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Elecraft K3 ?????? Fact or Myth???????

G'day!
In the past, I have owned radios ranging from the Yaesu FT757GXII, the Alinco DX70th, the Icom 7400, the Kenwood TS480SAT and the Yaesu FT847 plus others.
I have also used the Yaesu FT2000 and the FTDX9000 (Both of which were fully optioned) and neither of those radios is a patch on the K3 for performance and 'listenability'.

I now own an Elecraft K3 and have done so for the last 6 months.

I sold my FT847 and my Kenwood 480SAT to be able to afford the K3 and I do believe that it was the best decision.

I like the fact that on a crowded band I can operate within 2KHz of someone AND NOT HEAR THEM due to the fantastic receiver and its 8 pole crystal 'roofing' filters.
The DSP is fantastic and is way better than anything the big three have offered to date.

I do not believe that there is a better Amatuer Radio Transceiver on the market today.
(And, if you ever have a problem, help is either a phone call or an email away from a company that prides itself on support with return calls and emails within hours being the norm)

My $0.02c worth, YMMV.
 
Does a Flex 3000 come close to the K3 RX, or is it quite inferior, despite the claimed ability of the 3000's to create custom filters?

What is the typical price of a K3, including the options (filters, etc) that create it's superior performance? I see that it has many add ons.
 
74IN said:
What is the typical price of a K3, including the options (filters, etc) that create it's superior performance? I see that it has many add ons.
Click to expand...
I would say about $2250 would be a good setup with some 8 pole filters.
 
74IN said:
Does a Flex 3000 come close to the K3 RX, or is it quite inferior, despite the claimed ability of the 3000's to create custom filters?

What is the typical price of a K3, including the options (filters, etc) that create it's superior performance? I see that it has many add ons.
Click to expand...


You can "create" an infinite number of DSP filters with either rig. The difference is that the K3 uses additional roofing filters to wall off adjacent signals before they even get to the DSP filtering. The radio comes with 1 roofing filter (2.7Khz) and you can adjust the DSP filtering more narrow from there. If you are going to do FM you need to purchase an additional wide filter. You don't really have to purchase all the extra filters if you don't want...you could just use DSP filtering. However, if you want a killer radio, 5 roofing filter slots are provided, which should allow you to use a combination of roofing filters and DSP filtering to tailor it to your liking.
 
Recently, I was trying to decide which radio to buy between an Elecraft K3 and a Yaesu FTdx5000MP. After "assembling" a K3 with all the features, filters and other stuff to make it comparable to the FTdx5000MP, they both came out at about the same price. The published specs of the two radios are so close as to make no real difference when their capabilities are so far out there. I ended up getting the Yaesu mostly because I already have a Yaesu amp, I liked the DMU-2000 that you could get with it and I am very familiar with how Yaesu radios work so my learning curve wouldn't be very steep. I have had the FTdx5000MP for about two months and it is very noticeably better than the FT1000MP it replaced. The station monitor is really useful and you don't have to do a lot of configuring since almost everything you want to use to take care of QRN and QRM are right at your finger tips. I also like the fact that you can operate the amplifier as a straight Class A amp or as a Class A/B by varying the bias.

Michham63
 
The price of a K3 is NOT much lower than the big three. Go online like I did and configure a K3 to be fully comparable to the Yaesu FTdx5000 and you will find that they both are well over $5000.00
 
I spec'd the 100 watt version almost all the filters, the FM module and required filter and whatever else I needed to make it comparable in content to the FTdx5000MP. This ended up being just about every option you can get including the pan adaptor since the FTdx5000MP comes with a "Station Monitor" which, I believe, is similar in function to the pan adaptor. The total came to just about$6200.00 which is almost the same as $5999.99 I spent for the FTdx5000MP.
 
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I can appreciate comparing a fully optioned K3 with the FTDX5000 and deciding they are comparable. However, the K3 allows building up to the fully optioned level as finances and interests allow. I like the idea of starting out spending much less than a top of the line rig to get top of the line performance. Also, as I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of FM QSOs I've had on HF/6m over the years, I can leave the FM out of my K3 as I have three other rigs to cover the mode should I need it. Likewise with AM and general coverage receive. My K3 will focus on amateur band performance of SSB, CW, and data modes without the other cruft. That and the small desk footprint argued in favor of the K3 for me.
 
I have two tx/rx, the PROIII and K3, on CW mode I listen stations very weaks, howewer with the PROIII + roofing filter i can't lsten.On SSB mode the good diference is on the selectivity receiver, the K3 is better and the sensivity is similar.
The K3 is not plug and play, it's need a good configuration, with the PROIII in one hour or minus you are on the air.
The noise floor with the K3 is much better in comparassion with my PROIII.
It's a small size transceiver and a few kilograms with options, but works like the tops Icoms or Yaesu and sometimes ( receiver) is superior.
My K3 is on the top of my Acom 1000. hihihi

Good wishes


Joan
 
As an addendum to my previous comment in this thread. After two months of daily use with my K3, I can say with complete confidence that this is the best HF radio I have ever owned--not necessarily the best one out there, just the best that has graced my desk.

The first serious HF rig that was on my desk was a Heath HW-5400 which was an 80-10m rig with WARC bands, SSB and CW, 100 Watts output. I bought the optional frequency entry keypad and the needed power supply. Grand total for that puppy in 1983 was in the neighborhood of $725 as I recall, about $1600 today. Hmmm, that's only slightly cheaper than a base K3 with the 100 Watt amp. The problem was that the '5400 stunk in many ways. I traded it for a Hy-Gain Explorer 14 tri-band yagi. I got the better end of that deal.

Next up was the TS-830S that I bought used in late 1986 for $650 when the '5400 started failing. That's equivalent to about $1300 today. That radio served me very well and even though I sold it to a local a few years ago, I have no complaints about it.

In 1997 I bought a TS-850S from a friend for $1000, which I thought was going to be the cat's meow. I started to option it up with INRAD filters and promptly a DDS chip failed. Got it fixed and six months later another failed. Each trip to the shop was to the tune of about $300, so figure I had $1600 in it. That's about $2150 today.

The '850 was traded for the FT-920 in 2000 and I paid $1300 for it including the trade-in. I added about $450 worth of options by 2005, which works out to about $2150 today for the lot. I bought the K3 for a bit under $2400 this fall, optioned comparably to the radios I've owned in the past. As I see it, that is not out of line from what I've owned in the past when adjusted for inflation, especially given the performance increase that I've received from the K3. I am consistently hearing stations on the 75m KS section nets with the same antenna setup as before that I simply did not hear on the FT-920.

The K3 is not a myth. Yes, there are some quirks and perhaps some things that I might like to have done differently, but those are UI issues and not performance issues. I've come to accept the radio as it has been designed and find myself rarely consulting the manual for my day-to-day use. I also have it setup to my liking and rarely touch the menu settings any more. If you have the finances, try them all. If not, then I doubt that anyone will go wrong getting a K3 and giving it an honest run at their station.
 

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