My son (KJ6PUN) and I (KJ6PUO) received KX3 kit serial number 2797 late last week and put it together on Saturday. It went smoothly and came out looking great.
We set it up with a portable antenna and listened on 20m to the chaos of the ARRL November Sweepstakes. This is our first HF transceiver and we didn't want to jump in to the fray so we haven't tried the transmitter yet, but the receiver found something on every frequency we tried! Lots of fun. It was easy to find our way around the control panel with reference to the excellent manual. Putting the radio away on Saturday night I was concerned about the fact we didn't have anything to protect it. On Sunday as I was passing a local camera store I thought "why not look at the camera bags, maybe a videocamera bag or something would fit it." I didn't find a suitable videocamera bag, but this LowePro "Lens Exchange Case" fit nearly perfectly: http://products.lowepro.com/product/SF-Lens-Exchange-Case-200-AW,2226,53.htm The radio goes in the main lens compartment with the hand mic in the second expandable compartment. There is room for the cables on the sides and everything zips up snugly. You can even carry spare batteries in the pockets on the outside. It has a large secure belt loop on the back and a clip-on shoulder strap. The only downside is that I'm pretty sure it won't work with the mini paddle attached. We're still in the early stages of learning CW so I don't expect that to be something we're concerned about for a while. It obviously won't protect the radio from truly hazardous conditions but seems like a good compromise for taking it out for the day. LowePro also has some nice camera backpacks with laptop sleeves that would let you take a fully digital station out easily, with a little camera gear too. ;-) We're looking forward to really getting on the air and trying out the tranmitter sometime in the next few days. --- Keith ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
