[Elecraft] K3 on the air time

[r miles]

Mine is on every morning at grayline & evening thru bedtime. I am no tech & I don't have more than a very basic idea how things inside work. I care what it can do for my DXing.
Currently I'm focused on 160m.Just 500w & a dipole @50'. A long way from a big gun.I consider the K3 an equilizer. Last evening TG9NX was on 160m CW. Very weak. I listened  for an hour & called too. No contact tho'. However there were a lot of 'big gun' stn.s calling him. Some wrkd him some didn't. I bet they weren't using a K3. I heard him reply to EVERYONE. Some of the big boys were called back but they couldn't hear him. He would call them two or three times before they  heard him reply. A couple of them never heard him reply.Alligators....all XMIT no ears. You can't work em' if you can't hear them.  In my 50 yr.s of hamming it's the best receiver I've ever used.
As to size. It's a tiny bit smaller than my old IC 746. I see no difference playing with the controls. In my youth I easily 'palmed' a basketball so I don't have small hands. I'm a lefty but that's a whole another placement issue.
I read the techno stuff on the reflector & try to learn. As long as the K3 comes on & I can start tuning AND hear DX is all I care about.
Everything in this hobby is subjective.  But don't just admire the radio....turn it on. My '65 Mustang is driven not kept in the garage & uncovered once in a while and admired. What's the point.
k9il