The Elecraft K3 is a high-performance ham radio transceiver that I think is going to set a number of new performance standards in its industry. It is brand new (as of this writing), with the first units shipping on October 8, 2007. I ordered within minutes of the announcement of this radio on April 27, 2007 and was privileged to get serial #25. Numbers 1-15 were field-test units, so this was an early unit.

I posted a page-by-page photo diary of my building experience at and thought I'd add some comments here that might help others who are building this radio.

First a couple caveats: 1) This is just my experience. Yours will obviously vary. 2) I built a pretty early version of this radio. Improvements to the assembly manual and the subassemblies themselves will probably render these comments obsolete.

Wednesday, October 31, 11:15 PM: Inventory time. I'm not a fan of doing a complete inventory of Elecraft kits. They're almost always complete and it's not that hard to figure out which parts are which. I know the politically correct thing to say is that you always should do a complete inventory, but then pilots are supposed to always use their checklists and you should always back up your important files. I decided to inventory the big "K3 Miscellaneous Bag" because it had lots of parts and looked like the one to start with.

11:45 PM: Starting with the RF board. The rows of toroids look a little sloppy. Wayne and Eric say we can stand them up and make them look pretty, but we're not to monkey with the windings. So a few little tweaks and I feel better about the look of this board, which I'll probably never see again once I get the top cover screwed on.

12:06 AM: Filters. The kit comes with the 2.7 KHz crystal filter. I also ordered a 250 Hz 8-pole filter for CW. There are five slots and I have two filters. Does it matter where they go? The assembly manual says "if you plan to add filters later, spaces may be left for them" but then it says "install the widest at FL1, the next widest at FL2 and so on". So should I leave a gap? Does "later" mean "two years from now" or "before you turn the radio on for the first time"?

The assembly manual refers to the owner's manual appendix A. I dig out the owner's manual. There is no appendix A. I find a discussion of filters and it says I can put them anywhere, but the widest has to be at FL1, then the next widest etc. It says I can leave gaps. I finally conclude I can leave gaps. I put the 2.7 KHz filter in FL1 (the widest I will ever get -- I'm not planning to work any 10 meter FM or old-fashioned AM) and the 250 Hz filter (almost the narrowest you can get) in FL5. Moving on.

12:50 AM: Installing side feet on the right side panel. The K3 has a handle on the left panel so you can carry it like a little suitcase. So it needs feet on the right. The feet are like grommets that are solid on one side (the foot side) and have a bullet-shaped insert that is larger at the base than the hole it goes through so it will hold itself in the hole.

The book gives two methods for inserting the big feet in the little holes. The first is the "press method" that involves soap and water to make the foot slick. The second is the "twist method" that uses sheer force to coerce the foot into the hole. I didn't want to get up and get soap and water, and the twist method looked too hard, so I came up with a different method.

I got the foot started by tipping it in at an angle (similar to the twist method), then used the shaft of a jeweler's screw driver to compress the opposite side of the foot, allowing it to more easily go through the hole. You have to be careful not to use the blade of the screw driver or you'll cut the foot. But the side of the shaft works nicely for compressing it. With a lot of work I was able to get them into their holes.

1:03 AM: Mounting the rear panel. This is where being a "beta tester" for the assembly manual comes in. The instructions tell me to set aside the right panel into which I've just put the feet, then it tells me to attach the rear panel I might need to loosen a screw in the right panel. That rear panel must be tough to install if it requires that I loosen a screw that's not even on my bench -- it's sitting in a box beside my chair! I conclude that they mean the left panel, which is on the right because you're looking at the back of the box at this point.

The next instruction tells me to loosen the screws in the bottom lip of the rear panel. There are no screws in the bottom lip of the rear panel. Oh look! The next step is to put screws in the bottom lip of the rear panel. Obviously these few instructions have been shuffled for some reason but references to instructions that used to be previous are now references to steps you'll take in the future.

1:30 AM: Attach the cover plate for the KXV3. I didn't order the transverter interface, so I need to install a cover plate. I need two 3/8" black pan head screws. Not only are there no 3/8" black pan head screws in the kit, there are none in the parts list. Somebody's messed up. The previous version of the assembly manual (which is the one that came with the kit) said to use 3/16" screws. It turns out my inventory check indicated I have several extra 3/16" screws, so that seems like a good option. Unfortunately they're not quite long enough to do the job but after some concentrated effort I get them installed.

That's enough for one night.

Thursday, November 1, 2007. 12:05 PM: Lunch break. Time to work on the K3 for a bit. I install the KIO3 I/O interface module. The instructions call for two more of those non-existent 3/8" pan head screws. There are none of those of course, but it seems they've provided some 1/4" screws with this subassembly. As I look back I think I have a couple extra 1/4" screws. I take a few minutes and replace the 3/16" screws from last night with the extra 1/4" screws, which makes sense since the I/O board uses them in a very similar place as the transverter board. That's enough for now. Back to work. (For those of you who don't know, I work from home so "back to work means sliding my chair about eight feet from the bench to my desk).

3:04 PM: Ready for another break. I do a five-minute inventory of the Front Panel Hardware Bag and start in on the front panel.

3:20 PM: Installing two foam "light blockers" on the side of the LCD panel. It would help if I knew what light I was blocking from getting from where to where. The picture in the manual looks vaguely like the radio I'm building but I don't get the point of these foam pads. I cram them down between the buttons and what looks like a light panel that is behind the LCD panel. They have adhesive on one side but it doesn't do much good -- the friction fit seems to hold them in place better than any adhesive would. Hopefully there are no light-sensitive components in this thing because I'm not sure if I'm in the right place or not. In the end I think I did it right. That's a long enough break. Slide back over to work.

