[Elecraft] [KX2][KX3][KXIQ2] Best Base Station: KX2 vs KX3

[Joe Stone (KF5WBO)]

> For those who use a KX3 as their primary HF rig
> at the home QTH, which features (unique to the
> KX3 as compared to the KX2) are critical? 

Hajo (DL1SDZ) wrote,

    The Px3, the rest is nice to have.

Ryan (AI6DO) wrote,

    I find the PX3 panadapter to be indispensible
    in both environments (both in the shack and in
    the field), so the lack of RX I/Q outputs is the
    KX2's biggest shortcoming to me.  

Thank you, Hajo and Ryan.  I think you're absolutely correct.

I attended David Shoaf’s "Shrinking the HF Transceiver" presentation at
Ham-Com in Irving, Texas this year.  David is in charge of international
distribution and customer support at Elecraft.  As part of his presentation,
David shared that Elecraft was (unpleasantly) surprised by the high
percentage of KX3's being used as base stations, in many cases, serving as
the operator's one and only one HF rig.  In other words, operators were
buying KX3's in lieu of, rather than in addition to, K3's.

David stated (repeatedly) that RX I/Q was suppressed on the KX2 ... not to
reduce cost, size or weight, but rather to create "product differentiation"
(his words) with the K3 and KX3.  In other words (my words), Elecraft didn't
want to make the same "mistake" with the KX2 that it made with the KX3.

I was able to play with a KX2 at Ham-Com.  What a blast.  I'm anxious to
purchase a KX2.  However, I’d feel cheated purchasing a KX2 knowing RX I/Q
was unnecessarily suppressed (at least from an engineering perspective). 
I’d like Elecraft to offer a KXIQ2 (an alternative to the KXIO2), replacing
the AUX output of the KXIO2 with an RX I/Q output.

Please reply to this thread if you're interested in having Elecraft expose
RX I/Q on the KX2.  This will enable the KX2 to be used with a PX3 for
backyard / picnic table portable operation, travel, ... and, of course, in
using the KX2 as a base station at the home QTH.  For hand-held, pedestrian
mobile and ultralight backpacking, I'll leave the PX3 at home and disable
the RX I/Q output in order to save the 10 - 15 mA receive-mode current
drain. 

Joe Stone
KF5WBO



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