[Elecraft] why the K3 is my favorite rig

[Dick Green WC1M]

Recently, there was a post on the FOC reflector to the effect that the
FT2000 is a superior choice to the K3. Much of the criticism of the K3
centered around the size and "heft" of the rig, as well as the cost. Here
are my thoughts on the subject:

 

Amateur radio is a diverse hobby with a diverse population of operators.
It's unlikely that one rig can fit all, or even dominate a market. The way I
see it, the K3 addresses a segment of the market that values
high-performance. This includes, but is not limited to, contesters and
DXers. As it happens, contesters and DXers make up a relatively small
segment of the overall amateur population (though we are often the most
vocal group!) Still, there's plenty of money to be made from this small
segment because its constituents tend to commit considerable resources to
the hobby (money, land, towers, antennas, time, and electronics.) Many of us
are on a never-ending quest for that last 1 dB of antenna gain, that last
bit of S/N, that last bit of selectivity, etc. Some of it is driven by
competition (we don't like missing a weak station or losing out in a
pileup), and some of it seems to be a perfectionist streak common to many
contesters and DXers. Also, I think K3 fans tend to be somewhat more
technically-oriented than others in the market. And I think some of us are
getting old and our ears need all the help they can get!

 

I've used quite a few rigs over the past 25 years, and none of them has
pleased me as much as the K3. Yeah, I liked the Drake twins, but keeping
them tubed, aligned and operating properly was a chore, and the lack of
features and flexibility would drive me crazy nowadays. Most of the rigs
I've used suffered from poor selectivity (a choice between shallow filtering
or ringing) and poor IMD rejection. Of the previous generation of rigs, the
Yaesu FT-1000D and Icom 781 are probably the best I've used for contesting,
but still suffer from those problems. Also, they're big, heavy, take up a
lot of desk space and generate a lot of heat. Neither is particularly
flexible. Neither is practical for the owner to repair, and spare parts are
becoming hard to find.

 

The Orion was the first rig really able to deal with ultra-crowded bands and
challenging propagation conditions. The combination of roofing filters and
DSP filtering makes an incredible difference. The rig is very flexible, too.
The box is large enough to look serious, the screen is large (in color on
the O-II), and the knobs/buttons are large enough for most operators.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for Elecraft), Ten-Tec designed the rig
without asking customers what they wanted, and wound up with one of the
worst user interfaces on the market. Some contest station owners won't let
an Orion in the door because the learning curve for new ops is too high. To
compound the matter, the firmware is poorly designed and poorly implemented.
Some of the original performance of the radio has been lost in so-called
firmware improvements. Since those were introduced several years ago, the
firmware has not been updated at all. The hardware itself is fairly
reliable, but there are a number of areas where substandard components were
used and they tend to fail over time (encoders, relays, etc.)

 

When I first opened my Orion, I was amazed and somewhat disappointed by the
large amount of empty space inside the chassis. I thought, "What a waste of
space!". As we know from our K3 experience, Ten-Tec could easily have fit
the circuitry in a much smaller box. I suspect they made the choice for a
larger box based on the screen size, number of buttons and knobs, and a
desire to make the radio look "serious".

 

I understand that the K3's form factor might mislead the casual observer to
think that the radio is not "serious". This is clearly more of an issue with
the observer's psychology than the K3's capabilities. Marketers do have to
pay attention to buyer psychology, but they don't have to cater to the
lowest common denominator if there are enough other buyers in the market
with different psychology. 

 

I guess I'm one of the latter. The K3 is by-far the best and most capable HF
radio I've ever used, and I really don't care what the package looks like.
In fact, I've come to appreciate the small form factor -- it takes up very
little space on my desk and it's much easier to get the radio out of its
operating position and onto the workbench for upgrades and mods. I haven't
taken it to another station for guest operating, but based on my previous
experience lugging a 1000D and an Orion, it'll be a pleasure to take the K3.
I can't see how the K3 could fail to become the DXpedition radio of choice
-- this is where the small form factor is worth gold.

 

The K3 has another advantage that may have been overlooked by appliance
operators: there's no other full-featured, high-performance HF rig that you
can buy in kit form. To me, the value has not been so much the cost saving,
but the opportunity to understand how the rig works and the ability to fix
it myself. I'm not your average consumer: I'm obsessive about trying to fix
all sorts of electronic gear myself. The thought of having to ship a piece
of gear back to the factory bums me out like nothing else (it's a control
thing.) I can't stand the waiting time and the potential for shipping
damage. I'd sooner violate the warranty than ship it. Not only does the K3
make it possible for me to fix the radio myself, Elecraft wants me to do so!
For me, it doesn't get any better than that (well, if I had my own spare
parts inventory... :-)

 

A very obvious "next act" for Elecraft would be to repackage the K3 in a
larger box, add a bit-mapped color screen, add a few more buttons, make the
knobs larger, and perhaps include an internal power supply. Voila: the K4!
I'm sure many (not me) would pay $5K or more for such a radio, provided the
hardware looks and feels expensive. If this idea is rattling around in the
minds of our Elecraft wizards, my advice is to focus on the cosmetics and
resist the urge to make lots of "improvements". A K3-K4 shared hardware and
code base will dramatically lower costs. Significant performance
improvements can wait for the K5... ;-)

 

Just in case you think I've joined the ranks of Elecraft "groupies", please
remember that one of my first posts to this reflector warned against blind
devotion to rig manufacturers, and advised consumers to hold their vendors
accountable. While I've been very impressed with the K3 and Elecraft's
service (and attitude), the company will have to keep on delivering to earn
my praise. So far, they've done an admirable job.

 

73 and HNY,

Dick WC1M

 

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