[Elecraft] Flex 3000 or KX3

[Don Wilhelm]

Jack,

Your apportionment makes a lot of sense for a "superstation", but 
antennas for mobile operation are not something that you would apportion 
by your formula - it does apply at the home station if you want the best 
combination, although I would advocate a $40 antenna plus $40 radio and 
$20 for other stuff in the budget - I believe we hams can build a lot of 
our station accessories (remote antenna switches and the like) for less 
than the prices of commercial equipment.

Your numbers are likely right for setting up a contesting station, but 
for a first time ham station, I think my numbers are more realistic.  
Consider that a beginning ham does not even know what bands will 
interest him, and what of the various ham interests will become 
important to the new ham.  Some like DXing, some like contesting, some 
like ragchewing, some like digital modes, others love CW and some are 
SSB only type hams.  A new ham has to find where he fits in this 
tremendously wide range of interests hobby before making final 
decisions.  If the ham is happy to stick on 40 meters, then a high 40 
meter dipole is not difficult or costly to construct, but if one wants 
to be "top dog" in every 40 meter contest, a large tower and a full size 
40 meter 3 or 4 element beam may be the goal.  Yes, there are a few 80 
meter beams in the world too, and those antennas cost a large sum of 
money, while beams for 20 meters and up come more into the "affordable 
by the average ham" category.

Based on your logic, Steve might want to consider a K2/10 with KIO2 as 
the basic transceiver and a KPA100 and KAT100 in an external EC2 
enclosure as an alternative solution to the KX3 and (not yet available) 
KXPA3 and 100 watt tuner.  Again one amp and tuner could live in the 
vehicle while there is another at the home station.   There us nothing 
wrong with a K2, look at the Sherwood list - it is not very far down the 
list even though it is 12 years old.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 4/2/2012 10:03 PM, Jack Berry wrote:
> Regardless of your budget, Steve, here's a formula that should apply pretty
> well. For every $100 you have to spend:
> $90 on antenna(s)
> $5 on radio
> $5 on everything else.
>
> We all make the same mistakes on our first shack. We buy the finest radio we can
> afford (or squeeze into our credit card) and make up the rest as we go along. We
> love shiny new radios with lots of lights.
> We are just coming into a not-so-hot solar cycle, so you are seeing things about
> as good as they will be for the next eleven years. To enjoy ham radio in the
> lean signal years you will need all the antenna you can get. It's much easier to
> find deals on used radios along the way than it is to redo your antennas once
> they are  up - especially if you put up a tower.
>
> If you do buy new you can't beat the Elecraft combo - design, support and this
> reflector, regardless of which model you buy.
>
>