[Elecraft] K3V - another new product speculation

[Edward R. Cole]

Satellite use was the major impetus for producing multi-mode 
multi-band VHF/UHF radios in the 1990's.  The cost for launching ham 
satellites has rendered putting up anything but small "FM repeater" 
sats beyond reach (>$10M), so the demand has dropped.

When the FT-847 came out in time for Oscar-40 (AO-40) many eme'rs 
jumped to the FT-847 (as did I), but now I am switching to a superb 
HF radio (the K3) combined with the best transverters I can afford 
(and that is not German-made).  Like power supplies, USB converters, 
and a lot of other items it may not pay Elecraft to get into.

The only new HF/VHF/UHF rig to come out lately is the new IC9100 
(>$4K) and time will tell if that was a smart marketing decision.  I 
will have about the same investment with my dual-Rx K3/10 plus 144 
and 432 transverters.  I would not bet on the IC9100 coming even close.

I am convinced that SDR will take over the ham market in time.  So 
direct-conversion 144 and 432 SDR may come along (several 144 SDR are 
under development at this time).  I would say the K3 with 
transverters is a find approach (except maybe in a mobile/portable situation).

You can have your K3V/U:  just install a K3 with 144 and 432 xvtrs in 
a big box!  Actually, the XV144 and XV432 are not very big so one 
should be able to make a common "rack" or "container" that is not 
much larger than the K3.  So you already have the means to make a 
K3V/U for those that want it.  To me this is smarter marketing 
(modular approach).

Look at the architecture of many multi-band radios and you will see 
that they use a common IF with transverters, internally.  Keeping RF 
and IF leakage down is a major problem designing such "animals"!

73, Ed

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Message: 3
Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:29:48 -0500
From: "R. Kevin Stover" <rkstover at mchsi.com>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3V - another new product speculation
To: Dale Parfitt <parinc1 at frontier.com>
Cc: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <4DA07B6C.6020704 at mchsi.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

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On 4/9/2011 9:37 AM, Dale Parfitt wrote:
 > That is an extremely small market. There is a reason the rigs you
 > mentioned are no longer around. Serious ops go the transverter route.
 >
 > Dale W4OP

Satellite users don't and I'm sure if some of the "serious" microwave
ops had a choice of using 2m or 70cm in a K3V/U as an IF rather than 10m
or daisy chained tranverters, they'd jump in a heartbeat.

I also think there's a certain amount of transverter snobbery with the
"serious" ops. "Those V/UHF rigs can't be nearly as good as my $1400
German transverter". Back 20 years ago that may have been true. A K3V/U
might win that argument today.



- --
R. Kevin Stover




73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45
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