Friends,
Today I received a spiral bound copy of Fred Cady's (KE7X) "The Elecraft K3
Design, Configuration and Operation". This is a 280 A4 page book describing
much of what anyone might like to know about the K3, P3 and their accessories.
Written by a retired Montana State University professor of EE in a thorough
manner using many diagrams, photos, block diagrams and schematics to illustrate
his points it should prove a useful aid to many of us. To me it is an easier
read than the K3 manual but then Fred had the manual before starting his book.
There are exercises and question in the book to help in learning, the
unmistakable signs of a good text book writer. You do not need to be macho
about this, many of us have some learning to do as regards our K3, I am a MSEE
and retired EE lecturer and have much to learn about my two K3s. Indeed, Fred
started writing this book in an effort to teach himself how to use our
beautiful little radio.
I have long been bothered in not having the more valuable operating tips
that appear on this forum easily accessible and while Fred's book does not
answer my problem, it sure seems helpful in this regard.
The book is thorough, even covering the configuration of the K3 when
initially purchased and would be useful for anyone prior to ordering their K3!
You would then have it to configure your K3 and when the K3 arrived there
would be a great set of tutorials on how to best make use of the radio. The
index is usually a difficulty for most writers but KE7X has done well for us in
this regard.
The book is independent in outlook and critical of the K3 in some
regards, the AGC and its handling of multiple signals in the pass band being an
example. This problem has recently been addressed on the forum but it is
interesting to see a professor critically questioning. I do not find this
issue covered adequately in the K3 manual though this is probably too much to
expect.
Fred does not want anyone to order his book just yet as he is doing a
final edit, my copy was ordered before this warning appeared on his web site.
You might want to check the following website out if you are interested,
http://www.ke7x.com/home/guide-to-the-k3 . I wanted the spiral bound version
as it is uses double sided quality printing and is always available for a quick
lookup. The cost is $35 and delivered to EI land it cost me €31.50. If you
want to print your own copy then a PDF version is available for $15 and
obviously there is no shipping.
I do not know Professor Cady (Fred KE7X to all hams) and am not sure if
he is in my log. The book seems useful and I wanted to let all of you to know
my first impressions. This is going to provide some fun in the next few days.
One final point, you do not need to be an engineer to get a great deal
of enjoyment and capability from a K3. Use default values and you have a
powerful tool. But like a fine instrument you can learn to better understand
the radio and how to make full use of the K3. This is a thinking man's radio
and Fred's text looks like it will help in learning to squeeze everything out
of the K3. After all was it Wayne the other day who admitted that one of his
employees helped him out of a problem using the very firmware he designed.
73 Doug EI2CN
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