I freely admit that I am more of an operatin' kind of guy and not a techno-wizzy type Ham. I got my KX3, put it together, marvel at its abilities and am on the air with it, a lot. And excuse my language, but I am enjoying the hell out of it.
I look at the KX3 e-mail reflector and I'm seeing all these "wish list" posts, with guys wanting this and that added to the next firmware edition. I shake my head, cause obviously these guys are all light years ahead of me as Amateur Radio operators. I'm pretty content with the radio as it is. About the only thing that I would like to see changed, if I could, is how the power level changes. When I twist the power level knob, I see the output power change in 0.2V steps. In other words we go from 5.0V to 4.8V, completely skipping 4.9V. I guess I would like to see that curve smooth out to be a tad more linear.
But that's it. No requests for the sun, moon and stars. Heck, half the things these guys are asking for, I can't even figure out! As advanced as this radio is, I remain a humble dial twiddler. I actually managed to hook the radio up to my netbook and got rig control software to do its thing.
I remained unimpressed.
Perhaps, if I was a contester or big gun DXer, I would appreciate that kind of thing more. Me, I'm just a ham and egger. I appreciate the radio, it's features and the genius behind it - courtesy of Eric, Wayne and the KX3 development team. And no doubt, I'll keep downloading future versions of firmware and will keep the radio as up to date as possible. But the more esoteric stuff, I will leave to those light years ahead of me. I'll be content to go along for the ride.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Right on target, Larry. 72/73 Bernie-N3EFN
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have hooked my KX3 up to KComm - just to prove it would work - I think it misses the whole point of the radio which is as a standalone trail-friendly radio. I'm glad to leave the computer behind when I make it into the great outdoors.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm writing - as are you - from the stanpoint of fortunate individuals who have both a K3 *and* a KX3. Some of the folks who are asking for more may be getting the KX3 as a kind of cut-down K3 and intend using it in the shack more than as an outdoor radio.