[Elecraft] K3 AM Performance

[Grant Youngman]

The 1-A is one of my five all-time best radios. Small, simple, a game-changer, got the job done. It's a delight to use. 

Drake didn't leave the Ham radio market because of AM, or focus on AM, or lack of focus on AM. They probably left because in the end they couldn't price compete with relatively cheap offshore radios. And decided the cable TV market was more profitable and could increase the length of yachts, whatever. 

The 1-A was a benchmark. SSB only. CW not even considered, so don't blame it on AM or not. But a marvelous radio, ignored for its novelty by a lot of hams. Now, they're expensive for a reason. It was the 2-A and 2-B that made the transition. Beautiful radios. The R-4B for example (properly aligned) is one if the VERY best CW/SSB radios from the era - in many ways better than Collins.  And a pretty good AM receiver for its genre. The R-4C had issues, but that's for a different list ... ;)

Grant NQ5T

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 23, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Phil Wheeler <w7ox at socal.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> Jim, you said:
> 
>> For us old-timers here, if R.L. Drake focused on AM when they designed and
>> released the Drake 1A (targeted for the SSB mode), they would have gone the
>> way of Compaq, Commodore, Digital Equipment and others.
> Where did Drake go?  Seems like somewhat the same way!
> 
> Phil W7OX
> 
> 
>