[Elecraft] K3 panadaptor

[Vic K2VCO]

Jack Smith wrote:

> I did a one-time kit run of a stand-alone digital (LCD and DDS) 
> panadapter 18 months ago, the Z90 and Z91 models. Z90 being 
> self-contained with LCD and Z91 computer display only, no LCD.  Both 
> used the same PCB and conversion from a Z91 to a Z90 requires adding a 
> handful of parts. More details at my web site or through the QEX article 
> I wrote on it.
> 
> The Z90/91 works with any IF between 50 KHz and 70 MHz, although for 
> some frequencies spurious signals generated by the DDS may  require an 
> external  bandpass filter.
> 
> The market for such a product turned out to be very limited. The 
> original run was 45 total and it took six months to sell that run. In 
> the following 18 months, I've probably received one inquiry per month on 
> average.

I was extremely interested in the standalone version, but found the 
price prohibitive. I presume that the reason for this was the cost of 
the display itself for a small number of units.

Now that there are a lot of K3's in use, there is probably even more 
interest in this kind of product and it might be possible for someone to 
produce it in greater quantities, which might bring the price down.

There has been some discussion of Elecraft bringing out a K3 panadaptor. 
Even if decide to do so, I wouldn't expect it for a while because they 
seem to have their hands full with the K3 itself. Unfortunately, this 
acts as a deterrent for the third-party guys, who might find themselves 
competing with Elecraft!
-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco