[TenTec] Requirements for a top tier DXing rig

[Jim Brown]

On 10/18/2013 9:23 AM, chacuff at cableone.net wrote:
> BIG Radio’s.  Front panel real estate is a must to keep from ending up with tiny knobs, concentric knobs and multi layer menus resulting in many multi function buttons and knobs.  It’s too difficult to wade through all that in the middle of a pileup or running in a contest.  Besides this is a base station rig that never leaves the shack. There is no good reason it shouldn’t be sizable.

Agreed on all your other counts, but not on this one.  I'm mostly a 
contester, although I do chase DX, and for contesting, I run two 
radios.  Six years ago, I had a pair of FT1000MPs on my desk, and liked 
them, but man, did they fill up the operating desk!  There was barely 
room for my Thinkpad and paddle, and it certainly wasn't comfortable!

When the K3 was announced, I placed an order for two of them. When they 
arrived six months later, suddenly I had plenty of room. Yes, there are 
fewer knobs, but many of them do double duty -- for example, the mic 
gain becomes keyer speed in CW mode. Indeed, the K3 has enough knobs to 
be fully functional, but not so many that you get overwhelmed by them. 
And once you have set up the radio the way you like it, you almost never 
need to use menus.  I can't remember ever having to dive into a menu 
while I'm operating unless a guest op has changed something without 
telling me.

Some specifics -- the K3 has a main tuning knob, a second tuning knob 
(for 2nd VFO or 2nd RX), an RIT/XIT knob, IF bandwidth knobs that can be 
either bandwidth and center (what use) or low and high audio frequencies 
of the resulting audio bandwidth, mic gain (or CW speed), RF gain, AF 
gain, and one that is either Power out or Compression.  VOX settings are 
on the first-tier menu. There are buttons to switch between two antennas 
connected to the tuner, to turn the tuner on and off, to force the tuner 
to tune, and to put the radio in TX mode for tweaking an external tuner 
or power amp. I can't think of anything else I would need when I'm 
operating!  The radio also has a bunch of memories for TX and RX 
frequencies that can be programmed to put you on your favorite 
frequencies on each band!

To me, it isn't the number or the size of the knobs that matters, but 
rather how logical they are to use.  Each of the major rig mfrs have 
developed their own logic, and some are far better than others.  It also 
depends a lot on what logic you're used to. I live in the Windoze world, 
and find Apple stuff totally inscrutable! I've owned and spent a lot of 
time with Halicrafters, Hammerlund, Heathkit, Drake Ten Tec, Icom, 
Kenwood, Yaesu, and Elecraft HF gear. For operating control logic, Yaesu 
is by far the worst, Kenwood is pretty good, and Elecraft is by far the 
best. I've got a Yaesu 2M/440 rig that I still haven't figured out, and 
an Icom that isn't much better. But my Kenwood THF6A is so logical that 
I was able to figure it out without the manual!

When Elecraft announced their P3 spectrum display, it became an 
absolutely must have for me. It is very useful for finding holes in a DX 
pileup (and seeing where the guy is he just worked), for finding a run 
frequency in a contest, for monitoring one of the higher bands for 
openings, for checking bandwidth of signals, and for investigating and 
diagnosing RF noise.  IMO, the P3 is more important to me in a pileup 
than the second RX! (Although I do use both).  Another interesting point 
-- because the P3 is a separate box, I was able to set it on top of the 
radio rather than burn desk space alongside.

> Elecraft is a bit small for me but...

I think if you used a K3 for a while you might change your mind. :) And 
I'm SURE you would change your mind if you wanted to carry it on an 
airplane!  W0YK regularly takes TWO K3s to Aruba as carry-ons for the 
RTTY contests that he nearly always wins.

Because I take my rigs to Field Day and county expeditions for the 
California QSO Party, I also demand that my rigs be very clean, with 
minimal IMD and phase noise so that they don't RX or TX QRM to other 
stations.

Another of my requirements for a rig is mic EQ, so that I can get rid of 
the bass in my voice that steals 2dB of transmit power. Yes, I could buy 
a W2IHY box, but that's something else to find room for on the desk and 
to drag on the airplane. It's built into the K3 (and KX3).

And I'm with you, Rick, on output power.  100W is plenty for the rig -- 
because of the FCC limits on how much power gain an amp may have, I need 
only 29W to drive my KPA500 to 600W, and about 40-50W to get my Titans 
to the legal limit.

I'm also with you about power supply -- the FT1000MPs are the only rigs 
I've used in at least 40 years that didn't run on 12 -14V, and that's 
one thing I really disliked about them. It made them bigger and heavier 
(see above), and I couldn't use a float-charged car battery to run them 
(giving me a big UPS for my rig).

I really do like having a tuner in the rig, and because I nearly always 
use resonant or near-resonant antennas, the built-in tuners are plenty 
good enough for me.  Yes, I'm often driving an amp while contesting or 
DXing, but not on Field Day, and I do a lot of QRP DXing at home.

Another thing I insist on is a rig that remembers settings by band and 
mode. Saves a ton of time (and mental energy) when firing up to work a 
DX spot before the pileup gets huge, or when changing bands (or modes) 
during a contest.

And yet another, that goes along with the support issue that we all 
demand -- I want the radio to be upgradeable with either hardware or 
firmware mods. With virtually all of the rice boxes, I've got to buy a 
new rig to get those upgrades. With Ten Tec and Elecraft, the stuff they 
can do with firmware is free, and the hardware mods are cheap.

Along that line, a week ago I heard Wayne Burdick, owner and chief 
engineer of Elecraft, talk about his design process for the K2 and K3, 
which were introduced about ten years apart. In the Q&A, someone asked 
him about a future K4. He responded that his company's philosophy was to 
upgrade existing products rather than to introduce new stuff that would 
obsolete them. He noted that the KX3 is a lot smaller and does some 
things better than the K3 because he had access to better chips five 
years after designing the K3, and that if the K3 were to be upgraded, it 
would likely be in the form of one or more new boards to replace those 
in the existing radio.  Now that's what I call support, and putting the 
customer first!

73, Jim K9YC