Hey Keith, I'm a new ham, so take this for what its worth. I have K2/100 #5099 and it is my first transceiver. I did the split of the KPA100 into the EC2 with the KAT100. This summer I operated almost exclusively outside in my yard with my basic K2 and a small wire doublet up in a tree. I ran 5 watts all summer long and made some really nice contacts and several lengthy rag chews (sometimes condx kept the QSO's short). Most of the time I received "Wow" as a reply to my power report of 5 watts. My furthest contact was with W7DAX out in Liberty, Utah (I'm near Detroit) with many in the 500 - 700 mile range on mostly 40m during the afternoons.
Although I have my K3 in the second order group, my guess is that for casual CW rag chewing and contesting the K2 would suffice (I only say this because I have no experience with other radios). But I am really looking forward to using some of the really nice features (not to mention the better Rx specs) of the K3 I saw demonstrated in Dayton and thoroughly discussed here. If I could only have the basic K3, based on this summer's activity, I would have no problem running it QRP for more than a year. So if QRP might not be your bag, then the K2/100 seems like the best bang for your buck. But if you can deal with QRP for a year, then the K3 looks pretty nice. If solar condx improve starting this year... Obviously, if price is an issue, the K2 fits the bill. I'm sure, as you know, being a previous K2 owner you can't go wrong either way. 73, Dave W8FGU _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
