I’ve toyed with the idea of picking up an Elecraft KX3 for the past year or so. I came close to buying one a few times but always talked myself out of it. I know there are many satisfied KX3 owners out there and I’ve used the KX3 several times myself so I was familiar with its excellent capabilities. It was just that my current stable of rigs was working fine and I felt no urgent need to replace them.
That all changed last week. I decided that a rig that has everything built-in (ATU, keyer with memories, etc.) was more suited to the kind of portable operating I typically do. Since ham radio has been my main pastime since I retired, I figured I was deserving of a new toy. So, I fired off an order to Elecraft and two days later it arrived.
While I was waiting for the radio to arrive, I spent some time reading through the user’s manual. I wanted to gain some familiarity with the KX3’s mind-boggling array of features before I got my hands on it. The basic operations were fairly intuitive but it will be a while until I feel like I have mastered this thing.
Barely out of the box, I had the KX3 set up and connected to my infamous rain gutter antenna. The KX3 tuned it up nicely on all bands. The filtering and noise reduction really did a nice job with my local noise problems on 40 and 80 meters. While I was tuning around on 20 meters, I had an SKCC QSO with Andy, EA5IIK. A DX QSO while running 5 watts into my rain gutter? For the rig’s first QSO, that’s some good mojo!
It took me a while to join the ranks of KX3 users but I’m finally here and looking forward to many QRP outings with this great rig.
UPDATE (5/19/2016):
It figures… A week after I get my KX3, Elecraft announces the smaller and less-expensive KX2. I guess I’ll need to start saving my pennies again!
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 