You are not alone Alexey. And while some say that if we don't design our rigs from scratch we really aren't doing anything more than soldering parts together, G. Marconi himself merely modified and assembled off-the-shelf components already known to many scientists to create the first practical radio communications equipment.
It's the particular joy of taking a pile of parts and creating a working radio that we crave. We don't pretend to re-invent the technology. It's not rational. We're fine not building our own vacuum tubes or transistors. But at some point the building process is diminished by the complexity of the parts - plugging in a pre-assembled circuit board, for example, doesn't satisfy that craving described so well by many as just "melting solder". Yet, a rig like the K3 has its own challenges. After all, even if you consider each whole module or pc board as one part, it's got more parts in it than some of my homebrew rigs built of individuals capacitors, inductors, resistors and transistors. To me it's a reminder that I prize rational thought so much because I so seldom experience it :-) 73, Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alexey Kats Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 5:31 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Why I won't purchase K3 Ladies, gentlemen, and all the other species of HAM community, I apologize for such aggressive and somewhat insulting subject of my posting. But after reading all the "why I purchased Elecraft radio" reasons I felt like chirping in. I like radios, I like to find out what I can do with it. I like building things with my own hands. I didn't have so much fun building fully loaded K1, K2, and KX1 in years... like... like.. like I had when I was assembling my own computer with nothing but pliers, 40W soldering iron and individually acquired spare parts back in 90es. It felt like I was giving birth to a baby or something - making sure that it is in the best state I could possibly make it. And I could also learn from it, a lot, in fact. Now, don't get me wrong, when it comes to the specs of K3 I bow my head to the designers of it - it's truly a one son of a gun radio. It's pretty much the heaven dream for CW. I know that. But there is one thing which makes me uneasy - it's not the radio I built. It's not even the radio I assembled. It's the radio someone else built, and all I am reduced to is plates arrangements and screwdriver turning. It's almost like I am not sure whether I should be thanking Wayne and Eric, or curse them. (Probably thank them more than anything...) My gripe with K3 is that even if I buy it, build it, and use it, I can't honestly say that I BUILD it. Simply because I didn't build it. With K1, K2, KX1 I learned a lot from its schematics, I was able to figure out what went wrong if something went wrong (just to prove to myself that it was me who was an idiot). I loved the process of making sure that I understand each and every piece of it, to the last capacitor, even if I don't understand the assembler code of its main controller (I spend enough time with computers to hate them thoroughly as it is). My problem is I can't do the same with K3. I'd love to own it. I'd love to use it. But I'd hate to build it. I am sorry if this posting makes no sense to all of you. I was simply trying to express my feelings... I think I'll try to find more money to build another K1 or K2. (Actually, I like K1 more, don't ask me why.) -- Alexey Kats (neko) ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