11:22 PM: Mounting the front panel to the front panel board. No problem here. Fits right on there great and looks cool to boot. Hmmm... what's this note about "flange of microphone jack above front panel". That flange won't come close to fitting through that hole. Study the picture. Study the panel. Yep, it's supposed to go through there but it's not. A little careful work with the exacto knife to clean the paint off the inside of the hole, and it pops right through.

11:43 PM: Mounting the LCD cover over the LCD panel. Not sure what made me look, but I determined that the holes through the LCD cover weren't completely drilled out. I was able to punch out the last few hundredths of an inch with my jeweler's screwdriver. The #2 screws were pretty tight. I think the holes in the panel get filled with paint and it makes it hard to screw in the screws. I watched carefully with my magnifying glasses to make sure I was tightening the screw all the way in without putting undue pressure on the cover.

12:00 AM: Mounting concentric knobs. The first step has you put a pair of knobs on the RF/SQL/SUB control. The second step tells you to put another pair of concentric knobs over the RF/SQL/SUB control just like you did for the AF/SUB control. Obviously a documentation error. Not enough to throw me off my pace.

12:20 AM: Removing the side panels again. How many times am I going to have to take these off and put them back on?

Now it's time to mount the front panel to the rest of the chassis. There are four multi-pin connectors that need to mate. Two are easy to see; one is hard and another is very difficult. They all have to line up before you can secure any of them. This seemed like it was taking forever but it was only about five minutes. I think this was one of the more difficult steps of building the radio. So if you get past this point it should be all downhill from here.

12:34 AM: Another assembly manual typo. I'm supposed to insert six screws but only five are described. The location of the sixth one is obvious, so I do six. Then it says to insert one more screw (for a total of seven), then tighten all SIX screws. It means seven because it specifically tells me to tighten the one extra one that it hadn't included previously. Note to self: Email Elecraft with a list of typos in the assembly manual.

12:54 AM: Turn on the power. Hey it lights up! Next step: Turn off the power. Darn.

1:05 AM: Installing the reference oscillator board. This is my one big suggestion to future builders: Look ahead and locate the TMP cables and install them on the KREF3 board before attaching the KREF3 board to the back of the front panel shield. Other builders have mentioned how difficult it is to insert these cables. It's way easier if the KREF3 board is on the bench, not mounted in the radio. I installed mine, then later removed it and attached the cables then reinstalled it.

1:20 AM: Verify the PA jumper block is installed. Here's an interesting note: "Your K3 may be damaged when power is applied if the jumper block is positioned incorrectly." Hmmm... didn't we apply power about a half hour ago? I later found out that the circuits being protected are related to the KREF3 and KSYN3 boards which were just installed. There was no danger before. Phew! Well my jumper is in the right place anyway.

1:25 AM: Installing the tilt stand. Here we go. If you've built a K2 you know that this is a nasty step. On the K3, the hardware is very similar but it's way easier to install. The only problem is that the tilt stand ends up with not much spring pressure when it is deployed. As a result, it's relatively easy to knock the rig off its stand if you do something like slide it forward to access the rear panel. It probably doesn't hurt anything, but I think I've done it three times now. You have to remember to raise the tilt stand if you're going to move the radio.

2:30 AM: Done with the basic K3.

Friday, November 2, 8:30 AM: Awake and back at the bench. It's CW Sweepstakes weekend tomorrow and I have two dipoles to raise and a KPA3 to build. Run through the calibration. All goes well except I'm getting a transmit gain error. After much trial and error I realized I had specified my 250 Hz CW filter as the transmit filter for CW and I needed to use one that is at least 1 KHz wide. So I changed the configuration to use the 2.7 KHz filter and all is well.

Calibration is really easy. Make sure you do all the calibration steps. My version of the assembly manual left out one of the steps. Just do all of them. They're in the owner's manual.

9:45 PM: Time to build the KPA3 starting with a 15-minute inventory. Everything is there plus a few extra lock washers.

10:00 PM: The instructions say there's an arrow on the fans pointing in the direction of airflow. There's actually two arrows. The more visible one on my fans indicates the direction of rotation of the fan. If you look closely there's also one indicating air flow.

10:20 PM: Taking off the covers (again).

10:32 PM: Testing the fans. Man, these things are quiet!

10:45 PM: Installing the rear shield. So far nobody has run into a problem with this but I think it's trouble waiting to happen. The rear screw on the rear shield runs through a tab on the shield that is very, very close to a jumper wire that isn't supposed to be connected to ground. I would test that jumper after the shield is installed to make sure it isn't in contact with the shield.

11:15 PM: Make sure you route the speaker wire under the stiffener or you won't be able to mount the top cover.

11:30 PM: Done.

That's it. It was pretty easy to put together. My only other tips would be to verify that the assembly manuals and the owner's manual that come with your radio are the latest per the Elecraft Web site.

Also make sure you update the firmware. The firmware downloader program is really easy to use. Just follow the instructions. It automatically searches the Elecraft Web site for the latest firmware and updates it.

I made careful notes as I was building and reported all the typos and confusing parts of the assembly manual to Elecraft. Within a couple days an Errata sheet was posted containing several of my points. I'm sure by the time anyone reads this the manual will have been updated to fix everything I've mentioned here.

I ended up with three missing parts: Two 1/4" screws and a fiber washer. I was able to get the fiber washer from an unbuilt K1 I have here.

I ran the K3 in CW Sweepstakes and it worked great. As a result of that I've ordered a couple more filters. I've also ordered the KXV3 so I can get a dedicated RX antenna port for the 160m contests this winter.