Congrats Wayne and team on the K4 evaluation. The two other responses do somewhat beg the question about what happens to the K3s used market and pricing. Not a lot of K3s for sale unlike the trickle to flood of k3.
At one point, I thought people were hanging on to their K3s waiting for a K4 upgrade which might well still be valid but I also wonder if people will simply stay with the K3s as the performance is clearly great and forgo the flexibility an SDR rig brings. Paul W6PNG www.nomadic.blog > On May 28, 2021, at 10:32 AM, Henry Pollock - K4TMC <kilo4...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > I Love my K3+(new syn)! > > 73, > Henry - K4TMC > (K3 #98) > >> On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 1:22 PM BRUCE WW8II <wa8...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I LOVE my K3s >> >> Bruce >> WW8II >> >>> On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 12:31 PM Wayne Burdick <n...@elecraft.com> wrote: >>> >>> Sherwood has posted his measurements of the K4D's receiver performance in >>> his table: >>> >>> http://www.sherweng.com/table.html >>> >>> We're quite pleased with his test results, which confirm that the K4/K4D >>> is near the top of its class (direct-sampling SDRs). A K4HD would provide >>> somewhat higher dynamic range for those stations in extreme signal >>> environments, but the vast majority of operators will find that the >> K4/K4D >>> more than meets their needs. >>> >>> I'd like to highlight a few important items in Rob's chart. >>> >>> First, the K4D has a high 2 and 20 kHz dynamic range value of 101 dB. >>> Because it's a direct-sampling radio, this figure will hold at nearly all >>> offsets from strong signals. Second is the block dynamic range number >> (128 >>> dB), higher than almost every other "pure" SDR measured. Finally, there's >>> the LO noise (local oscillator; 148 to 155 dB) -- again, very favorable >>> compared to all competing SDRs. This is an important number correlated >> with >>> reciprocal mixing dynamic range (RMDR). >>> >>> Taken together these demonstrate that the K4D will offer excellent >>> performance in crowded band conditions. >>> >>> Inevitably a question will arise regarding the chart position of the K4D >>> relative to a couple of our other transceivers: the K3S and KX3. There's >> a >>> bit of "apples to oranges" in both comparisons. >>> >>> The K3S uses a superhet receiver architecture. The K4HD will provide a >>> receive setting that emulates this superhet performance when and if it's >>> needed. But the "pure" (direct sampling) method used by the K4 (all >> models) >>> has many advantages. One is the elimination of artifacts associated with >>> crystal filters. Another is that, as a pure SDR, the K4 has a far more >>> flexible architecture. We'll be able to provide updates to the receive >> and >>> transmit digital signal chains that cannot be added to a superhet like >> the >>> K3S or its competitors. >>> >>> The KX3 is another Elecraft radio high on Sherwood's chart. Its >>> performance is excellent, especially at its price point. But its numbers >>> relative to the K4 are somewhat misleading, as hinted at by Rob's >>> footnotes. The KX3 uses a quadrature downsampling architecture, which >>> digitally samples at baseband audio rather than at RF. This is ideal for >> a >>> radio like the KX3 that has to have very low current drain for portable >>> operations. The K4 uses a direct-samping architecture that requires a >>> higher power digital signal chain, resulting in important benefits over >>> quadrature downsampling including much higher and more consistent >> opposite >>> sideband image suppression and 2nd-order intermod rejection. So the two >> are >>> really designed for different applications. >>> >>> Overall, this first independent test of the K4 validates the performance >>> of our SDR architecture. Feel free to send us any further performance >>> questions. >>> >>> 73, >>> Wayne >>> N6KR >>> >>> >>> ______________________________________________________________ >>> 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 wa8...@gmail.com >>> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> 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 kilo4...@gmail.com >> > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 paul.ga...@mac.com ______________________________________________________________ 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
