I monitor the Elecraft mailing list where, if you can sort through all the noise, you can find a few tidbits dropped occasionally by the folks at Elecraft about upcoming features in their products. Here are a couple of interesting tidbits that were dropped by Wayne and Lyle from Elecraft concerning the new KX3:
Wayne said:
So, the new KX3 will be able to charge AA NiMH batteries and will last 5-10 hours from typical usage. That's pretty cool.
Lyle said:
I'm guessing that they're going to use the same clipper/compression/processor as the K3, which is a good thing. If that's the case, it will probably also contain the 8 band TX EQ. This could end up being a very nice $800 radio for field work.
Wayne said:
The KX3's current drain is low enough that it can function well with
an extremely light battery pack (8 AA cells, internally, or your
choice of external batteries). We went with AA cells because of their
flexibility and ubiquity. You can always borrow some from other
electronic devices in a pinch. You can power the radio for 5-10 hours
of typical transceive operation or 16 hours receive-only from a set of
nonrechargeable lithium camera batteries. Or you can use NiMH, with
the internal charger keeping them ready to go.
So, the new KX3 will be able to charge AA NiMH batteries and will last 5-10 hours from typical usage. That's pretty cool.
Lyle said:
Note that the KX3 will have an effective SSB
clipper/compressor/processor to give an average of at least 6 dB of
"talk power" without significant impairment of the speech quality,
making 10W seem like 25 or more to the receiving station.
I'm guessing that they're going to use the same clipper/compression/processor as the K3, which is a good thing. If that's the case, it will probably also contain the 8 band TX EQ. This could end up being a very nice $800 radio for field work.