[Elecraft] FT-5000

[David Christ]

These are two quite different animals with different design 
objectives.  The FT-5000 weighs 46 pounds and runs on household AC. 
The K3 weighs 8 pounds and runs off 12 VDC.  And here we bump into 
reality when it comes to 200W.  Getting 200 W out of 12 V finals 
would be a real trick if you want a clean signal. Each rig fits its 
own segment of the market, and part of the market would be happy with 
either.  I doubt that Elecraft needs to loose much sleep over the 
FT-5000.

David K0LUM

At 7:59 AM -0800 2/26/10, lstavenhagen wrote:
>Well I dunno. From looking at the specs on the website, I can't see that the
>FT-5000 is going to offer anything over and above what you can get with the
>K3, really. At least nothing off the top of my head that would justify the
>extra cost.
>
>The only feature I see appearing on more rigs that I'd say Elecraft might
>want to look into is the 200W final amp. This is nice because, IMO,
>- it reduces the need to go kilowatt with an outboard amp. True it's only a
>doubling of the typical 100W output, but you can go for quite a while longer
>without having to invest in a KW.
>- more headroom for high-duty cycle modes like the digital modes. I.e. you
>can go 100% duty-cycle at higher power levels than with a 100W final.
>- very very cushy duty on the final when you are driving an amplifier,
>particularly one of the older dual 3-500Z amps which can require quite a bit
>of drive to get to full power. You can run that higher drive level into it
>all day long without having to be flat out or close to it like you sometimes
>are with a 100W final into one of the "boat anchors".
>
>It's probably a relatively low investment in R&D and parts, etc., for
>Elecraft to implement too (tho maybe the size might be a problem in the
>K3?).
>
>That'd be my suggestion as far as a good bang/buck investment Elecraft could
>make.
>
>The claimed IP3 performance of the 5000 is pretty good indeed, but I'll
>believe it when I see it. Like I said a lot of these boxes are still trying
>to match the K2 as far as performance hi hi.
>
>73,
>LS
>W5QD
>
>
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