PR-40 microphone with the Heil Kenwood adapter, running no
bias of course and Mic Sel = FP.H and TxG VCE = 1.0, Mic Gain = 15 CMP = 0.
Audio reports on this baby have just been fantastic. I only adjusted two
parts of the TX Equalizer, 100 = -16 and 2.40 - +10 for my voice. All other
settings are ZERO. Everyone who knows my voice and some are audiophiles,
agree that the audio is superb. I am getting peak power on SSB that is near
100 watts and it easily drives my ACOM 2000a amplifier. I do not run the
microphone through the MicroKeyer, but run it directly to the front of the
radio.

RTTY was easy to setup with Microkeyer, just had to adjust the pitch control
for 2125 Mark.

CW is very very good. I am an occasional CW operator, but using the 400 hz
roofing filter and using the DSP filter to drop it to as low as 50 hz for
the first time was a blast. No QRM, no Ringing that my ears could tell. Tone
has nice sound to it. My first station worked was in Australia on 80M with a
80m vertical running 100 watts. They gave me a true 57, while I was coping
them 44.

There is practically no QRN source that I can't remove with either the DSP
NB or IF NB. I have had to try both method on some local noise sources to
get the best results. None of that was ever possible with my Pro 3 or Orion
II. And, NR works!

As a previous owner of a Yaesu FT-1000MP, Pro 2, Orion II and a Pro 3, this
is definitely the best radio I have used thus far. 

I will post a preview on eHam when I have had the radio for a longer period,
but just using the radio these past days has been a blast. Hope to work you
on the bands. Look for me at Dayton for an eyeball QSO!

73, de Roland NA5Q

K3 #845

K3/100-F
KAT3=F
KFL3A-6K
KFL3A-2.7K
KFL3A-1.0K
KFL3A-400
KTCXO3-1
KXV3

Backordered KFL3A-2.8K and KFL3A-1.8K

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