I think the thing to do for those who want a "big" radio is to purchase two K3's.
My boss bought a used K3 last week and I took it home to check it out compared to my newer unit. I put them side by side on my desk, and the two of them look awesome and impressive. The pair still costs less than a ICOM 7800 so this is an economical solution that consumes as much desk space. The power output issue is a red herring. Most people run some type of amplifier, and any one of them that runs legal output power can be driven by the K3. I replaced the DSP board in my K3 and I admit that I liked it before, but it sounds great now. I have poor antennas but signals sound great on it both on CW and SSB. I always use headphones so the discussion of how it sounds through speakers I have no comment on. 73, Bob W5OV -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Randy Downs Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 6:21 AM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] K3 how often do you use it? Well it seems K3 users put more mileage than some people think on there radios. I think people buy with there ego more than with there brains. So I guess this gentleman was correct in saying that Elecraft has failed at looking at marketing. The first design criteria should have been looks, second transmit power, and third weight/size of the radio and lastly using depleted uranium for the knob. This is my first Elecraft product when I bought my 2 K3's. I'll be honest I never looked at Elecraft before as the K2 looked to be a toy. It took a bad experience with the purchase of a newly released radio a couple of years ago to make me take a look at the newly announced K3. I have had so many rigs and it seems they all had issues and had to be modified to fix the problems. Such as the nb being on all of the time on unnamed yaesu models, very bad cw clicks, wax that got in to trimmer caps, ( although I did keep the Ic-765 as the rx was good on this one), glue that became conductive after a time frame, just to name a few. It seemed normal for so long. Now don't get me wrong, Elecraft has made some hardware changes as well as firmware changes to make things better. But they respond and respond quickly to user input most of the time. I would like to see a "big radio" when I set down at the bench but after using it for well over a year now I don't miss it. I would miss the performance though. I'm no big gun, I'm not into contesting, but when sunspots are cooking and I want to be able to use my rig without the front end being blasted with desense, then I am very happy with my purchase choice. In the past on other rigs I have actually had to turn the rig off and go do something else. I guess we should end this thread but I wanted to see if I was missing something here. I do believe Elecraft may want to look at marketing differently. Maybe they could have scantily clad girls hand out hats. No never mind. Thanks for all the answers guys. Randy K8RDD ______________________________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________________________________ 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
