[Elecraft] To the Icom fans ...

Sat May 19 16:31:09 EDT 2018

Hello Ken & Bob (callsign?),

I’m very sorry that you and others seem to feel annoyed because of the K4 discussion. This was not my intention but I’m a bit disappointed that this quickly drifted off into a 'so why did you buy an Elecraft product' debate instead of discussing things more objectively.

Someone was asking about a K4 and I just started to think out loud what in my eyes would perfect the K3S or even justify a new model. This was not meant as criticism. However, my points did not come 'out of the blue' as I and others have been collecting notes since the K3 hit the market. Back then and after careful evaluation of an early model we just silently went with another product. Since then many issues have been addressed making the upgraded K3/K3S a mature product, and my list has shrunken to the aforementioned points. It now seemed appropriate to articulate them.

I’m not expecting at all that someone will build a radio to my personal needs. Most of it is subjective and debatable, anyway. But we all would agree that time moves on and it does make sense to help such a responsive company like Elecraft with new ideas which they might consider for future products. As a long-time reader of this list I understand that it has been this way all the time and hence I don’t feel it is wrong to mention possible improvements.

It is absolutely fine if you are happy with your early serial number K3. However, there may be issues you are not aware of and for good reason Elecraft has come out with upgrades. One example is the CW timing issue of the K3 with the old synthesizer as mentioned earlier:
http://lists.f5mzn.org/pipermail/support/2013-November/083384.html
http://mldxcc.org/n6tv-k3.pdf

There are still a few CW signals on the bands, even highly respected and successful contesters, which can be recognized by their choppy keying. If you are not into CW faster than about 32 WPM this is not an issue. But an early serial number K3 is not an immaculate radio.

As stated by others Rob Sherwood measures just some aspects of the rigs performance. These do matter if you are into serious DX-contesting with big antennas. But there are other technical and operational aspects which are not covered and he never intended to do so.

Getting back to the first two points of my list which unintentionally contained a comparison with newer ICOM rigs:

- Yes, to me it is amazing how ICOM does it, but the NR really works excellent and everybody else who has operated an IC-7851 will agree. 

- ICOMs APF is easier to understand: It is basically a DSP audio filter with preselectable bandwidths of 80/160 or 320Hz in context with a 0-6db amplifier. This makes it useful as a quick option to emphasize a weak or disturbed signal. Elecrafts APF in contrast has a fixed 30Hz bandwidth and is more suitable to emphasize a very weak signal when you have the time to tune it in. The ability to select both APF paradigms would be awesome. But again, this is debatable. 

Having said that, I love my K3S and although it took a few years it has now become my preferred CW rig.

73,

Stefan DL1IAO, SA3CWW/SM9A

--
Stefan v. Baltz
DL1IAO at contesting.com
http://www.dl1iao.com

> Am 19.05.2018 um 15:28 schrieb Ken G Kopp <kengkopp at gmail.com>:
> 
> If you're so happy with Icom's performance, why did you buy an Elecraft
> product?
> 
> 73!
> 
> K0PP
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