[Elecraft] K3 & Competition

[Wes Stewart]

--- On Sun, 2/14/10, juergen <plebian99 at yahoo.com> wrote:

I would not be so dismissive of the competition. The emotional value of the Kenwood name in ham radio is well known. The Kenwood name is still hugely popular. Who does not comment about "kenwood audio quality"

You joke about  catching up with the K2. The Kenwood TS830s is a 30 year old radio that has  performance thats better  than  the K2 in many areas. It is the case of the K2 catching up with the 30 year old TS830S!

I would suggest that if Kenwood released a updated version of the TS950SDX or Kenwood TS870S  model radios  it would be a top seller.  This would be
 especially so if the performance matched the K3.  Just try buying any one of these models in good condition, good luck!

The TS870S was radio that was many years ahead of its time. It introduced concepts that  we take for granted today. Many of these concepts that we take for granted were   pioneered by Kenwood in the TS870S.

I know that top posting is the norm, but it makes more sense to add here:

If Kenwood simply put in a cleaner synthesizer, some stronger mixers and
FET finals they could sell me another TS-870SAT in a heartbeat. As long
as they don't price it out of range by cluttering it up with two
receivers, a spectrum display and the like. 

I've had mine for 12
years, it's been flawless, the audio is great with a superior speech processor, the built-in AccuKeyer is the best,  the opposite sideband rejection beats the K3, it is solid, free of
birdies, has enough knobs and buttons that I'm not turning on the VOX
when I meant to change bands, etc. The memory functions are superior to the K3

In fairness, compared to the K3 the noise blanker is a joke and the noise rejection isn't as good, nor is QSK (something I don't use anyway).  But absent very close in QRM, there isn't a signal that can't be heard as well on the '870 as the K3.  I've never gotten a bad audio report with the '870 either. In addition to the synthesizer noise (it is 15 year old technology and up-conversion) the post roofing filter mixers are a weak link, but so IMHO is the one in the K3. Data modes are a friendlier plus with the K3, but the '870 has line level in/out and direct FSK.  There is a true RS-232 without any complicated level converters and if your logging program doesn't have K3 commands, tell it you have a Kenwood.

I had planned to sell the '870 to offset some of the cost of the K3, but after a year, I've decided it ain't going to happen.  Maybe I'll trade it in on a Kenwood TS-870 Pro V Mark II-A.

But I really suspect that any new radio from Kenwood (or the Elecraft K4) will be direct-sampling, hopefully with a real radio interface, i.e, knobs.