Today I was lucky enough to have a personal preview of a pre-release Elecraft KX3! Field tester W6NIA brought his serial number 6 over today to show it to me and let me play with it a bit. In the process, I also snapped a few detailed pics to share.
Here is a standard front facing picture with the rig plugged into a power supply and antenna with the optional key and mic attached:
As you can see, the display look and feel is very much like it's big brother, the K3. Although you can't tell, the rig actual has it's flip up feet deployed in this picture.
Here is a pic of the bottom of the rig showing the attached key and external speaker. The key simply attaches with two thumb screws and is a really nice feature (for all you hard core CW enthusiasts). You can also see one of the flip up feet partially deployed on the left.
This picture shows the left side of the rig where the various interfaces are located:
One neat feature is the On/Off method: holding two buttons simultaneously. This accomplishes two purposes: First, you don't need to waste space with an additional button. Second, if you're packing this radio in the field, this method pretty well ensures that you won't accidentally turn the radio on and drain the precious batteries.
Here is a close-up view of the right side controls:
And here is one of the left side controls:
Because the firmware of the radio I played with is still preliminary, I won't go into great detail about all of the controls. However, I can say that after about 20 minutes of playing with the radio, I had a good understanding of the operating principles and could make pretty much any adjustment I wanted.
This is the HF antenna port on the right side. The covered slot to the left is where the eventual 2 meter module antenna jack will be.
This is an interesting shot that adds some perspective to the overall size of the KX3.
It really is an entire HF transceiver in your hand! Personally, I find the fact that Elecraft has made an HF rig of this caliber to be this portable truly amazing. I can't wait to have my own
.
Of course, I have to give some respect to the guy who was gracious enough to let me preview the rig, so here's a pic of W6NIA holding the rig with a Wonder Wand antenna attached:
This test KX3 does not have the internal tuner option yet, so an antenna like this Wonder Wand would make for a fun combination while operating portable. Here is an up close picture showing this combination in detail:
To cap off the preview, here is one more pic of the rig:
Next, I'll give some initial impressions of the KX3...
Here is a standard front facing picture with the rig plugged into a power supply and antenna with the optional key and mic attached:
As you can see, the display look and feel is very much like it's big brother, the K3. Although you can't tell, the rig actual has it's flip up feet deployed in this picture.
Here is a pic of the bottom of the rig showing the attached key and external speaker. The key simply attaches with two thumb screws and is a really nice feature (for all you hard core CW enthusiasts). You can also see one of the flip up feet partially deployed on the left.
This picture shows the left side of the rig where the various interfaces are located:
One neat feature is the On/Off method: holding two buttons simultaneously. This accomplishes two purposes: First, you don't need to waste space with an additional button. Second, if you're packing this radio in the field, this method pretty well ensures that you won't accidentally turn the radio on and drain the precious batteries.
Here is a close-up view of the right side controls:
And here is one of the left side controls:
Because the firmware of the radio I played with is still preliminary, I won't go into great detail about all of the controls. However, I can say that after about 20 minutes of playing with the radio, I had a good understanding of the operating principles and could make pretty much any adjustment I wanted.
This is the HF antenna port on the right side. The covered slot to the left is where the eventual 2 meter module antenna jack will be.
This is an interesting shot that adds some perspective to the overall size of the KX3.
It really is an entire HF transceiver in your hand! Personally, I find the fact that Elecraft has made an HF rig of this caliber to be this portable truly amazing. I can't wait to have my own
.Of course, I have to give some respect to the guy who was gracious enough to let me preview the rig, so here's a pic of W6NIA holding the rig with a Wonder Wand antenna attached:
This test KX3 does not have the internal tuner option yet, so an antenna like this Wonder Wand would make for a fun combination while operating portable. Here is an up close picture showing this combination in detail:
To cap off the preview, here is one more pic of the rig:
Next, I'll give some initial impressions of the KX3...
