[Elecraft] Second Antenna Port

[Arie Kleingeld PA3A]

Mike,

I think that the second antenna port (without a tuner) was not high on 
the list of the designcriteria when the K3 started off. Changing a full 
grown product and full grown production line now is not wise. Not that 
it cannot be done, but how much must one invest to get this done and how 
many new K3's will have be sold to make a profit if many of the new k3 
owners will take a tuner anyway? (I have one).

If your wish was on the list in the beginning and you were part of the 
'inner circle' and fieldtestteam, and many others would have backed this 
wish, the second antennaport would have been there. What I see is that 
Elecraft gets a lot of the designcriteria from listening to customers. 
This reflector is one of the important infochannels for that purpose. I 
think the designteam of the K3 probably got 95% right.
IMHO they missed the 6m sensitivity thing. If most customers and the 
'inner circle' are HF orientated, who would have thought of needing a 
lower MDS on 6m. I would not have either! I am a HF man. But anyway, 
they got that on solved with the piggy-back pre-amp.

But who am I to judge anyone? I was not there when decisions had to be 
made. Nor was I part of any 'inner circle' or fieldtestteam. What I do 
know is that now that I have a ful loaded K3, it amazes anyone at my 
radioclub when we use it in a contest. (Of all the guys there, I'm the 
only Eelecraft user). Others say that they love the RX, the use of the 
IF-out (softrock-psdr-if-cwskimmer etc), the diversity reception, the 
flexibility of the rig, sending special CAT-commands with the 
F9-F12-keys to the K3, etc. And I agree.

I have my own frustration though. Just have to bring this up again. The 
L-mix-R has so many options. Why not implement a Ab-Ba option? Left 
channel "Ab" is normal volumelevel A mixed with -6dB (or so) level of 
channel B and the right channel the other way around. I have asked for 
this several times and it is only a firmware thing next to the A-b, 
A-Ab, Ab-b, Ab-Ab, Ab-A, b-Ab, b-b, b-A, A-A.  Oh well, if I'm the only 
person that would like this feature implemented...

73 to all,
Arie PA3A






Op 8-2-2012 2:44, Mike Greenway schreef:
> <snip>  I have asked Elecraft several time about giving the option of a second antenna port without having to buy an antenna tuner but so far nothing.<snip>     73 Mike K4PI
>