Hello, Just received my KX3 kit this weekend, including the roofing filters and ATU. I put it together without any difficulty on Saturday and had it on air by Sunday morning. Worked Cuba and BC, Canada on 10 watts SSB from my QTH in Vermont. I am amazed at how well the ATU works. In summary, I am thrilled - its a great unit!
A few comments from the kit build: 1. I'm really glad that there was an extra bag of screws, washers, etc. - because some screws and washers were missing from the main bags. I'm not sure if the person packing the bags just puts all the stuff they left out in the "extra" bag, or if it is truly an extra bag, but it definitely was needed. 2. I meant to write down the exact step, but forgot, so now I'm not 100% certain which screw appears to be labeled incorrectly in the assembly manual, but I believe it was flat head screw by the VFO encoder (page 14 of the assembly manual). I think it is supposed to be a 1/4" screw, rather than a 3/16" screw. I initially put in the 3/16" screw, but then discovered that I had an odd number of 3/16" screws remaining for a later step and an extra 1/4" screw. I concluded that the screw by the VFO should have been a 1/4" screw, which I changed, leaving me with the correct number of 3/16" screws for the later step. But, that logical conclusion may not hold true given the problems identified in #1 above. Anyway - something that the folks at Elecraft might want to double-check. 3. I would be curious to know why Elecraft did not include thermal compound with these kits - or at least recommend that it be applied to the rear case where the finals are mounted. I went ahead and used thermal compound, but would like to know if there is a specific reason why that was omitted as a step in the build process. I have not done any extensive testing, but a few short QSOs at 10 watts has not pushed the finals higher than 55C temp yet. Has anyone else done any comparison with compound vs. no compound? 4. I am very impressed with the quality of the construction and materials of the KX3. My only gripe is the quality of the hand-mic. It works fine, but it just does not look or feel like it is of high quality. Now, a small bug report - Serial Number 3159 Firmware MCU 1.30 DSP: 1.02 Synopsis: MIC BTN is not automatically set to OFF when in Data Mode, contrary to what the release notes for MCU 1.12 (7-25-2012) say. I experimented with some contacts using a few data modes, with an interface to my laptop. I had a head-scratcher of a problem with the radio transmitting as soon as I plugged the audio-out cable from my laptop to the mic jack. The manual did not tell me, but I suspected (and confirmed with a few Google searches) that there was a conflict with the PTT line on the mic jack and the data cable. I then learned about the MIC BTN menu option, which I tried to set to "OFF". But when I tried turning the VFO knob, it would not let me change the setting - the unit displayed "n/a". After a bit more sleuthing, I found some recent firmware release notes, which notes that the unit will now automatically set the MIC BTN option to "OFF" when in the Data A mode. And here lies the bug - that simply does not happen. The radio transmits for as long as the cable is plugged in, even when it is in Data A mode. And to further frustrate, you cannot change that setting in the menu when the radio is in Data A mode. I ultimately was able to work around this problem by changing the mode to SSB, going back into the menu, and set MIC BTN to "OFF" - all was OK when I returned to Data A mode, but of course, I have to remember to change the setting back when I want to make a SSB contact. Finally - a suggestion: The incorporation of the CW decode feature and onboard modems for RTTY/PSK is a great addition. It would be nice if you could add a modems for a few other modes, i.e. weak signal modes like Olivia. Maybe even an SDK that allows people to write their own modems and upload them to the KX3 (most of the source code is available in C and open-source - so assuming it can be ported to whatever you are using for your firmware). -- Oliver Olsen, W1OKO ______________________________________________________________ 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
