[Elecraft] #911 built

[Richard S. Lindzen]

The K3/100 kit I ordered last December arrived.  It went together 
fairly smoothly (in about ten hours), and there were no error 
messages when I powered up.  I also ordered Rose Kopp's cloth case 
which is attractive, well made, and perfect for packing the K3 in my 
roller board when I go to France for the summer.

My only gripe is with the owner's manual.  I have never used a 
software defined rig before, and I found the description of the 
various menu and config choices fairly baffling.  Somehow (with help 
from Scott and Dale), I've got the K3 functioning well on both SSB 
receive and transmit, but I have little idea of what, exactly, the 
numerous parameters actually mean and how they interact with each 
other.  Also, the acronyms tend to pile up a bit mercilessly.  It 
would be great if there were an extended discussion of all these 
choices, a description of possible starting values and an explanation 
of what would change (and how much) if one chose different 
parameters.  In brief, I would love a 'K3 for Idiots' type 
manual.  Is there any chance that some kind soul would prepare such a 
document.  Of course, it would have to change with software updates, 
but this would be less difficult in the absence of any need for a 
hard copy.  Although the reflector has discussions of such matters, 
it would be nice to have a coherent (and authoritative) discussion in 
a single place of such topics as 'how to use the K3 to pull weak 
signals out of the noise' or 'what can be done - both good and bad - 
with AGC.'  Of course, I could join other K3 users in discovering all 
this stuff by trial and error, but with all the available variables 
to play with, this could be life's work.

Given that the K3 works well already, I suppose I could decide to 
leave well enough alone, but the manual leaves me with the distinct 
feeling that one could do much better.  Alas, the reflector makes it 
clear that I could also do much worse as well.

73,

Dick, KA1SA