[Elecraft] Incremental build /design suggestions?

[ae4pb at carolinaheli.com]

My primary focus is DX and I'm trying to juggle priorities (cash) to build
my station.

I'm upgrading from a YAESU FT-897D which works ok but doesn't deal with
noise/band noise well.

 

The intended end result will be K3S, Panadapter, Amplifier, External Antenna
Tuner. The K3S will have the sub receiver, cw filters, ssb filters, data
mode filter.

 

At this time I don't have the ability to upgrade my low band antenna's
otherwise that would be my focus. 

Ideally my antenna's will be resonant on my operational bands but may need
tweaking due to the bandwidth of the antenna. 

Current Antenna is the Buckmaster 7Band OCF 300W dipole installed per spec
at 35'. All supported bands for this antenna have very good SWR except 10m
and 6m (I believe a nearby tree is affecting the antenna and it will be
trimmed soon). 

 

I'm shooting for the cheapest setup that will be functional at the start and
then add on as I go. Trying to get the order of importance down.

 

Thoughts:

1.       Base K3S 10w - stay CW mostly due to lower power.

2.       Upgrade to 100w

3.       Add sub receiver

4.       Add better receive only antennas, vertical loop array or such.

5.       Add filters to receiver and subreceiver

6.       Add Panadapter

7.       Add additional filters if needed ?

8.       Add amplifier (if I can hear it I want to be able to work it).

9.       Antenna tuner 

 

Thanks in advance. 

I'd really love to just walk in and buy a fully stuffed setup at the start
but I like to pay cash.

 

Jer / AE4PB