I was offered a chair at the recent KL7RA M/M CQWW effort, so I drove 550 miles as quickly as possible to get set up with my K3. The other four rigs were all IC-781's. I had opped locally with them during the last Solar Cycle. Since then, Rich relocated and built a new station on the Kenai Peninsula to the south. There's much better propagation from KL7 from that location, and his scores will improve.
We put my K3 on the 80M spot feeding an Alpha 87 into a 4-square dipole array, and ran it the full 48 hrs when propagation allowed without malfunction. Most of the ops (7) had no major problems interfacing with the rig. Some were skeptical at first but learned the important controls, and a minority just passed it off as a one-owner radio not suitable for M/M Contesting due to it's initial complexity. The NB, and occasionally the NR, were required on a westerly heading due noise re-radiation from the nearby 160M vertical. They both worked very well. I adjusted the AGC slope and threshold, and we all set the filter offset and width to our own needs to provide best audio. Both of my 2.7 and 2.1 filters were used as required. We never used the second receiver with duplicate filters. The recently installed optional voice keyer worked perfectly, as did the VOX, providing the adjacent station noise was compensated for by setting the VOX floor in the CONFIG menu. The Manual was available for everyone to refer to, as was I. The biggest complaints and temporary problems arose from the Tap vs. Hold functions (how much is each, etc.), and inadvertently touching the wrong button(s). Nobody really got too lost, but there were some anxious moments as they figured out what had happened. Most were used to bigger simpler radios, so the somewhat cramped controls gave some the fits. I wished to try it on the more crowed bands and in the huge pileups (especially JA's on 15), but that was not to be. What might be helpful for new ops would be a way to selectively enable certain functions, and lock/disable the unneeded. Also, an "OP preference" control list would be nice so one could quickly return to their favorite settings after following others in the chair. Rumor has it (second hand) that some Contesters are now shying away from the K3 due to it's complexity, but not necessarily it's performance. As a relatively experienced owner I had no problem running what I consider to be excellent radio. I've owned or operated most of the modern rigs sold in the last 15 years, and find the K3 (and my IC-765) to be the best of the group. 73, Gary NL7Y ______________________________________________________________ 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
