Early may blesses us with summer-like temperatures. Time for a backyard fieldday with my brandnew Elecraft K3 tranceiver, and the Buddipole configured as a quasi-vertical dipole.
Elecraft K3 in my backyard
My last purchase of a serious shortwave transceiver was more than 15 years ago, the venerable IC-706. Time to add another species to my radio zoo – the Elecraft K3, which I chose based on rave reviews of its receiver performance. Low on time as I am right now, I opted to buy it fully assembled, from the good people at QRPproject in Berlin. Its concept as a self-assembly kit, however, makes it easy to upgrade and modify later on, another reason for choosing this particular rig.
The K3 is a dedicated shortwave machine – no VHF/UHF bands (unless you buy the optional transverters), no general coverage receiver – unless you buy the optional board which adds the necessary bandpass filters for quasi-general coverage of the shortwave range. Besides, the low intermediate frequency (IF) concept of the K3 does not allow for true general coverage, as you have to skip the IF region at approximately 8 MHz anyway. And the K3 is a no-frills radio – where other manufacturers offer PC class computing power and full color large LCD panels, the K3 sports a monochrome. small LCD panel, and is managed by a PIC microcontroller.
The K3 does, what it does, exceedingly well. The low IF allows a bank of high Q roofing filters which provide for excellent performance in the presence of close-in interferers. 32-bit digital signal processing (DSP) allows effective noise reduction and continuously variable receiver bandwidth which really shines for Morse code (CW) receiption, where the bandwidth can be reduced to 50 Hz, with negligible ringing, due to the finite impulse response filters implemented in the K3. It was a real joy to hunt for low power (QRP) stations and pull them out of the noise. The no-frills display and control software result in a reasonable current drain on receive (0.9 A), which, together with the relatively low weight, make the K3 suitable for portable operation (not physically demanding summit-on-the-air operations, however).
Several comments I read on the Internet stated that this transceiver “is not a state of the art single-sideband (SSB) radio”, while its virtues for CW operation are undisputed. I dare to disagree, but should note that I rarely work SSB voice, and that my newest radio until recently was 15 years old. The K3 is a great SSB radio. I love the monitor function which assists in setting the microphone gain and the voice compression levels. For both the Heil MH2 handheld microphone and my trusty Sennheiser PC-style headset (which is easily connected to the back panel of the radio), I received excellent modulation reports, and even using low power (10W), I was able to make voice contacts throughout Europe.
The K3 also offers the ability to decode a few digital modes “right in the box”, without a PC. This function is restricted to 45 baud and 75 baud FSK teletype, and BPSK 31. I found the results worse than with dedicated computer programs, and the tuning is quite tedious with just a simple tuning indicator (which can also be used for CW). A funny feature is “CW to data” which allows to enter text using Morse code, which is then sent in teletype or BPSK. I managed one contact this way, but it will need a lot more practice, and probaly not going to be my favorite way of operating. With the small display, you have to pay close attention to the received text, and the slow method of text entry will tax the other ham’s patience (most of them press only a few macro keys anyway and always send the same text).
In short, the K3 is a great radio, especially for CW and SSB operation, and most likely also for data, together with external software.
Electrical engineer, radio ham, EMT, outdoor enthusiast
