K3 is Operational
I finished assembling the K3 late last Saturday and sarted the calibration and set up on Sunday and Monday. I Made two QSOs Monday afternoon to check things out but have not had any reports on how the digital signal looks.
So far the rig is living up to expectations and is an upgrade from both of my two previous HF rigs. I really appreciate the ability to move the passband around a bit as well as using the DSP to limit the bandwidth. One of my previous rigs had the ability but it was not as easy as it is with the K3.
I am using a Silicon Beach 24-bit external soundcard with the rig and see that the noise floor is a bit lower than I had experienced with the other rigs using the same soundcard or using a SignalinkUSB. The ability to switch to a narrow (400 or 250Hz) and use HRD to automatically put the signal in the middle of the filter passband with just a couple mouse clicks makes life easy when things get congested or when there are really big signals swamping the radio AGC.
One of the things I really like is the K3_EZ program that allows me to measure and print the SWR of my antennas with just a push of a button. The KAT3 ATU is great, I have a 40M Hamstick dipole that I use for digital work and occasionally need for voice. My other radios could not match the high SWR at the top end of the 40M band. The KAT3 does a great job. Of course I probably see a 10-15 dB loss but at least I can radiate some sort of a signal.