[Elecraft] What made you decide on purchasing an Elecraft transceiver? (long)

[Vic K2VCO]

It's hard to find something to add. I bought a K2 in 1999 after seeing a demonstration of
a prototype at a NORCAL QRP Club meeting. I liked it because it was small and good enough
to use in my shack as well as to take camping. I liked the clean audio, and I absolutely
loved building it. When I invisibly broke a capacitor lead, Tom, N0SS explained to me how
to find it using an antenna as a signal tracer.

Over the years I made many mods, official and not. Wayne and Eric were unfailingly polite
and helpful even when I was a pest, even when I was fooling the firmware to get 25 watts
out of a K2/10 to drive an amplifier before there was a 100-watt option (it worked well
enough), or trying to marry an INRAD filter to it (it worked poorly). Despite having a
more 'sophisticated' TS850s, I mostly preferred my K2.

And then... but let me present something I wrote at the time. It's probably too long for
an email, but just delete it if you get bored:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
My K3 Diary
By K2VCO

26 June 2006

I’m speeding along California route 152 at about 85 mph, on my way to Aptos.  Security
dictates that my friends are told that it’s a business trip, and my wife thinks that it’s
‘some radio thing’.  In fact, it will be the first time I see Henry.  I check the mirrors
for the CHP and step a bit harder on the gas.

It began in the summer of 2004, when I posted a message on the Elecraft reflector, listing
some of the features that I would like to see in the K2’s successor, should there be such
a thing.  Wayne answered, saying “Everything that’s on your list is on ours.  That’s all I
can say for now.”  Later that day I received an email from Eric, inviting me to join the
focus group discussing the next generation Elecraft radio!

For the next two years, as the Elecraft team proceeded with development, the focus group
looked at pictures of the proposed radio and discussed such things as the placement and
function of controls, i/o options, firmware features, the degree of preassembly, etc.  Of
course I can’t really compare the process to what other manufacturers do, but I was
tremendously impressed with Elecraft’s dedication to getting it exactly right.

And now for the first time I am about to see the prototype Henry (a code name invented so
that Wayne and Eric can safely converse in public without saying ‘K3’).

I arrive at Eric’s home in Aptos significantly early and without a speeding ticket.  Eric
has a lot of ‘junk’ like most hams, although it was neat and well organized.  He has a
bunch of non-Elecraft radios for comparison and is an authority on what’s wrong with them.
 Lerma serves us cookies, etc., while we wait for Wayne to arrive with the guest of honor.

Wayne shows up with a box.  We are required to wait outside while it is set up.  We enter,
sit down, and Wayne pulls away the cloth which with it’s covered (OK, the drama is
possibly overdone) and – surprise – it looks exactly like the design renderings!  If you
are reading this, you’ve seen the pictures, so I won’t describe it in detail.  The K3 is
larger than the K2 but smaller than an FT1000, about the size of the TS570.  It is solid
and professional looking, with the knobs, buttons, LCD and sheet metal all working
together.  It doesn’t look homebrew and it doesn’t look like plastic ‘consumer
electronics’.  It looks competent, like the cockpit of a jet aircraft.

We discuss how it will be packaged.  There will be an assembled version, and there will be
some kind of kit version.  We discuss the amount of preassembly.  SMT parts will be
pre-mounted, but the builder may install the through-hole parts.  Or it might be a
screwdriver assembly, like a PC, in which the builder selects from pre-built and tested
modules  -- about a 6 hour job.  Or both.

We get a demo of the user interface.  Wayne seems to have anticipated all of my questions
and there’s a clean way to do everything that I want to do.  A big problem in interface
design is to provide the necessary functions with a reasonable number of controls without
creating a Chinese puzzle.  The IC-7800 represents one extreme, with its countless knobs
and buttons, while the K2’s DSP adjustments illustrate the other side.  The K3’s interface
is intuitive, with just the right amount of feedback provided by panel LEDs and the
display.  I’m impressed again by the amount of thought that has gone into this.

I am surprised at how complete the prototype is, although a number of modules such as the
100 watt amplifier and antenna tuner, some of the I/O options, and much of the firmware is
not finished.  I try out the noise blanker (it works) and the QSK.  The QSK is much faster
than the K2 (finally!) and already relatively clean sounding with preliminary DSP code.
There are still some audible artifacts in the sidetone, which Wayne assures me will be
gone in the final firmware.

Unfortunately, I have to leave before I can really play with the radio.  I drive the 160
miles home, thinking that the K3 is closer to fruition than I’d believed, looking forward
to the field test, and hoping to get a low serial number.  Since I’ve already used up much
of my luck for the day, I drive more slowly.

29 July 2006

A quiet period.  Wayne asks for information about RTTY watering holes on the reflector.  I
know he’s testing Henry’s built-in digital mode functionality, a clue to the rapid
progress of the firmware.  He reports that it works ‘incredibly well’.

