Hi All, I read the comments by Doug, KR2Q, (and Wayne's response as well), and while I tend to agree with much of Doug's analysis, I have a serious question. Doug infers that the "outstanding" specs for the KX3 are superfluous when operating in the field. I honestly don't understand his point. I suspect I'm missing something or not connecting the dots right.
For one thing, when I go to the field, which tends to be fairly often, I usually have better antennas there than at home. That doesn't say anything very good about my home setup, but I have antenna restrictions and I live in the desert. Setting up a decent antenna in the field isn't necessarily that difficult, unless you are in a big hurry. Trees or not, I can have a fairly decent dipole at 40 feet in about 5 minutes. Alternatively, I can use something like an end fed half wave, or a vertical arrangement of some sort. If I have trees, so much the better. I also have a Buddipole system, but I tend to use it as a Buddistick, which works very well. In any event, whether I'm at home or out camping, I find plenty of reason to appreciate a better radio. The late, but welcome, arrival of our current sunspot cycle has certainly enhanced activity on the bands. Signals are often very LOUD, and not that far apart. I agree that contests and pile-ups exacerbate things, but it seems to me that there isn't that much difference in conditions regardless of where I operate. It is certainly understandable that folks would immediately ponder the "trail friendly" qualities of the KX3. Anything small and light leads you to that as an option. However, I don't think Elecraft approached this design with that as their main objective. Rather I think they were trying to enhance versatility. In other words, trying to make a small version of the K3, and as close to a K3 as they could get. I'm remembering something from a number of years back, when the KX1 was fairly new. I commented that I had even operated my KX1 while sitting in bed. Wayne responded that he had done that too! So, maybe what Wayne really was trying to do was come up with a way to take his K3 to the bedroom! Hi. Anyway, I don't think the challenge was just to make a smaller radio. I think it was making a really good radio smaller. To do the former only trumps a few alternative radios. To do the latter trumps a bunch of other radios--at least in versatility. That was, in my view, the real objective--versatility. Maybe that's not exactly the word they had on the flip chart during the brain storming sessions about designing the KX3, but I tend to think it at least partially describes their objective. For a long time I've wished I could be a "fly on the wall" when they discuss this stuff! Dave W7AQK ______________________________________________________________ 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
