Shane, If you believe you will enjoy the assembly process and soldering, then go for the K2. As you noticed, there is not much of a price difference between the fully loaded K2/100 and a K3/100 with minimal options - of course, one can get upwards of 5K$ invested in a K3 if one wants to order it fully loaded with all filters and options.
You asked about upgrades, but I believe you mean options - the options can be added in any order you should choose. The benefit for purchasing all the options at the same time as the base K2 is that one can add the standoffs and headers for the options during the build process (the manual tells you when to do that), and minimize later dis-assembly. Actually disassembling the K2 to add options later is not a difficult task at all, but it gets laborious to do it multiple times - disassembly usually involves removing the bottom panel and/or the rear bottom panel (heatsink) which is a little more involved if the screws holding the PA transistor mounting hardware come out - I hold the screws in place with a piece of tape over their screwheads. If you order the K2 and option kits from Elecraft, you will receive the very latest, no upgrades are necessary. If you purchase a used K2 below SN 3000, it may need the A to B upgrades, and there have been upgrades to the KSB2 option (wider filter than original) and the KPA100 (changes to the T/R switch area) that you may want to add to a used option without the most recent upgrades. There have been only 2 upgrades since SN 3000 - the Keying Waveform Mod and the Extremely Strong Signal Handling Mod. All K2 mod kits are available from Elecraft. The list of tools required is in the manual for the K2 - download the manual from the Elecraft website. There is also a soldering tutorial (written by Tom Hammond) on the Elecraft website - search for soldering tutorial to easily find it. As you discovered, the KAT100 comes in two flavors - the KAT100-1 in the low profile enclosure. The KAT100-2 must have the EC2 enclosure ordered with it. That is normally used when the owner wants to mount the KPA100 and the KAT100 both in an external enclosure, freeing the base K2 to be used portable as a QRP transceiver. The external mounting requires the KIO2 (or a suitable substitute) in the base K2 to provide the necessary communication signals to the KPA100/KAT100. 73, Don W3FPR On 3/25/2011 9:54 PM, Shane wrote: > I'm looking at ordering a K2/100 and hoping I'm not making a mistake > by trying to build something I have no experience in. I'm really > wanting to get into CW more and this is my main purpose for purchasing > this rig, so hope this is the right choice, though I will use voice > too. It seemed simpler than other radios and I liked that. Though I > noticed by the time I finish w/ upgrades, it nears the price of the > K3. Any suggested configurations for this purpose would help as well. > But I do have the following questions: > > Can I add ANY of the upgrades to the K2 in ANY order? > > Is there a benefit to purchasing all the upgrades at once (e.g. latest > and greatest parts are known to be perfectly compatible, or will all > be compatible at any time (seem to recall reading some older models > need special upgrades because of the newest stuff out))? > > Where can I find a list of tools I need to build this radio? And are > there any kits out there that teaches one to solder for the way this > board requires? > > KTA100 - What's the difference w/ the KTA100-1, and KTA100-2? One is > in a low profile external case, and the latter is in a larger K2 size > external case? Does something else go in the larger case along w/ the > KTA100-2? Any good reasons to make it external or part of the radio? > ______________________________________________________________ > 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
