[Elecraft] K4 Initial Impressions

Mon Jun 22 14:01:31 EDT 2020

Sounds quite awesome.

When you are using the amp, do you do break-in there as well?

Thanks,
w8lvn

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:39 PM Rick Tavan <rick at tavan.com> wrote:

> First of all, let me get this off my chest: *WOW!* The K4 is a spectacular
> radio. We've all known for some time how nice it looks - the display is
> gorgeous - from its appearances at hamfests. But now that I've had not only
> my eyes but also my hands and ears on an *early K4D field test unit*, I can
> make a few initial comments about the radio from a user perspective. Bottom
> line: *It was worth the wait.*
>
> *The box:* it's the same size as the KPA1500 amp RF deck. They'll look
> great together and perform as if they were a one-box, 1500 watt radio. I
> have a KPA1500 but it's at the other shack and hasn't "met" my K4 yet. I
> plan to introduce them to each other later this week when I travel to the
> remote QTH. It's a little heavier than the K3 but still a compact, portable
> radio. The covers have nice flanges for better shielding where they contact
> the front, rear, and side parts. It looks very much like the successor to
> K3/K3s that it is, but the display is much more than a re-packaged and
> internalized P3.
>
> *The user interface: *It's very similar to the K3. Tap- and hold-functions
> let each button and many knobs do double-duty. There are several
> user-programmable function keys, four message memory buttons that can also
> serve as per-band frequency memories, and most of the button functions are
> the same as or similar to identically-labeled K3 functions. Some of the
> controls are "soft," labeled on the display and adjustable with knobs on
> the hard panel. It's a thoroughly-familiar UI for a K3 user and, I believe,
> will be easier to learn for a newcomer to Elecraft radios. There will be
> context-sensitive Help but I haven't used it. I was skeptical a few weeks
> ago when an Elecraft developer told me that I would learn the UI in a day.
> He was wrong. It took less than that.
>
> *The panafall:* It's wider, sharper and seems even faster than the already
> fast and accurate P3. The controls are "soft" rather than dedicated buttons
> but have very similar functionality. You can adjust the relative heights of
> the spectrum display and waterfall area. You can assign a single panafall
> display to either main or sub-rx (which you couldn't do with P3). You can
> also set up dual panafalls, one for each receiver. And the receivers can be
> on different bands with different antennas so you can watch two bands at
> once. This shack doesn't have separate feed lines, so comments on that are
> theoretical based on the sophisticated antenna switching. I'll be able to
> say more when I QSY to the more capable mountain QTH later in the week.
>
> *The rest of the display:* They did a great job of providing situational
> awareness here. The two receiver information areas are identical,
> displaying frequency, S-meter, passband graphic, and mode info. Between
> those two areas are big, bold indications of which VFO is controlling the
> TX, whether SPLIT is in effect, and a smaller RIT/XIT indicator. There are
> "soft" controls on the left that indicate settings for the three
> multi-function knobs. You can see all the settings at a glance and control
> them with zero, one, or two taps. It's an effective consolidation of what
> could have been a large array of separate controls and indicators.
>
> *The soft controls: *The eight soft buttons at the bottom invoke various
> setting areas and menus that temporarily occupy space in the panafall area,
> condensing the panafall temporarily to make room. The only two that require
> frequent use are BAND and DISPLAY. BAND brings up band buttons with the
> long-desired band-stacking register functionality. Personally, I liked the
> K3 band switching model which now becomes a subset of the richer model in
> the K4. The DISPLAY functionality is similar to the controls of the P3 but
> more visually appealing and has the extra power described above. The MENU
> area is easier to read and much more informative  than the K3 main and
> config menus. Each function has a long, easily-understood description.
>
> *Rx Audio:* At risk of overloading my use of an expletive, WOW! The
> receiver audio is much improved over the K3. It sounds full and rich on
> both CW and SSB, even before adjusting the touch-sensitive sliders of the
> RX equalizer. (I'm just starting to experiment with that. Its functionally
> is like the one in the K3 but has a nice graphic user interface.) I've
> listened using a Yamaha CM500 headset and using a pair of Insignia computer
> speakers, both driven through a cheap four-port headphone amp and the
> speakers through a cascaded, cheap, stereo speaker amp (which shouldn't be
> necessary with this receiver but I haven't pulled it out of the lash-up). I
> haven't listened to the internal speaker much yet but it sounded good
> during a brief test, much better than the one in the K3.
>
> *CW:* My favorite mode. The QSK and semi-break-in are excellent. On QSK I
> can hear between dits at 35+ WPM. It's clean and clear without distracting
> artifacts. I'll use it often. Semi- break-in is more pleasant, letting in
> less band noise. You can adjust break-in delay all the way down to "zero"
> which gives you between-word or, at lower speeds, between-character
> frequency awareness. Also excellent.
>
> *SSB:* On SSB, I've received unsolicited comments about great transmit
> audio, again using the CM500 mic and no adjustment of the TX equalizer.
>
> *Contesting:* I'm a somewhat reformed contester by historical passion but
> haven't yet had a lot of time "in the fray" with the K4. I made a
> hundred-plus contacts in the All Asian using the K4, an ACOM 1000 amp, a
> 3el 20 and 2el shorty-40 around 50', from a Norcal suburban lot. Conditions
> were poor and I got lots of calls from very weak stations which I was
> usually able to pull out of the band noise without attempting much knob
> twiddling. I got a few weak pileups that didn't activate AGC. Fellow field
> tester N6TV put in more time, made more Qs, and got some pileups of
> stronger signals. He said he liked the AGC performance but I'll leave it to
> him to elaborate. I think this radio will do better than the K3 in
> pileups.  I look forward to exercising it from my rural, mountain-ridge QTH
> with the KPA1500 in conditions that induce more, stronger pileups.
>
> *Interfacing: *The K4 is plug-compatible with my K3. With a much better
> arrangement of rear-panel connectors, higher quality connectors, identical
> front-panel connectors, and pin-compatibility, it was a seamless
> conversion. Specifically, the Key In, Paddle In, PTT In, PTT Out, Phones
> Out, Speaker Out, Line In/Out, Rx ANT In/Out, 12 VDC Accessory Power, and
> Xvtr In/Out connectors are all the same as K3. It has both USB-B (which I
> used) and RS-232 to connect to the computer and additional USB-A
> connectors, one of which I used for a K*Pod which works great. It has an
> RJ-45 Ethernet connection which provides two-tap "Phone Home" capability to
> download firmware revisions from the Mother Ship, easier than using K3
> Utility. The 15-pin ACC connector is compatible so I had instant antenna
> switching through a Top-Ten band decoder driving a tower-mounted antenna
> switch. These capabilities will be even more welcome at the more complex
> SO2R station in the mountains.
>
> Enough for now; more later. I'm loving this radio!
>
> 73,
>
> /Rick N6XI
> --
>
> Rick Tavan
> Truckee and Saratoga, CA
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to w8lvn.9 at gmail.com
>

-- 
--w8lvn--