[Elecraft] Re: K3 - qsk keying loop Dick Green WC1M wc1m at msn.com Hi Dick,
Happily, the K3 is modular. Would I be incorrect to assume that a hardware solution could be engineered to perform this specific purpose, and reasonably inexpensively? All it would really take would be for Eric and Wayne to buy into the idea of it's importance. I don't see them sticking their jaw out about this issue simply out of principle (like some others made a mistake of doing in the past?) Part of Elecraft's larger difficulty at this time involves the fact that they have created a transceiver that will appeal to a wide variety of interests. Contesters, CW ragchewers (me), AM, FM, Digital, ESSB, SWL, even transverter fanatics. They have released a very fine base model K3, which I feel will be accepted very well, however they still have to get the subreceiver integrated into the firmware and release that bit of hardware and I expect that is bigger on the list of to do's than the keying loop - just my guess. There are also other larger issues behind that like AM and FM support (advertised), maybe some transverter issues, and variable roofing filters. There is a lot in competition for these guys attention and it will be interesting to find out how the voting is done with respect to everyone that wants everything in their own diverse interest. As a part time contester, given the fact that there are acceptable methods of getting the switching done, I'd like to see some features that are not there at all added, before making something that is already there a little better. And I understand that a true contester would fight me to the grave over this one issue, but we both pay our money and take the best we can get. As a general operator, I've been pushing hard to get some kind of single press band switching in the firmware, which is pretty meaningless to a contester that is allowing the program in his computer program to do all that. Anyway, I know the radio was primarily focused towards contesting from the beginning and maybe it would have been icing on the cake to have the switching done a backwards compatible way on top of all the other good stuff, but most likely at the expense of some other things that would not have made it into the radio. Some things are still waiting (like ESSB or AM) to be fully implemented. Darn I wish I had an amp to be concerned about, and it won't ever happen at this QTH, but the guys still have a transceiver that you have your eyes on and I have on order already so I suppose that's fair enough for now. ;-) de wb8yqj [Elecraft] Re: K3 - qsk keying loop Dick Green WC1M wc1m at msn.com Wed Nov 28 18:24:57 EST 2007 Previous message: [Elecraft] K3 SSB Bandwidth at this Pardon me for jumping in here. I don't have a K3 and don't have one on order. I'm trying to make that decision. I've read a lot of good things about the K3. Absence of a keying loop isn't one of them. Although it's true that some modern QSK amps may appear to work fine without a keying loop, bear in mind that both Acom and Ten-Tec recommend using them. Elecraft should consider the recommendations of the amp manufacturers, not what they *think* will work correctly. Even if Elecraft is right, why force the owner of a $6,000+ amplifier to go against the manufacturer's stated recommendation? If something goes wrong with the amp's T/R relay, causing an expensive ship/repair/ship drama, will Elecraft indemnify the owner? Probably not. I sure wouldn't want to get in the middle of that finger-pointing exercise. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
