[Elecraft] Reintroducing the Elecraft XG3: That gadget your shack keeps asking for

[Alan Bloom]

> I tried to compare its weight to my HP8647A and nearly broke my postal scale. 
> (The XG3 weighs 4 oz. -- 9 V battery included. The HP sig gen warps nearby spacetime.)


But the HP8647A is a lightweight.  You should have compared it to the 
HP8640B at 46 pounds.  184 times the weight of the XG3.

Try tying that up in a tree to use as a signal source for a fox hunt!

Alan N1AL


On 4/28/25 13:14, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> [Breaking News: Eric will interrupt his Hamvention prep to autograph
> your XG3 manual if you order this week. Just sayin'....]
>
> Remember the XG3? It's our deck-of-cards-sized, versatile and highly
> stable all-band signal source. I tried to compare its weight to my
> HP8647A and nearly broke my postal scale. (The XG3 weighs 4 oz. -- 9 V
> battery included. The HP sig gen warps nearby spacetime.)
>
> "I need one! (why?)"
>
> Because the XG3 puts out a clean, synthesized carrier that simplifies
> all sorts of receiver work, like filter alignment, MDS testing, and
> signal tracing.
>
> And because it has four different calibrated output levels (into 50 ohms):
>
>       -107 dBm (1 uV)
>         -73 dBm (50 uV / S9)
>         -33 dBm (40 over 9)
>            0 dBm (0.23 V RMS, i.e. Humongous)
>
> There are + and - buttons to allow you quickly get to the target ham
> band (160 - 2 meters). Harmonics out to 1400 MHz can be used to cover
> UHF bands as well.
>
> But that's just the start of what you can do with this little
> oscillator. Via the included USB cable, you can control and configure
> the XG3 remotely, do wide-range frequency sweeps, and download new
> firmware. It even includes built-in CW and FSK modulation. ("You mean
> it's a QRPpp CW/RTTY transmit driver for homebrew QRP projects?" Yes.
> With an all-band tunable VFO. "Can you work all states with a barefoot
> XG3?" TBD. Let me know.)
>
> For more information including the downloadable manual, see our XG3 web page:
>
>       https://elecraft.com/products/xg3
>
> If we've left anything to your imagination, feel free to email me
> directly. You can also see what other XG3 owners are saying on the
> eHam review page:
>
>       https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product/9807
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
>