Having used all my stored patience getting the K3 built and receiving on Sunday, the KPA3 100 watts was the next order of the evening for tonight.
It went enjoyably as usual, but all the PA connectors take quite a bit of physical force and you really need to support the RF board carefully to keep it from an over flex condition. Press -real- hard, support the board from the bottom, and don't zap it with static while doing it. ;-) I pressed from the bottom with a folded up anti static bag under my fingers. I put the K3 on a 40 meter dipole at 30 feet, used 75 watts, and put out call number one (ever), and hooked up with K2A/KH6 at 7.054. Max gave me a 599 from Hawaii. This radio is just a pleasure to the senses, sounds great, feels great, the pictures don't do it justice. I'd suggest that "by the book" is the only way to go with this transceiver, -everything- has been thought of, but you really need to follow the plan to the letter. For example, the front panel has 4 main standoffs, all 5/16ths long but 2 are drilled at 2-56 and 2 are 4-40. I can't see the difference between those sizes myself but you need to take the time to know that there are 4 in the process, compare them against each other, then mount them where they go - specifically. All round head screws go on the bottom, flat head on the top - all teeny tiny and look remarkably the same to me. Building RC helicopters put your head in the right frame of mind for getting all this tiny work just right. There are lots of parts that should not be forced and many screws that should not be over torqued. I'd suggest to most anyone that does not have real good finger tip skills, fairly sharp eyesight and a good selection of miniature tools - to just to buy the factory assembled unit. The radio itself is THAT good. Having it built by the book by the people who created it is, IMHO, worth every cent they charge and it ought to be more. ;-) YMMV de wb8yqj _______________________________________________ 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
