[Elecraft] K3 - removable face plate

[Bill W2BLC]

Based upon over 40 years of HF mobile operation from tubes to solid 
state (used about all of them). Smaller is better - modern cars offer 
little space and cannot support heavy weight equipment.

I use a Kenwood TS-480 with the auto-tuner (100 Watt version) in my 
Tahoe and find it does very well. I have a console unit that I built 
that holds the face plate and the face plate for a 2-meter/440 rig also. 
The antennas used are HamSticks - yes the $26 dollar antennas. They 
really do work well and I can see no reason to have anything more 
expensive. Notice, I did not say "better" - I said more expensive. I 
have owned a few of the expensive well known HF antennas for mobile use 
and found them to be unwieldy, touchy in the maintenance department, and 
absurdly expensive.

I rag chew very successfully with my HamSticks - 40 and 80 meters. When 
comparing them to the expensive all banders, they held their own. After 
all, when using terribly inefficient antennas, a couple of percent 
points difference one way or the other makes little difference.

On 75 meters the auto-tuner feature of the 480 allows the 80 meter 
antenna to operate from 3900 to 4000 quite well. 40 meters is 7100 to 
7300. By the way, 17 meters is a fine mobile band.

Would the K3 be a better mobile rig? Probably yes. A better tuner and 
better abilities to handle noise. Would it be worth the additional 
expense? Not to my thinking. The biggest drawback is the physical size 
of the rig - even if you have a "removable" faceplate. Now, if you could 
use the full K-Line in the car - well, that would be super!

To the other responder:  Yes, I realize this is merely a K3/0 that 
didn't get fed while it was growing up. Sometimes the runt of the litter 
is the better choice. For physical reasons, having the ability to move 
the faceplate around would be a real plus.

Bill W2BLC K-Line