I looked into that very question a few months ago (February)… My comments:
1. I don’t think Hardrock-50 has an auto-tuner so in pricing comparison, compare with a separate vendors auto-tuner (as good as Elecraft’s) if you are assuming buying the KXPA100 with auto tuner. 2. Hardrock-50 is half (or, less than half?) the output power of KXPA100 (of course, you know this). 3. Include your own labor time in $ for building the kit? I do this for everything I do to determine if I want to do myself or pay to have it done. For many of my projects, my time is a lot more valuable than the cost of somebody else’s time. For example, as a plumber my own labor costs are thousands of dollars per hour. Well, these are the three key items that I looked into in comparing leaving out the very likely quality difference between a full soldering kit built by me versus a kit from Elecraft. I chose the KXPA100+autotuner as a result of my evaluation. But, the rest of the story. I didn’t buy the KXPA100. My reason for 100 watts was to see about getting a 100-watt capable backup rig and could also be used in portable operations (with adaquate DC power of course). I made a wild decision. Instead of getting an amp for my KX3. I sold my KX3! In its place I bought a new Icom IC-7300 and it is light-weight and could be portable (not mobile) as well. But, I still loved QRP portable ops too so I bought a KX2 to replace my KX3. I also sold other equipment that was merely collecting dust to also put together the funds to buy the KX2 as well as a second KAT500 to work with the IC-7300 (since the 7300s internal tuner is not good enough for all of my antennas in use on all of my bands of interest). Net cost was minus $130. That is, I had a net gain after buying the IC-7300, the KX2, and the KAT500 by selling the KX3, and a mobile HF rig, a mobile VHF/UHF rig, and a R-75 receiver. 73, phil, K7PEH > On May 28, 2017, at 10:50 AM, Tom Francis, W1TEF <kx2_...@swsports.org> wrote: > > Greetings, > > I'm looking for a little practical advice about linear amplification for the > KX2/3 (I have both). > > Hardrock-50 or KXPA100. > > Essentially, it would be used mobile, although taking it out the car and > using it portable is > possible. > > So any information from users of these two amps will be greatly appreciated. > Also, as the > Hardrock 50 is a kit, how hard is it to build for something with finger > nephropathy? > > Thanks for any info. > > Very best regards, > > Tom, W1TEF > Lexington, SC > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to phys...@mac.com ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
