I have a flex 5000a, and think its fantastic for what I want it to do. It was up and running 10 minutes after I opened the box. It will run fine on even slow computers, but not with great performance, plus, the 3000 and the 5000 use a fire wire interface, and that is critical to how well the radio works. Even a very fast computer wont run the radio well if the fire wire port is not good. They no longer use audio cables, sound cards and so on...
Lots of CW guys here, and I doubt the flex is up to snuff on CW, due to the delay in the computer. With a good fire wire port (no shared IRQ's and a good chipset), the radios work fine on slow computers, but with a lot of delay between what comes in and when you hear it, and what you send and when it goes out. There can be a LOT of delay in the monitor (on voice or the CW side tone) on a slow computer. On a fast computer, there is very little. But break in is nothing like the Elecraft stuff (yet), mostly because of the delay. On a 22 inch monitor, the display is stunning, the fidelity is/can be fantastic on receive and transmit, no grunge, etc. The antenna tuner is not anything like the Elecraft tuners, they have a long way to go there! Coming from all homebrew (tubes) and some modern stuff, the flex was easy to figure out and is fun. I think, if I had a K3, I would like the P3, if its a kit. I have strong urges to order my third K2 and build it, its so much fun. I seem to build them, sell them, build them, sell them... I really like the monster K3! Its good two American companies are at the top of the neat radio list! Brett N2DTS ______________________________________________________________ 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
