[Elecraft] K3 - Pig Knob operation

[Jim Sheldon]

Sever	al have asked about the pignology.net "Pig Knob" for the K3 and how well it worked.  I've had mine for a while, but hadn't gotten around to hooking it up until this morning (recuperating from a nasty summer cold I caught somewhere between HamCom and home).

I was using a Griffin "Power Mate" along with G4ILO's "K-Tune" program and a serial port redirector program which worked just fine, but I always had to run through a specific start-up sequence to make it work right and every now and then when I did a security update or some such on the OS, the Power Mate would revert to it's defaults and I'd have to re-program it.  Withe the Pig Knob, this doesn't happen and so far it's operation is seamless.  Just turn on the power supply, power up the K3 and it works.

1, Simple hookup, just insert the interface board in RS-232 line at the K3 and connect it to a source of power.  You got it right if the green LED on the Pig Knob is on.  That's all there really is to it.  It's been reported to function well with the N1MM logging program and I can also attest to the fact that it works without any glitches so far with all of N3FJP's logging programs.  I AM running an RS-232 serial card in my computer and have not yet tried it with a USB to RS-232 converter, but I see no reason why that won't work as well.  Right now, I'm using the factory default programming for the function buttons until I figure out just how I want to re-program them.  

2.  So far, it seems to be immune to RF glitches even with the KPA500 running which the PowerMate was not.  I had to put a couple of type 31 ferrite clamp on's around the USB cable coming from the knob to keep RF on 40 and 80 meters from getting into the computer.  This doesn't seem to happen with the Pig Knob even with the 15 foot RS-232 cable I'm currently using until my short 1', triple shielded one gets here from L-COM in a couple of days.  

3.  Is it worth the money?  I think so, but that's just my personal opinion.  It has one major "wart" in that it is extremely light and unless you bolt it down, moves all over the place when you try to use the "cute" finger dimples to spin the knob.  My solution was to take a piece of wood that was destined for a small plaque, a couple of wood screws and some silicone rubber stick-on feet (under the wood) to make a stabilizer for it.  This doesn't add much size to the assembly and makes it 100 percent more stable on the desktop.  

I'm all set for Field day now, and will actually use it on my KX3 for FD.

Jim - W0EB