[Elecraft] K3 is yet to come in my shack

[Don Wilhelm]

Daniel,

You should not be concerned about firmware incompatibility, I believe 
Elecraft has taken care of that.
Your only concern should be doing too much assembly before doing the 
testing.  If you test after each installation, if a problem is found, it 
is likely related to what was last added.

I did it "one piece at a time" when becoming familiar with the design 
and the tuning and troubleshooting steps.  At this point, I am familiar 
enough with the K1, KX1, and K2 to ignore all that and just "put it all 
together, then see what does not work".  That skill was developed only 
after many years of working with those transceivers and becoming 
familiar with the various in's and out's of each transceiver.

So bottom line, if you are either a troubleshooting whiz, or are 
innately familiar with the transceiver, the best answer is to take it 
one step at a time and follow the instructions.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/30/2011 4:32 PM, VE3GNO/YO3GJC Daniel wrote:
> Hi Don,
> I was thinking to bundle all boards  (2nd RX+DVR+IFinterface) except 
> maybe PA and do rxcal for both RX's than install PA and run TXcal. To 
> me sounds more risky to do the DDS mount without 2ndRX and run cal 
> than take out the DDS, insert into sandwitch the 2nd DDS, assamble 
> back and run cal for 2nd RX. My only concern was if there is any 
> firmware incompatibility if initially the radio "see" some optional 
> boards before the smoke test and initial cal. I have no clue if there 
> is any danger, sw crash or even worse if I bundle all boards before 
> calibrations.
> TNx for advice
> 73
> VE3GNO/YO3GJC Daniel
> *From:* Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com>
> *To:* VE3GNO/YO3GJC Daniel <yo3gjc at hotmail.com>
> *Cc:* VE3GNO/YO3GJC Daniel <yo3gjc at yahoo.com>; Elecraft 
> <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 30, 2011 4:18:26 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Elecraft] K3 is yet to come in my shack
>
> Daniel,
>
> It all depends on your confidence and skill level for troubleshooting.
> If your confidence level for finding and troubleshooting problems is 
> high, then put it all together and give it the old "smoke test".
>
> OTOH, if you want to bring things up stage by stage, follow the 
> assembly manual as it is written, and do everything one step at a 
> time.  If you have the basic K3 working fine, and add an option where 
> the results are not as expected, you can concentrate on what you did 
> since it worked last.  If you instead choose the "put it all together 
> and then test" approach, and a problem is encountered, about all that 
> can be said is that the problem is "somewhere inside the K3" rather 
> than being related to a specific option.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR.
>
> On 11/30/2011 3:47 PM, VE3GNO/YO3GJC Daniel wrote:
> > Hello All,
> >
> > In few days I'll get my K3 in kit version. I was reading the 
> instruction manual and did not figured out before 1st power-on step 
> (before calibration) if I can install the 2nd RX-KRX3 and KBPF's on 
> both RX's and than run calibration steps with both RX's installed 
> (including 2nd RX DSP board).  There are any optional kit restrictions 
> installation in 1st calibration step that I need to take care? I have 
> also KDVR3 and KXV3A. I was actually wondering to do installation for 
> all my optional boards than run calibration and allignment. Is this 
> possible? The assembly manual is not clear or maybe I missed something 
> in documentation. Any help/advise is more than welecome.
> >
> > 73 de VE3GNO Daniel
> >
>
>