[UK-CONTEST] K3 Building

[jim martin]

As promised a quick note on my experiences.
As the Meerkat would say...... "Simples"
Back in the sixties I built some receiver kits (HAC?) which were great fun
but never quite delivered as promised.
The K3 delivers all that is promised and much, much more.
The manual is excellent and with everything laid out on the dining table in
our Mull holiday cottage I set about construction over the course of the
holiday.  Total construction and setup time about seven hours.
There were no missing parts and no complications and K3 4866 was full
completed just before the RSGB topband contest.  Having anticipated this I
had slung up an inverted L on my 12m Spiderpole with a few radials and off
we went. After 36 QSOs and 10 countries worked I went off to bed a very
happy bunny!
I now have a dilemma.  This K3 was paid for by a friend and I agreed to do
the construction on his behalf. Unfortunately I feel like it has to stay in
my shack, so much so that I have transferred all my filters, second RX, DVK
etc. from my own K3 to the new one.  Building the K3 was such a great
experience and having competed in CQWW at the weekend using it, K3 #4866
will now take up permanent residence in my shack.  I have used both radios
side by side and there is no difference that I can detect, it's just the
fact that I put it together means it is staying! (XYL thinks I am even
madder than before)
I have until the middle of December to produce another fully built and
tested K3 ( I resisted the temptation to pass my old one off as a new
unit!!)  Last time it took six days from time of order to the postie
delivering it to my door so hopefully the next one will arrive in the same
time span and I can get building.  I would imagine construction time will be
cut down by a couple of hours.
Only problem now is, do I keep my TS2000 (used for 2m and 70cms) or sell it
and keep my original K3 for a great SO2R setup?  Something has to go, my
shack under the stairs is just too small.
CQWW report to follow later.
73 and thanks again for all the great advice.
Jim

On 2 November 2010 17:45, MM0BQI <MM0BQI at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> I have ordered a new K3 kit to build for a friend who is unable to attempt
> the construction.
> Any tips from experienced K3 builders, is it really as simple as most folks
> make out, any pitfalls, how long will it take?
> Thanks
> 73
> Jim
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