Sounds quite awesome. When you are using the amp, do you do break-in there as well?
Thanks, w8lvn On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:39 PM Rick Tavan <[email protected]> wrote: > First of all, let me get this off my chest: *WOW!* The K4 is a spectacular > radio. We've all known for some time how nice it looks - the display is > gorgeous - from its appearances at hamfests. But now that I've had not only > my eyes but also my hands and ears on an *early K4D field test unit*, I can > make a few initial comments about the radio from a user perspective. Bottom > line: *It was worth the wait.* > > *The box:* it's the same size as the KPA1500 amp RF deck. They'll look > great together and perform as if they were a one-box, 1500 watt radio. I > have a KPA1500 but it's at the other shack and hasn't "met" my K4 yet. I > plan to introduce them to each other later this week when I travel to the > remote QTH. It's a little heavier than the K3 but still a compact, portable > radio. The covers have nice flanges for better shielding where they contact > the front, rear, and side parts. It looks very much like the successor to > K3/K3s that it is, but the display is much more than a re-packaged and > internalized P3. > > *The user interface: *It's very similar to the K3. Tap- and hold-functions > let each button and many knobs do double-duty. There are several > user-programmable function keys, four message memory buttons that can also > serve as per-band frequency memories, and most of the button functions are > the same as or similar to identically-labeled K3 functions. Some of the > controls are "soft," labeled on the display and adjustable with knobs on > the hard panel. It's a thoroughly-familiar UI for a K3 user and, I believe, > will be easier to learn for a newcomer to Elecraft radios. There will be > context-sensitive Help but I haven't used it. I was skeptical a few weeks > ago when an Elecraft developer told me that I would learn the UI in a day. > He was wrong. It took less than that. > > *The panafall:* It's wider, sharper and seems even faster than the already > fast and accurate P3. The controls are "soft" rather than dedicated buttons > but have very similar functionality. You can adjust the relative heights of > the spectrum display and waterfall area. You can assign a single panafall > display to either main or sub-rx (which you couldn't do with P3). You can > also set up dual panafalls, one for each receiver. And the receivers can be > on different bands with different antennas so you can watch two bands at > once. This shack doesn't have separate feed lines, so comments on that are > theoretical based on the sophisticated antenna switching. I'll be able to > say more when I QSY to the more capable mountain QTH later in the week. > > *The rest of the display:* They did a great job of providing situational > awareness here. The two receiver information areas are identical, > displaying frequency, S-meter, passband graphic, and mode info. Between > those two areas are big, bold indications of which VFO is controlling the > TX, whether SPLIT is in effect, and a smaller RIT/XIT indicator. There are > "soft" controls on the left that indicate settings for the three > multi-function knobs. You can see all the settings at a glance and control > them with zero, one, or two taps. It's an effective consolidation of what > could have been a large array of separate controls and indicators. > > *The soft controls: *The eight soft buttons at the bottom invoke various > setting areas and menus that temporarily occupy space in the panafall area, > condensing the panafall temporarily to make room. The only two that require > frequent use are BAND and DISPLAY. BAND brings up band buttons with the > long-desired band-stacking register functionality. Personally, I liked the > K3 band switching model which now becomes a subset of the richer model in > the K4. The DISPLAY functionality is similar to the controls of the P3 but > more visually appealing and has the extra power described above. The MENU > area is easier to read and much more informative than the K3 main and > config menus. Each function has a long, easily-understood description. > > *Rx Audio:* At risk of overloading my use of an expletive, WOW! The > receiver audio is much improved over the K3. It sounds full and rich on > both CW and SSB, even before adjusting the touch-sensitive sliders of the > RX equalizer. (I'm just starting to experiment with that. Its functionally > is like the one in the K3 but has a nice graphic user interface.) I've > listened using a Yamaha CM500 headset and using a pair of Insignia computer > speakers, both driven through a cheap four-port headphone amp and the > speakers through a cascaded, cheap, stereo speaker amp (which shouldn't be > necessary with this receiver but I haven't pulled it out of the lash-up). I > haven't listened to the internal speaker much yet but it sounded good > during a brief test, much better than the one in the K3. > > *CW:* My favorite mode. The QSK and semi-break-in are excellent. On QSK I > can hear between dits at 35+ WPM. It's clean and clear without distracting > artifacts. I'll use it often. Semi- break-in is more pleasant, letting in > less band noise. You can adjust break-in delay all the way down to "zero" > which gives you between-word or, at lower speeds, between-character > frequency awareness. Also excellent. > > *SSB:* On SSB, I've received unsolicited comments about great transmit > audio, again using the CM500 mic and no adjustment of the TX equalizer. > > *Contesting:* I'm a somewhat reformed contester by historical passion but > haven't yet had a lot of time "in the fray" with the K4. I made a > hundred-plus contacts in the All Asian using the K4, an ACOM 1000 amp, a > 3el 20 and 2el shorty-40 around 50', from a Norcal suburban lot. Conditions > were poor and I got lots of calls from very weak stations which I was > usually able to pull out of the band noise without attempting much knob > twiddling. I got a few weak pileups that didn't activate AGC. Fellow field > tester N6TV put in more time, made more Qs, and got some pileups of > stronger signals. He said he liked the AGC performance but I'll leave it to > him to elaborate. I think this radio will do better than the K3 in > pileups. I look forward to exercising it from my rural, mountain-ridge QTH > with the KPA1500 in conditions that induce more, stronger pileups. > > *Interfacing: *The K4 is plug-compatible with my K3. With a much better > arrangement of rear-panel connectors, higher quality connectors, identical > front-panel connectors, and pin-compatibility, it was a seamless > conversion. Specifically, the Key In, Paddle In, PTT In, PTT Out, Phones > Out, Speaker Out, Line In/Out, Rx ANT In/Out, 12 VDC Accessory Power, and > Xvtr In/Out connectors are all the same as K3. It has both USB-B (which I > used) and RS-232 to connect to the computer and additional USB-A > connectors, one of which I used for a K*Pod which works great. It has an > RJ-45 Ethernet connection which provides two-tap "Phone Home" capability to > download firmware revisions from the Mother Ship, easier than using K3 > Utility. The 15-pin ACC connector is compatible so I had instant antenna > switching through a Top-Ten band decoder driving a tower-mounted antenna > switch. These capabilities will be even more welcome at the more complex > SO2R station in the mountains. > > Enough for now; more later. I'm loving this radio! > > 73, > > /Rick N6XI > -- > > Rick Tavan > Truckee and Saratoga, CA > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [email protected] > -- --w8lvn-- ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
