Maybe I can offer a counterpoint, I do regret my K3 purchase. But I will not be selling it.
That was the summary. Here, at great length, is the detail: I had a KX3 with KXPA100 and liked it very much. I'm a CW operator and hope to join the QRQ gang some day soon. But I spent the past 40 years working with computers and I don't want one in my shack. I prefer to have minimal equipment at the operating desk. With that in mind, I saw the pictures of the PX3 with the word Keyboard stenciled over a USB socket. I ordered the PX3 and separately order a folding wireless keyboard to match. The PX3 arrived and it changed my operating for the better. Seeing the entire band instead of slowly tuning for CW signals adds a whole new dimension to my hobby. But the Keyboard USB socket was useless and the sort-of-promise that the keyboard option would be ready by Christmas went sort-of-unfulfilled. Meanwhile, the K3/P3/SVGA combo has a keyboard option and my CW speed is increasing so I ordered the K3 combo. It cost a lot more than the KX3 had. As soon as the gear arrived I set it up with my yet-unused wireless keyboard and commenced to play with it. Trouble. Letters, and sometimes whole words went missing. CTRL-S has to be hit every so often to force a buffer dump. And sporadically there are pauses of several seconds when sending just stops and CTRL-S fails. However, the buffer dump might resume on its own. My phone call to Elecraft gave me bad news. My wireless keyboard was not approved by Elecraft so there would be no support for it. I ordered a USB keyboard, waited for its arrival, and discovered no difference. I still had all the same problems with the wired, approved keyboard. Then more bad news from Elecraft: operating the keyboard without a VGA monitor is not approved. If you recall, I wanted minimal equipment in the shack; in fact that's why I wanted the keyboard option instead of the KX3 (now K3) Utility program for sending CW. Now I learned that I have to have a screen on the desk as well. I purchased a VGA monitor and tried again. Still all the same issues. So Elecraft asked that I send the P3 with keyboard to them to find out what might be wrong. I did so. After the normal UPS transit time, 5 days each way, and a sufficient time for Elecraft experts to examine the P3, they declared it perfect and could not explain any of my problems. (I pointed out that the problems worsen as typing speed increases above 50 wpm; they said "not so".) They did admit that there is a sporadic delay of several seconds periodically. But that is normal with the K3/P3/SVGA keyboard option. (Huh?) No charge for the "no problem found" service by Elecraft. But now I have a K3/P3/SVGA combo that does not do the one thing I bought it to do. And I have a 21" (smallest I could find) VGA screen to sell at the next ham swap meet. It's stuffed away in a closet. Meanwhile my KXPA100 stopped working (second time in a year) and my regular CW skeds need all 100 watts almost every day. The K3/100 never has a hiccup and the P3 offers some, but not all, of the PX3 benefits. So, yes I have buyer's remorse. But the K3/P3, like it's KX3/PX3 cousin, is the finest rig I've ever used. So I continue to use it daily. The good news is that my CW skills are still below 50 wpm so my real need for a keyboard is still a future event. Sorry for such a long story, but I suspect some of you can sympathize. -- Marc W8SDG > On Aug 3, 2015, at 3:21 PM, David F. Reed <w5sv.d...@gmail.com> wrote: > > a counterpoint; I used to have an IC-7800; great rig... I bought a K3 as a > second rig... started using it and to my surprise, it was superior in a few > ways > > Since then I have added a KX3 and after using it a while, sold one of the > K3; it is just hard to beat a K3, and the KX3 is a close second ______________________________________________________________ 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
