[Elecraft] Unhappy With Your KX3?

Fri Aug 3 21:50:50 EDT 2012

Hi Harry & all --

I, too, represent Maine, and must point out that when you say "Here in
Maine the KX3 would be classified as a blivet" you aren't speaking for all
Mainers.

I agree that Kevin's question (what don't you like about the KX3) is
entirely appropriate. He's asking a simple question from another angle and
doesn't deserve to be jumped on by anyone making the assumption that he's
biased against the radio.

I bought a new truck in '05 that needed two fixes within probably 1,000
miles. Yes it was frustrating, but that's why they offer a warranty, and it
was honored. New products, especially those pushing the state of the art,
probably aren't perfect. A wise high school teacher once told me everything
in life is a tradeoff. He even repeated it, for emphasis. Can't count the
number of times since then that I realized he was right.

In the end, best vehicle I ever had, hands down.

I'm a relative newcomer to Maine (2006), but from what I gather, we take
the good with the bad, deal with the nor'easters and rough winters, and tap
our Yankee ingenuity when it comes to making stop-gap fixes before official
ones are available, or even in their absence. We make things work. In my
case, it simply involved about six inches of blue painter's tape. If I
cared about how it looked, I might have used black vinyl tape instead, but
I'm a Mainer :)

I'd urge people to not put the blame on the speaker due to (in some cases)
the case resonating/vibrating - the speaker, to me, is clearly plenty
powerful for the radio room. It's small but it's no slouch. The problem is
more likely with the spacing on the halves of the enclosure. I too think
filing/grinding is extreme and I wouldn't want to go there.

I'll take excellence over perfection, because excellence is attainable. In
my personal opinion (and everyone's got one), Wayne and Eric have done that
with the KX3 and their other products.

Disclaimer: My KX3 was factory assembled, not a kit. That said, the only
gripes I've had were that the encoder was mechanically scratchy and the
case resonated at high volumes. While ideally these issues wouldn't exist
from the factory, I solved both with relatively little effort (thanks to
the forum), and if I had to pick one radio from my past 24 years of hamming
to live with, the KX3 would be it, no question. Your mileage may vary,
everyone's got an opinion, etc...

I love this radio and it's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Thanks,
Elecraft, for delivering excellence.

73,
--Andrew, NV1B
..

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 8:59 PM, Harry White <hwhite1 at maine.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi Kevin,
>
> Actually, I think this list is very appropriate for your question. I think
> far too many people are looking at the KX3 through rose colored glasses, to
> use a tired old phrase. I received KX3 kit, serial number 557, on June
> 29th,
> by coincidence my seventieth birthday. The parts list and the actual
> inventory did not match but the kit went together anyway. There seemed to
> be
> many hardware errors that were miraculously made up by a package of "extra"
> hardware. And there was quite a bit of left over hardware. Odd
>
> I found the assembling of the two halves to be quite vexing. The speaker
> and
> battery wires caused major problems as they kept getting into the way. It
> seems they will always be an issue. In addition, the legs, dangling as they
> do, hold the case fasteners at an odd angle and exacerbate an already
> vexing
> problem. Clearly the legs could use a better mechanical design, independent
> of the case fasteners. Once assembled the KX3 powered up with no issues but
> I was stunned by the poor audio. The distortion was unacceptable at any
> level above a low, unlistenable volume. I thought it might be the speaker
> so
> I attached external, powered speakers and got the same result. I have read
> on this list that one should just use earbuds or headphones. As one who
> uses
> two hearing aids, earbuds are unacceptable and I don't think I should be
> forced to use headphones in a very quiet radio room. The speaker has to
> work! And now I find I need to install the grille cloth because of bad
> directions. Someone also suggested grinding or filing away portions of the
> case around the speaker. I'm not about to do something so drastic on a
> piece
> of electronic gear!
>
> The result of all that was I have set the radio aside and consider it
> useless in its present form. I have read of firmware revisions but they
> seem
> unacceptable at this point. Revision 1.10 was noted just today as causing a
> fatal flaw in certain KX3's and the advice was to wait for revision 1.12
> which will not be out for a while. Duhhhhh. In reading the various emails
> it
> seems that for every step Elecraft takes ahead in firmware, they take
> almost
> a step back in issues the new revision creates. In addition, there are
> still
> things not implemented. I wonder how the editors of QST would feel if they
> knew Elecraft advertisements in their magazine were claiming features that
> were not available yet? I can't recall Yaesu, Kenwood, or Icom ever doing
> that.
>
> Here in Maine the KX3 would be classified as a blivet, two pounds of
> you-know-what in a one pound bag. If it had been made just a quarter or
> half
> inch longer, taller, or deeper it would be a far better radio. Perhaps
> Elecraft could offer a back case that is one quarter of an inch deeper as a
> retrofit. I'd buy one.
>
> I am not trying to say that the KX3 is not a good radio, it's just not
> ready
> for "Prime Time". It will be awesome when it is fully implemented but when
> will that be? If I have any advice for Elecraft it would be to sit down and
> list all the issues, with all their products, and set firm dates for
> resolving them, and then stick to that schedule. Elecraft gives the
> impression of having too many balls in the air, all the time, and thus are
> being forced to nibble at the issues.
>
> To answer your last question, there is no XYZ radio that I wish I had
> bought. Nothing has the capabilities/specifications of the KX3 at the
> present time. It's the KX3 or a giant step back to the FT-817ND.
>
> So there you have it Kevin. I own a $1400 paperweight that may someday be
> transformed into a great radio. My advice to you is to wait a bit longer to
> see how the radio evolves.
>
> 73,
> Harry White
> K1RSA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Kevin Kleinfelter
> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 1:11 PM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Elecraft] Unhappy With Your KX3?
>
> I'm interested in buying the KX3, but it is a lot of money for me; I want
> to
> be sure not to make an expensive mistake.  So I started searching the net
> for someone who is unhappy with his/her KX3.  The closest I got was someone
> who said he hated his KX3 and was going to send it back -- until Elecraft
> contacted him, helped him make a config change, and now he loves it.
>
> So... If you are unhappy with your KX3, please respond with why.  (I'm not
> looking for things that could be tweaked to make it better. I'm looking for
> "Here's why I really wish I had NOT bought my KX3" or "Here's why I really
> wish I had bought xyz instead.")
>
> If you don't want to post it to the list, please send it to me at
> do-not-like-kx3 [at] kleinfelter [dot] com.
> TIA
> Kevin
> KK4KIK
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