[Elecraft] Older option boards from K3 upgrade

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

I tossed my old synthesizers, in accordance with my dropping my old
closet hoarder policy of keeping any and all for 40 years to see if it
might be of any use. I actuarially doubt I will see another 40 years.

The synthesizer mod has met with such documented success, that I
routinely advise someone looking for a used K3 not to bother unless
the new synthesizer(s) are in it. Or to work a discount on any K3
without them to offset the cost of the synthesizer(s) to be done
immediately.

All this became apparent very early on after the new synthesizers were
introduced.

Anyone who is adding a KRX3 sub RX to a K3 which still has the old
Synth for the main RX, I tell them to do the synth mod right then,
because the easy time to do that is when the space for the sub RX is
not occupied.

A fully modded K3 is an awesome piece of used electronics, a very good
value. I have noted, watching eBay and sales via this reflector, that
compared to the overall K3 count of nearly 10,000, that only a small
percentage in the low single digits appear to have come up for sale
overall. These days you see one for sale every one or two weeks, which
goes quickly. 25 to 50 units for visible sale out of a universe of
10,000 is a tiny number less than 1%.

I'm sure there are more than that which trade privately. People sell
their K3's to friends and members of their own radio club.

I haven't done the new board that has the built-in sound card and USB
interface. That's because I already have all the stuff working and
debugged to do all those functions without that board, such as true
serial cards in my PC etc. If any of that stuff gets zinged (not
hoping for that), leaving others in a questionable state, I'll do a
wholesale switch to the USB upgrade and remove some number of cables.
Buying a K3S outright requires a financial negotiation with the war
dept, and is highly unlikely unless fire or lightning has turned my K3
into an insurance reimbursement.

In the meantime, my limiting factor is better 160m RX antennas to feed
the remarkable sound-stage diversity possible with the K3/K3S, made
even better with the new synthesizers.

All this contributes to the effectively zero value of the old synthesizers.

73, Guy K2AV



On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 12:36 PM, Michael Stringfellow
<stringmike1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I successfully upgraded my late model K3 with the new synthesizer board
> (KSYN3A) and KXV3B and have the removed boards with hardware. I guess there
> may still be some demand for these - is this a good place to ask?
>
> Mike
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