[Elecraft] The K3 in comprison to the Big Guns

[Art]

The experts will weigh in better than I. One can buy an Escalade or one 
can buy a Tahoe. The Escalade has more bells and whistles, but doesn't 
drive better or haul more than a Tahoe.

The 7800/FTdx9000 have something for everyone. A knob for every function 
(or nearly). What they also have is an upconversion receiver, which is 
where the difference in receiver performance begins. It is not yet 
possible to make narrowband multipole filters at VHF that are as good as 
narrowband multipole filters at the K3 8MHz first IF, that the amateur 
community wants to afford. That is why the narrowest 7800 first IF 
filter is (if memory serves) 3KHz. So the K3 starts out with a huge 
filter advantage because its first IF filter can go to whatever is 
available, like 250Hz. (I avoid the term 'roofing filter' to honor 
Wayne's preferences.)

The remainder of the K3 receiver front end advantage, i.e. inside the 
1st IF filter specs, is the result of what Wayne wants in a radio. He's 
been designing stout front ends as long as I've known him coming up on 
20 years. The competition makes their design compromises in accordance 
with objectives, cost effectiveness (i.e. good enough for who its for) 
etc. while the K3 design seems to lean toward no compromise in 
performance. I note that the 7800 first appeared with something like a 
6KHz first IF filter, got hammered in the press, eham etc. for lousy 
close-in performance, and quickly added a 3KHz 1st IF filter option. 
Some of the K3 front end specs are up there near the very top line 
spectrum and network analyzers from industry luminaries like 
Rohde-Schwarz, Agilent etc. which cost $50,000 to start (that's like the 
base K3), running up towards a quarter million with decent options.

Not to say the very expensive radios are not good. They are, and they 
fit well in the livingroom entertainment system as well. Whereas the 
K3's appearance is more attuned to 'the shack' or the backpack, a 
utilitarian tool. Let's not forget Wayne is first and foremost a QRP 
backpacker. The 10 watt K3 version is surely the very highest 
performance rig serving the portable market, and fortunately the 
DX/contest market as well. Plus one can buy 3 or 4 K3's for the price of 
a livingroom appliance (lest I get hammered on the appliance remark, I 
happily owned a IC781 for many years).

I do hope I haven't said something stupid here. If so, it's all my fault.

73 Art

Snip
Shane wrote:
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 21:06:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Shane White <shanewh at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Elecraft] The K3 in comprison to the Big Guns
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Message-ID: <17267266.post at talk.nabble.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> 
> That's it, I'm going to ask the silly question.
> 
> How can the K3's receiver outperform that of the Icom IC-7800 and Yaesu
> FTDX9000? These two radios cost in excess of $11,000 and weigh in at over
> 25Kg (55lbs)! The K3 costs about $2000 and weighs about 4Kg (8.5lbs). Yes
> the K3 is deficient of a screen, internal PSU and some knobs but why on
> earth is there such a difference in price and weight? Given this, how can
> the K3's receiver outperform these other radios?
> 
> These questions keep bugging me. Those glossy Yaesu and Icom brochures
> certainly don't help!