[Elecraft] ON4UN has a K3?

[Bill W4ZV]

        Oops, I meant to include the link to W8JI's comments below:

http://www.w8ji.com/polarization_and_diversity.htm

73,  Bill



Craig-89 wrote:
> 
> I happened to tune across John ON4UN  on 40 meters working a JA  this
> morning(his evening). John was soliciting opinions  from the JA on the
> audio quality of a  K3.(he sounded great) It will be interesting to hear
> what John thinks of his? K3. 
> 
> Can anyone confirm that John owns one, or maybe was he   just testing
> someone else's K3? An  evaluation from this highly respected  author
> should make for some interesting reading.
> 

        Sorry for the reference to Craig's old 2008 post above but I
searched the archives to see if anyone had mentioned ON4UN's new 5th edition
of his Low-Band DXing.  I just received my copy a few days ago and the K3
was most definitely the star of Chapter 3 - Receiving and Transmitting
Equipment.  John's concluding comment at the end of the chapter:

"You can buy the best transceiver there is on the market for a very
reasonable price, the Elecraft K3.  And no, I have no connection with
Elecraft, and paid the full price for my K3s.  I would be ashamed asking for
a discount for such a wonderful piece of equipment at such a very reasonable
price."

        For those who may not have seen it, here's another nice endorsement
from Tom W8JI regarding diversity and the K3:

"I implement stereo diversity by phase locking two separate receivers
(heavily modified R4C's) together so audio outputs are exactly locked in
phase. The receivers are virtually identical, even to the point where I hand
select crystal filters for equal group delay change over the filter
passband. Every oscillator in the receiver system is common to both
receivers. I'm aware of only one commercially available amateur receiver
that does true stereo diversity, the Elecraft K3. I currently use an
Elecraft K3 since it is the only system that phase-locks two identical
receivers, it interfaces a good transmitter with the receivers, and is a
modern stable design with accurate frequency readout."

<SNIP>

"There are articles describing how to electronically lock the receiver
tuning of the FT1000D (and other receivers) so the sub-receiver tracks the
main receiver. This does somewhat work in the FT1000, because the
oscillators share a common time base. The main problem with the FT1000 is
the second receiver isn't a very good receiver, the filters do not match,
the AGC does not match, and phase shift through the receivers (especially as
the signal moves off the filter center) is not at all similar.

I had similar disappointment with the Orion system.

To the best of my knowledge the K3 Elecraft is the only receiver that has
absolutely identical receivers that share one common reference system. That
is what I have switched to now."

        I thought some of you might be interested to see what two of the
best low band DXers thought about their K3s.

73 & HNY,  

Bill  W4ZV





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