Got my KX3 (2457) kit yesterday afternoon late. Took just a bit over 3 hours to inventory and assemble. Wife and I went out to supper and got back late so put things away until this morning.
Firmware version 1.22 was in the radio and as I had already downloaded v1.23 from Elecraft, after the initial test and no smoke left the case, I hooked up the KXSER RS-232 cable that came with my XG3 and installed the latest FW. Ran the TX Gain calibration and put it on 40 meters using my 160 meter 1/4 wave inverted L. First CW contact was with K8JPM in Ohio. I had the power set to 5 watts and he gave me a 579 with peaks to S9 in moderate QSB. 40 held up pretty good and we chatted for the better part of an hour and the KXPD3 paddles proved to be very comfortable to run at 25+ wpm. Glad I ordered them. A few minutes ago, I plugged in the MH3 microphone and tuned up in the SSB portion of 40. Heard a ragchew net on 7.184 and put out my call. W0MHP came right back and gave me a 57-59 again in moderate QSB. Mic gain set to 23 and compressor set to 16. Audio report was "excellent with just the right amount of punch" and no distortion, so that's where I'll leave it. NB and NR are only on/off at this time, but I found them completely adequate for my fairly high line noise this morning and can report that they do work. Haven't tried headphones yet, but I do have a Yamaha CM500 and also a couple pairs of lightweight headphone/microphone combinations that came with Dragon, Naturally Speaking software. I plan on trying them later as well. Construction was very straightforward. No missing parts and only had the spare parts bag left over -- great job Elecraft packers! Now, I need to open it back up and install the Sanyo 'eneloop' 2500 MaH low self discharge AA cells and set the low battery point in the MENU once I find out where that should be (still reading the books) and finish up plucking the foam in the neat yellow waterproof case I picked up from the Marlin P. Jones company out of Florida for $29.95 plus shipping. Going to be a fun week here playing with all the new toys (KAT500 and KX3). Jim - W0EB ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
