> I have never had a chance to play with a K3. Everyone seems to rave about
> them. Are they really worth another $1000 over what you can buy a FT1000MP
> for, which is a proven good contest radio? Any thoughts on which you liked
> better?
I've found a few K3 haters (usually with silly claims that just aren't
true), but since I have an MP, and a few MP MKV's and a K3 that I use all
the time here is my take on it......
Anyone telling you one receiver is quieter than another at HF is almost
certainly just deluding himself. Any good receiver will noise limit on
antenna noise at HF, not receiver noise. Since the antenna system noise
floor sets the system noise (unless you are using a Knight Kit Star Roamer),
background noise can only be set by bandwidth, gain, and AGC.
Look at this list to see how receivers compare:
http://www.sherweng.com/table.html
As for noise, what I generally see is people run too much gain from a
preamp, or they have the receiver into AGC just on antenna noise, and by
doing that the perception is the higher gain receiver is "noisy".
Factually though, the Yaesu 1000MP (and 1000D) is clearly the receiver with
excessive noise. It has a very wide band hissing from the last IF stages
that mostly shows as a wideband hissing when a narrow filter is used. It
does not bother me because I use audio filtering to get rid of the wideband
hissing from the last IF.
My K3 has a much better receiver overall for strong signals next to weak
signals.
The real differences between the K3 and the MP mechanically is the size and
ease of operation. The MP is a lot more friendly to old Hams.
Electrically the K3 is better all around except I somewhat dislike the way
the ALC system works in the K3 on SSB. It sounds great and is clean, and
gets excellent reports, but I don't like how the meters move around.
In the house I use my K3 as my main radio and now just use my house MP MKV
as a six meter rig.
Keep in mind my K3 is less than 2 years old, and has the latest firmware. I
have an Orion I, two FT1000D's, two FT 1000MP MKV's, and one FT1000MP. I
loaned my Orion to a friend, my FT1000D's to two other friends, and kept the
MP MKV's and K3. When I say "loaned", I guess I gave them away. I haven't
had two of those radios in five or six years. :-)
73 Tom
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