[Elecraft] K4

[Jim Brown]

On 5/18/2018 4:38 PM, Richard Lamont wrote:
> On 19/05/18 00:15, k2ud at roadrunner.com wrote:
>
>> What features would your K4 have?
> Compared to the K3S:
>
> RX maximum audio bandwidth increased from 4 kHz to 6 kHz.

Why?  It's a ham transceiver.  If you want a "short wave" RX to listen 
to broadcast, buy an inexpensive SDR that plugs into your USB port and 
have any bandwidth you like! 
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/roundup-software-defined-radios/

I own both an SDRPlay RSP1A  ($99) and a FunCube Dongle Pro+ ($210). I 
bought them for chasing RFI, but they work very well as receivers.  Many 
great (and free) choices of SDR software, including this by Simon Brown, 
G4ELI.

> More macro buttons.

Can't argue with that, but the radio would need to be bigger.  Have you 
studied the manual for the many ways to save presets of frequency, mode, 
etc. ?  Lots of things we want to assign to macros can be solved that way.

> Higher resolution S-meter (more bargraph segments).

Why is that important?

> 1/4" jacks instead of 3.5mm ones.

Why?  Quality of jacks and plugs?  Simply buy good quality plugs 
(Neutrik and Switchcraft are the good brands) and make your own cables.  
And if you want those bigger jacks, the radio would have to be larger.

> Longer&fatter 13.8V power cable

Buy a Power Pole connector pair, buy the size of cable you want, pull 
out your soldering iron and make any power cable you want.

> 24-bit digital audio i/o, without going D-A-D.

To what benefit?

> Steeper filter slopes on SSB TX passband to widen audio while staying
> within 3 kHz occupied bandwidth (cf IC7300).

Buy and plug in a 8-pole 2.8 kHz roofing filter to replace the 2.7 kHz 
filter. If you can tell the difference between that and 3 kHz bandwidth 
you've got better ears than me. Further, any audio content below about 
400 Hz is wasted in a communications circuit.

73, Jim K9YC