24 August 2006

I read the QST review of the Orion II.  It seems to have some rough edges, especially the
user interface.  Receiver numbers are good, though.  I pry some information about the
project out of Wayne.  Lots of improvements and possibly another demo in October.

9 November 2006

No demo yet.  I make 775 QSOs in the CW Sweepstakes with my K2.  I had hoped to have an
alpha test unit for the contest, but that was not to be. We get a (very) preliminary
version of the user manual.  I don’t have a K3 yet but it seems like an old friend.

30 November 2006

Today is my birthday.  There’s a funny noise in my K2.  I tell Wayne that it can’t be
fixed and I need an immediate upgrade.  He doesn’t buy it.

20 February 2007

There hasn’t been much activity during the winter. But today Wayne sends an email that
“We're on track for beta sometime in April. Eric has serious purchasing and manufacturing
ramping up. Lyle and I are honing the firmware for an early demo, and Bob Friess is doing
final tests at 100-W on the PA and internal ATU. I've tested the prototype subreceiver and
hope to have that option ready toward the end of April.”

April probably means August,  I tell myself. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I tell
Wayne that I’ll take one of everything.

11 March 2007

AB7R and N7DZU get a demo from Lyle in Oregon. Too far for me to drive. Some reflector
chatter about making it do SO2R out of the box. Please, just make it do SO1R in my shack!

29 March 2007

Lyle played with his prototype in the BARTG RTTY contest a couple of weeks ago. Otherwise,
silence. April is in a few days. I wonder if I’ll get a single digit serial number?

24 April 2007

Wayne says that the K3 will be announced before Dayton! This year! Beta units will be out
before that. Fabrication of boards, etc. looks good, he says.

26 April 2007

Better – it will be at Visalia, tomorrow! Soon I won’t have to keep my mouth shut about it.

27 April 2007

Several K3s are shown at Visalia! Reflector traffic goes through the roof. Big crush at
the Elecraft booth, but I forget my camera, as always. Oh well, lots of guys are taking
pictures. Elecraft is taking deposits for the first 200 units, to be delivered in July. I
predict they will all be spoken for by Tuesday. Eric tells me that the beta test units
will be ready in a few weeks. I prepare my XYL. Tomorrow I will clean up my workbench.

13 May 2007

I get the green light to submit my order for a FT unit. I’m ordering the works – three
8-pole filters (2.8, 1.0 and 0.4 KHz), the 100 watt amplifier, tuner, subreceiver,
transverter interface (for the rx antenna jacks). A big blow to my credit card, but I have
been saving up for two years. We’ll be getting them a bit at a time: the 10 watt basic rig
first, and then later the amplifier and finally the sub-receiver.

The cats have messed up my workbench, which won’t be a problem, since to my sorrow, we can
only get assembled radios, which will be assembled and shipped after Dayton (next week). I
guess I’ll have to take it apart and put it together again.

14 July 2007

“Everything happens that you don’t expect and it always takes longer than you think.” –
Wayne.  Most of the other field testers have their K3’s, some for a week. Mine was getting
set up on Thursday (today is Saturday), so I’m pretty sure I’ll have it next week.
Preliminary dynamic range numbers are in the Orion II class, and the lucky guys that have
their radios are reporting that a/b comparisons with FT1KMKV’s and Pro-III’s are very
favorable for the K3 when trying to copy weak signals next to strong ones.

Wayne and Lyle are working very, very hard on the firmware. There are so many functions
and features to implement, and make sure that it all works smoothly together. The FT’s are
feeding them issues and they’re fixing them. It’s exciting to monitor the FT reflector. I
can hardly wait to become a part of it.

1 August 2007

I just got the magic email from Lisa. It will be here tomorrow, with the 100w amp and the
autotuner. Serial number: 00007! It will have 2.8 KHz and 400 Hz filters, with the 1000 Hz
filter and the sub-receiver on backorder. Will I be able to sleep tonight?

2 August 2007

At last! It looks better in person than in the pictures.  I open the box…quickly.

12 September 2007

I’ve been part of the field test for a bit more than a month. We are receiving updates to
the main processor (MCU) and DSP every few days, sometimes every day (Wayne and Lyle do
not appear to require sleep, or else they code in their sleep). Things change – I have
little labels pasted on my front panel where control functions have changed. But very few
of the changes have been hardware; almost all are firmware.

Changes are debated passionately among the development team and field testers. I am amazed
at the ability of some testers to find bugs and of Wayne and Lyle to fix them. The radio
gets better and better, with new features and performance improvements appearing in every
update. I am also impressed with the way the developers listen to us.
--------------------------------------------

The field test continued for some time while Elecraft dealt with all of the sourcing and
manufacturing issues. The rest was history!

-- 
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/