[Elecraft] Unhappy With Your KX3?

Sat Aug 4 12:32:21 EDT 2012

For me and my operating on the road for work the KX3 if the perfect size blended with performance. For me it is the best portable that i have seen with some similar K3 base station like features but with a much diminished form factor. 

Recently, I had it temporarily connected in my truck listening on 20m with just a ham stick. I heard Kuwait and New Zealand with good clarity and tone even with the existing smallish speaker. When i was receiving some revving noises through the truck electrical a simple depress of the NB and it was gone. The receiver is super quiet and exceeds by a long shot my former mobile the FT857D. For me it is night and day in comparison in the receive department.

I also used the rig QRP on 20m with my SteppIR at home. The small speaker is ok in the home environs with pups, TV and family in the background, but listening with my cheap Skull Candy ear buds I was amazed how great the radio sounded at higher volumes. I am sold on this portable and believe that it will continue to improve as everything else I have seen from Elecraft in my short experience with their products (approaching one year). I agree it is no base station but that is why there is the K3 to fulfill that need.

Keith
AG6AZ

Sent from my iPhone please excuse typos

On Aug 4, 2012, at 7:36 AM, "Rich" <rehill at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> I'm curious, where has Elecraft advertised or marketed the KX3 as a 
> "base station" radio?  My quick review only finds portable operation 
> references.  The only references to base station use I find is from user 
> comments.  Am I missing  something?
> 
> Rich
> NU6T
> 
> On 8/4/2012 6:42 AM, Oliver Dröse wrote:
>> Hi Thomas,
>> 
>> all your points are perfectly okay. It is not about how to handle it and if does physically fit or not, it is about expectations from Elecraft's marketing. I have no problem with pluggin headphones or external speakers in. Nevertheless I would still expect from a rig marketed (not designed!) as a base station rig to provide sufficient audio from it's internal speaker. And it's nothing new or magic, even the now 11 years old FT-817 provides enough "oomph" from it's internal speaker if wanted. ;-)
>> 
>> So again, it's only about expectations that marketing awakes. Just some food for thought to Elecraft. The same applies when a rig is marketed as having 2 voice keyer memories to name a dedicated feature. As a buyer reading that marketing sentences I simply expect when I switch on the rig that I will be able to use those 2 voice memories. But wait, they are not there! Uuh. Elecraft said, it will take a few more month'! Well, this is not what I expect when I read their datasheets and prospects. They are stirring up expectations they cannot hold for the moment, especially for first time buyers!
>> 
>> Again, I personally have no problem with all this, I can wait and use my own voice keyer solutions (just to stay with this one example) in-between. Nevertheless we have a few first-time Elecraft buyers overhere who are quite disappointed about what is not functioning yet although features are described in the user manual as well as marketed in the ads. Nobody told them that those features will only be available a few month' or even a year later. >From discussions I know that some of them will never buy from Elecraft again. Those customers are lost and that's a pity.
>> 
>> So it is all about wrongly set expectations through marketing (and yes, every customer might expect different things - that's why good marketing is not really easy ... otherwise everybody could do it ;-)). Long time Elecraft users (like myself) know what to expect and how new transceivers evolve over time. New users don't. They simply expect to find working what they read in the manual and ads when they first switch on the rig. They take it for granted as they are used to it from all other radio manufacturers and daily-used electronics, too!
>> 
>> 73, Olli - DH8BQA
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Thomas Horsten
>> To: Oliver Dröse
>> Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2012 1:49 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Unhappy With Your KX3?
>> 
>> 
>> Hi Olli,
>> 
>> 
>> Agree that it is marketed as a multi-purpose rig and it does it damned well too. With external powered speakers I would expect it to be excellent and that's my experience with it too. If it doesn't play well with the external speakers how can it play well with headphones.
>> 
>> 
>> With just the internal speaker, sorry but did you actually look at the size of that thing, considering its size it actually performs really well, but not to hook up external speakers when used as a base station rig is IMHO just foolish, the internal speaker is fine for operating outside on the terrace table or out in the woods (in relatively quiet surroundings), but if you have it in your shack then what's the big problem hooking up external speakers and getting *excellent* audio with stereo FX and dual watch.
>> 
>> 
>> The K3 has a much bigger speaker (surprise surprise) but even that misses the stereo (essential with the sub receiver) and it's got *nothing* on my AudioEngine A2 speakers, which I use for both my K3 and KX3 in the shack.
>> 
>> 
>> In general I find it nicer to operate with speakers than with headset but for portable operations a headset is sometimes the most practical, and also at home if there are other people in the house doing noisy things or not appreciating the sounds from the rig.
>> 
>> 
>> 73, Thomas M0TRN
>> 
>> 
>> On 4 August 2012 11:59, Oliver Dröse <droese at necg.de> wrote:
>> 
>>  Hi Jim,
>> 
>>  well, I would not agree on that points with you. Elecraft is marketing the
>>  KX3 as a backpack AND desktop radio (with not available KXPA100 and
>>  KXAT100). They also lay some emphazise on it being perfectly for newcomers,
>>  etc. So I expect it to work with the internal speaker in shack situations,
>>  too, not only with headphones. As I would expect from any other radio, too.
>>  But the KX3 does the job okay in the (quiet) shack, as long as you don't
>>  expect it to provide sound & loudness like a stereo system. ;-)
>> 
>>  73, Olli - DH8BQA
>> 
>> 
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