[TenTec] Think about trading for another HF rig? ; the grass isn't always greener at the other side of the fence...

[Jim Lowman]

You make an excellent point, Martin.  A rig is a very personal item, so each of us have our look-and-feel issues.

I, too, was surprised that the reviewer dwelled on the VHF aspects.  It would be interesting to see someone who was primarily an HF operator/contester/DXer share his observations about the capabilities and limitations of the K3.  I'm sure that they are out there.

To each his own choice of bands and modes, but I think that the design of the K3 inherits from the K2, likely with the HF operator in mind, so I and others no doubt would not consider these perceived weaknesses as such.

I like the idea that Elecraft has the 222 MHz band covered with their transverter, and may buy one to enjoy the weak-signal opportunities on that band in the future.  I love my Omni VI+ and can't really see an Orion in the future, but am definitely considering the K3.  But I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more radios until I thin the herd in the shack.  :-)

73 de Jim - AD6CW   


> That's an interesting K3 review, but I don't see what it
> has to do with the
> Orion or any Ten-Tec product.  He spends most of his
> ink taking down the
> memory and scanning features (non-features) of the
> K3.  OK.  That will be
> important to some people, but it's probably not a killer
> for most users, who
> are HF or weak signal VHF/UHF types, I bet.
  
> Human factors are personal.  No surprise that a small
> front panel is not as
> user friendly as a large one -- other things being
> equal.  Some of us have
> problems with the Orion style, even so.  Lots of
> button pressing for
> commonly used functions.  Of course, you get used to
> it.  On the other hand,
> Orion actually gets criticized for being so big and having
> so much empty
> volume inside.  Go figure.
> 
> The one on-topic item is that other vendors have their
> firmware feature
> update issues, too.
> 
> 73 Martin AA6E