I ordered my K3 on May 1.
The kit arrived at my QTH on The Big Island of Hawaii late in the day
on Tuesday, December 4.
It was shipped without incident by UPS.
The 100 watt radio with tuner was calibrated and running on Friday,
December 7.
There were no technical issues or problems during assembly and testing,
using the provided documentation.
The parts fit and precision of sheet metal and brackets was beautiful.
There was no bending to fit. When you laid the parts together the
screws invariably fit into the center of the holes.
I spent some extra time during inventory because the screws were not
always in the packages defined. But they were all there, once all the
packages were opened and counted. Even the two I lost later by flipping
a container off the table, sweeping the floor and recounting, had been
there during the initial inventory. By the way, about a week after
Dremel cutting two new screws to fit from longer ones I had in the junk
box, I noticed that my surplus box had the two missing screws in it. I
think I found them on the other side of the room.
It was useful to upgrade to the latest available firmware as soon as
possible once the radio was running and before completing calibration.
This was the first time in my 50+ years in ham radio that I ever ordered
a new product, sight unseen, within 2 or 3 days of the first showing,
and knowing that less than 20 Beta units and no production units were
"out there". My confidence in the Elecraft team was based on my
experience with the K2 and other products from this amazing group.
Since I have some experience with transitioning from development to
preproduction to production I expected that my "late" order 1 day after
the mass rush at Visalia might take some time to deliver. I greatly
admire the commitment of the management to hold delivery until the
quality of the units, the documentation, and the firmware, met their
high standards in spite of the slings and arrows cast by some
disappointed instant gratification seekers. This takes a form of
courage on the part of the decision makers that is missing in too many
companies.
I expected the Elecraft team to provide a superior product, with some
positive technical surprises, and to meet their technical goals of
providing performance meeting or exceeding the competition. I have not
been disappointed. I am still exploring the features of this radio and
it just gets better with each firmware update.
I have had for several years one of the competing top of the line
radios. The Orion radio offers possibly the best receiver previously
available to hams in some of the critical specifications related to
digging our weak signals from very strong adjacent signals in a crowded
contest or dx pileup. It took several months and many firmware updates
for me to be able to make good use of that radio's capabilities. I am
still waiting for firmware updates to fix some obvious issues that I can
work around.
Two days after finishing the K3, I did an A/B test with the other radio
on some very weak signals. There was no question that the K3 was able
to dig out a weak ssb signal as well as the Orion. I could not say that
the K3 was better, but I feel it was at least as good. And I was just
beginning to explore the K3. I was skilled with the other radio and
just learning the K3.
It appears that the K3 firmware is well structured and that features are
being fixed and added without losing the handle on other firmware
components. I strongly recommend quickly moving to the latest K3 update
to get new features.
In addition to the superb performance, I really like the sound of the
K3, the front and rear microphone/headset selection and setups, the
monitor test mode so I can optimize settings off the air, and the
intuitive feel of both the controls and the menus.
Here are the few things that I am missing or have found room for
improvement.
I really miss not having the second receiver and the ability to scan
nearby frequencies. I am on the list to get the second receiver very
soon now and I may have to make a SoftRock panadapter to satisfy my use
of features that have become second nature. Of course the promised
Elecraft panadapter will solve that problem, but now that I have the K3,
I want it all now. OOPs! I think I just downgraded my image of patience.
I was able to use the K3 smoothly with Dx4win and with the Steppir
beam. However, initially I was unable to get the K3 to communicate with
the Steppir without running the computer and Dx4win. I found I can run
the K3 command AI1; and then the Steppir reads the K3 information and
behaves normally even if the computer is turned off. But I have not
figured out how to make the K3 retain the AI1 broadcast mode through a
power cycle. The feature may be available and I just have not
discovered it yet or it may be a subject for a future firmware feature
request.
I note that the image rejection specification is "only" greater than
70db. I have not had time to investigate how good it really is, but
expect no problem given the other great performance capabilities of the
radio.
A slight misalignment of the rubber belt finger grip on the main tuning
knob makes it appear to wobble slightly while spinning the knob.
I managed to chip off a bit of paint on the top edge of the top cover.
A black marker made the 1/8 inch line of exposed aluminum nearly
invisible, but I know it is there. I also noticed that tightening the
cover screws tends to peel some of the paint in the countersink area for
the screw heads. Some day, when I get a mid western ice storm at my
3000 foot elevation on the Big Island and cannot use my radio for a few
weeks because the ice has drooped the elements to the ground, then I
might take the cover off and see if I can powder coat the cover.
However, since the snow on Mauna Kea, about 18 miles south of my QTH,
seems to always stay above the 7000 foot level, I think it will be a
looooong time before I worry about that minor issue.
By the way, did I say that I like my K3 and that my excellent nonsmoking
Orion will be for sale as soon as I get the K3 second receiver?
Aloha and 73,
John "I like my K3" KH7T
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