Bill and All,
I would primarily just echo Julian's comments. He did a
pretty good job of answering your query. A few additional
thoughts though.
First of all, regarding the Pro III. I really think the K3
is superior, but so many folks out there rave about their
Pro III's that, if you actually tinker with one, you may
fall in love with it. The bandscope on the Pro III is a
really big feature, and very useful. It's a very competent
radio, and I think you could get one for a fair amount less
than you would probably spend on a K3. So, you could get
back into "business" for less money that way, and have a 1st
class rig to boot. Eventually the benefits of the K3 would
become more obvious, but perhaps not right away to someone
just getting back into the water. By the way, I just got
notified that my panadaptor kit from Telepost (the LP-PAN)
has shipped. This will give me a reasonably comparable
accessory to the Pro III's bandscope, but it is outboard,
and does require using a computer. But don't get me wrong,
the K3 would be my first choice, particularly if you don't
mind spending a few more bucks in the process. You would
really end up with a radio that far surpasses anything in
the Pro III class, and even those costing much, much more.
Regarding the K3, Julian is dead on about the filters. You
would probably do fine with the 500 hz one. I have the 400
hz in mine, and it's 8 pole instead of 5, so sharper skirts,
etc. And it's only a few more dollars. The DSP in the K3
is so good, you may not need anything lower than that. If
you really get into contesting, or digital stuff, the
narrower filters will become more attractive.
The ATU in the K3 is superb, especially for an internal
tuner. It's range is considerably better than 3:1, and
where you might find that useful is on a band like 40
meters. Depending on what frequency you cut your antenna
for, wide band excursions on the lower bands can be a
problem. I usually cut mine for the CW portion, but when I
go to the higher end of the band, some internal tuners tend
to choke trying to match up there. Not so with the K3. My
favorite personal experience story with the K3 is that I can
tune my R8 vertical, which supposedly only goes down to 40
meters, on both 80 and 160 meters using the K3's ATU. Now,
that doesn't mean those antennas perform very well
there--they don't! But it's not for lack of an acceptable
SWR being presented to the TX. But on 40 meters for
example, your antenna cut to favor one end of the band or
the other will still perform very nicely at the opposite
end. The same would probably be true with an 80 meter
antenna. Above 40 meters, most internal ATU's will do O.K.
And be advised that you really have to be realistic about
doing things like running an R8 on 160 meters. I can do it,
but I don't--at least not routinely. I really only get
about 2:1 there, and that tells me "watch out!" If you
can't get something close to 1:1 using the ATU, you probably
need to be cut the power back a little or a lot, depending
on just what your actual SWR reading is. But anything under
say, 1.5:1 or so, is probably fairly safe. Others can tell
you better about this perhaps. On 80 meters I get 1:1 all
over the band, so I don't worry much about it. But the
antenna is still pretty inefficient, so folks still don't
hear me very well with it.
You can live without the 2nd RX, and perhaps very nicely.
But as Julian says, if you become a contester or DX chaser,
you would probably really appreciate the benefits a 2nd RX
provides. The thing about the K3's 2nd RX is that it
actually is pretty inexpensive--under $600. Consider, on
the other hand, The Icom 7800 vs. the Icom 7700. The 7700
is pretty close to being a 7800, but with just one RX. Even
the Icom rep admitted that at Dayton. But the 7800 is
thousands more than the 7700. Same thing with a Ten-Tec
Omni VII and a Ten-Ten Orion II. The cost difference is
less, but still much more than adding a 2nd RX to the K3.
There are other subtle differences between the rigs
mentioned above, but by far the biggest difference is the
2nd RX. By the way, the Pro III doesn't have a 2nd RX, and
has no provisions for adding one. So, if you ever felt the
need for that feature, you'd be shopping for a new radio.
At least with the K3 you have the option to expand. And in
the K3 the 2nd RX is an exact duplicate of the main RX. In
many rigs having the 2nd RX feature, there is a somewhat
lesser RX in position 2.
Dave W7AQK
----- Original Message -----
From: "G4ILO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Questions and K3 options? Please!
Filters. I think you'll get quite a few different opinions
on this. Bear in
mind the K3 has DSP filtering which is pretty good. A lot
will depend on the
filter bandwidths you personally like to use. I like to
tune around with the
bandwidth set to 1KHz. But you don't need brick-wall
skirts for such a
tuning-around bandwidth, so I think the DSP filtering is
fine for that.
There is no need for a 1KHz roofing filter. Some may
disagree. I think a
500Hz 5-pole (or 400Hz 8-pole if you're willing to spend
the extra) is
probably all you need at this stage. If you think you need
the extra help to
winkle out weak ones next to strong signals you can always
add a narrower
filter later.
Updates. Yes, the K3 is highly software dependent. UPdates
provide things
like improved NR. Just browse the firmware release notes
to find the changes
we've had so far.
Second receiver. I haven't gone for that. BUt if you are
really into
competitive DXing you may find it useful to listen on the
DX frequency and
the calling frequency at the same time. If you're into
contests you may find
it useful to be able to monitor two frequencies at once.
ATU. The Elecraft tuners are streets ahead of the tuners
that come in the
Japanese rigs. By which I mean they can tune over a wider
range (typically
up to 10:1 compared to up to 3:1.) On the other hand , if
you have a 10:1 or
greater SWR at the rig then you'll be losing a lot of
power in the co-ax
unless it is very short. So the wide range is probably
more use when using
the radio in the field than at the home QTH.
HTH.
-----
Julian, G4ILO K3 s/n: 222 K2 s/n: 392
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
KComm for K2/K3: www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html
--
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