I have to admit, I find most of this discussion a bit odd. Why, is the K3 less “fun” today than it was two years ago? Why do you expect Elecraft to deliver more radio than you purchased? If I buy an SL245 (that’s a car, not a radio!), I don’t then 3 years later grouse about the fact that it won’t seat 5 comfortably, that it hasn’t met met my personal benchmark of 0-60 in under 2 seconds, and whine that Mercedes hasn’t “finished” the car (which it seems really means they haven’t delivered some feature we’ve dreamed up that it doesn’t have).
Sure, there are some things I’d like to see in the radio that aren’t there. But I don’t have any expectations that Elecraft is going to continue to rock my socks off with fabulous new features or deliver a new 50 lb cabinet with every possible function available on a dedicated rotary control suitable for operation with big cartoon hands. Ok, I do wish that it had a belt clip and 7 days of battery life with Windows 8.1 on the screen and a version of Siri to control it, but that said …. What “further” development have the guys that bought the $12,000.00 radios a few years ago seen? If we get something, that’s good. And I think we’ve done pretty well. If we don’t, it’s still a freaking K3 for goodness sake, regardless of what you now find lacking. If you’re really having buyer’s remorse, there are other options … Grant NQ5T On Apr 3, 2014, at 4:12 PM, David and Dianne on Comcast <dhh...@comcast.net> wrote: > Joe, W4TV and Ian, GM3SEK; I found both of your posts to be spot on with me > and very insightful. > > I own K3 #371 and have been disappointed with the lack of its further > development in the past 18 months or the "finishing" of some features as > mentioned by Ian.. And as much as I have tried, really tried, for SIX years > to adapt to the "tap and hold" button feature...it's not for me. > > When new, the K3 was a blast to own, to use and to participate in the > development of it for about the first four years. But my attitude towards it > has changed in the past two years or so. > > It's not the the K3 is "bad", far from it, but it could be refined into an > even better rig rather than into an apparent development stepping stone for > the KX3 which holds no interest here for me. To me, one of the shortcomings > of SDR is that the promise of on-going support and upgrades is usually not > fulfilled in the long run, for myriad business and technology related > reasons. I view promises from any manufacturer (TT, ICOM, Kenwood, Flex etc.) > concerning future, long-term firmware development with great skepticism. It > never continues past a certain time-frame which is usually ends much sooner > than one initially expects. As for updated/redeveloped K3 boards to be > forthcoming, I hope ... but expect not. So I am not holding out hope for any > further meaningful development for the K3. Elecraft has been far better with > it than most but it appears that the K3 with 8000+ units sold is now a mature > product which will see refinements and enhancements as rarer and rarer > occurrences if at all. > > I have found myself contemplating parting ways with the K3 and Elecraft of > late being drawn back to using my TT Corsair II and Omni V.9 more and more. > Highly modified by me, they compete very favorably with the K3 for my op > style and expectations. (IMO TT has gone in a very strange business direction > of late which causes me to wonder what they are doing). > > Everyone is entitled to their personal opinions and for most the K3 seems to > still be the epitome of HF rig evolution. That's fine. I mean you no bad will > nor is my intention to convince you otherwise. > > But after six years I still miss my dedicated band switching (with stacking > registers) and I still don't like Kool-Aid regardless of flavor. ;-) > > 73 de N1LQ-Dave ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
