Hi All,
The question has probably already been answered by several good posts. It
really seems to boil down to convenience, and maybe a little difference in
money.
Elecraft has NOT made the K3 obsolete. The K3S, for the most part, is just
a repackaged K3. There is an advantage to the K3S, however, in that many of
the items that are add-ons to the K3, are now built into the K3S. Some of
those features may not even be important to you, and if not, why spend the
extra money? Still, an all inclusive package will be very appealing to many
which is perfectly understandable. In essence, you have even more
choices!!! Significantly better performance, however, is not obtainable by
buying a K3S as long as you upgrade your K3 appropriately.
I have a fairly early serial number K3. Over time I have added the various
upgrades and accessories. I recently acquired the new syn boards, and
probably will upgrade the DSP when that becomes available. From everything
I've read there is apt to be no significant improvement that a K3S would
give me over my older K3. If I want, I can even add the USB option to my
K3. So, what little difference is out there between my upgraded K3 and a
new K3S, actually boils down to a significant cost differential, and for
very little noticeable difference. My K3 is performing very well, and I
know of no reason why that will change anytime soon. It gets very hard to
justify that unless money is no object. I have to say, though, that I do
like the idea of not having my 6 meter pre-amp hanging off the back of the
radio! Maybe a K3S is in my future too, but right now it doesn't seem to
make much sense.
A lot depends, I suppose, on what happens to pricing for used K3's. You
definitely would want the new syn boards, so the price for a used K3 without
them should reflect that absence accordingly. It does make shopping for a
used K3 a bit more complicated. That fact alone may cause you to go the K3S
route so you don't have to worry about it. However, if you already have a
K3, and are just considering upgrading models, I'd probably recommend
against it. That's the "trap" that other manufacturers get you into, but
not Elecraft. The TS-590 may be a good example. The new "SG" model is
significantly improved. I think there was some sort of upgrade process for
older models, but I don't think it went all the way to "SG" equivalency--not
in the way a K3 can be upgraded to nearly identical specs to the K3S.
Anyway, if that is not a good example, there are plenty of others that do
make this point.
In short, it would be pretty hard to make a bad decision, either way. The
biggest difference between the two choices is apt to be "money", but if it
buys you the convenience you really want, then probably it is worth it. For
that matter, the cost differential, spread over the life of the radio,
becomes pretty insignificant. Probably not enough to get a brain cramp
over!
Dave W7AQK
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