Gary, VK1ZZ:
Not sure what you mean by "front end", but Elecraft chose to design
the K3 with the digital signal processor included (embedded) in the
radio. They also developed the software which defines operation of
the radio (SDR= software defined radio). At the time this was
developed SDR's were not very plentiful for the amateur market and
the few available most often did not come with software; the buyer
had to "roll his own" (e.g. be a software designer). This held down
the appeal of SDR for a good while. The K3 came complete with
software and processor included which required no external
computer. Elecraft chose to call the software "firmware" as it was
downloaded into non-volatile memory. Thus is was firm until a new
version was downloaded.
However, Elecraft did not provide external connection to the IQ data
stream or baseband so no second-party sw could be used using a
computer. That was both good and bad: good such that the radio was
stabile since firmware was under Elecraft product reliability
control, but bad for use of any other sw programs.
In the KX3 they have provided external IQ baseband output so one can
try any number of SDR programs with the KX3 (caveat is you may need a
bit more understanding of computers to actually get many to work with
it). I suspect that there will be many sw gurus that will come
forward with versions to work with the KX3. Of course one will need
a computer with good soundcard to run them.
In time I will probably play with trying other sw with the KX3. JT65
and JT9 probably the first. They will not provide full access to the
control panel, though. Maybe PowerSDR can be modified to work with
the KX3? Drivers must be developed for each radio that one uses a sw
radio program (and that is hard part).
73, Ed - KL7UW
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