Icom 7300 Vs Elecraft K3s Receiver Showdown 

It's nice to hear from you and thank you so much for commenting. I am going to do a comparison between the IC-7610 and K3S. I lean to the 7610 myself. However, you wouldn't catch me using the 7610 in the field like I would the K3S HIHI. 73 and good DX!

Thanks for commenting and best 73!

Thanks for commenting. I agree, best transceiver for the price without a doubt. 73!

why ? don't get suckered into playing the spec-manship game, the real world performance of these two radios is negligible at best, oh and on the air tests are worthless, if you don't understand why then you need to give back your ham ticket.

@dannelson8556 LOL! After 61 years as a ham, probably not. Maybe I should also give back my First Class Phone Ticket, then? Or maybe I just understand how to do it so it's meaningful.

@@pmgddm 61 years as a ham radio operator and you still don't understand that over the air tests are about as worthless as tits on a boar hog.. this nonsense is nothing more than speckmanship, I have a fully outfitted electronics lab complete with spectrum analyzers, agilent vector network analyzers. I've been doing this type of analysis for over 40 years.. laboratory grade tests are useless for determining real world performance. They are tightly controlled tests done under ideal conditions that are never seen in the real world. The real world performance difference between something like a k3 and a 7300 is negligible at best. If your experiencing significant differences then that is due to your own inability to properly set up the equipment. I love it when contesters and DXers claim that something like a k3 will help them pull signals out of the noise. They never work week stations anyways. listen to a DX pileup sometime. All the reports will be 59+20 You never hear a 33 report.. Even in contests you never hear 33 report because contesters don't waste their time replying to any station that's less than a 55 So this ability to pull week stations out of the noise is nothing but pure speckmanship because nobody ever works those stations. If they're out there they're usually getting stomped on by 59 + 20 signals You can watch ft8 all day long and you'll never see someone respond to a -26 signal And while you may be able to hear a -26 signal that station isn't going to work you, because he's being pounded by stations much stronger than you. You can watch FT8 for hours and the average signal report won't drop below - 13 I'd say a good 99.9% of all signal reports are above -13 occasionally you might see one here or there at -20 but that's only when the band s are about empty. So once again we're talking about real world performance not performance under ideal conditions in a laboratory. I absolutely laugh my ass off at these appliance operators who go out and buy $3,000 plus dollar rigs, a $3,000 amplifier and hook the entire mess up to a G5RV. like I said I'd take a $300 radio and a $3,000 antenna system any day over a $3,000 radio and a $300 antenna system. hooking up a k3 and an icon 7300 to a G5 RV for on the air antenna comparisons is the epitome of something in appliance operator would do. It's literally one of the most worthless tests you could perform. and anybody who doesn't understand this just needs to turn in their ham radio ticket because they're not a real ham, They are a LID aka an appliance operator.

It's nice to hear from you and thank you for commenting. You can tell you wife amplifiers make an excellent investment. You'll spend less time on the radio trying to make that DX contact and more time at the dinner table LOL Best wishes and 73! Rich, K0PIR

@@HamRadioAdventures a good antenna is a better investment. but that doesn't stop morons from hooking up amplifiers to dipoles and G5RV's I can't believe the shear number of idiots running amps into compromise antennas..

@@dannelson8556 don’t hold anything back and tell us what you really think 😆 thanks again and I appreciate your commenting. -Rich KØPIR

@@HamRadioAdventures I don't hold anything back anymore. I'm very disappointed in the direction that amateur radio has taken. Right now I'm sitting on 40 m FT8 watching a bunch of lids using amplifiers. It's almost as though they don't think that people like me can tell that they're using amplifiers. this is the end result of the dumbing down of amateur radio, these people have no understanding of what they're doing other than what they've seen in a RU-vid video that was dumbed down for them. I am literally looking at an FT8 signal that is 250 Hertz wide from a ham out of Texas. He has a RU-vid channel where I've challenged him over using amplifiers on FT8. And once again he is demonstrating that even though he has a RU-vid channel self-professing to be an expert that is signal is the epitome of a LID. again, this is a guy who has a RU-vid channel professing to be an expert and teaching people how to do FT8, yet he has the worst signal on the band and he's teaching other people to do the exact same thing.

That’s pretty much what I’ve been looking at. The Icom 7610 is really ideal, but it’s too big to take portable. The K3S is a good size and weight like the 7300. The Elecraft K4 is beautiful, but again pretty big. Thanks for commenting 73 and good DX! de Rich KØPIR

That's what I was looking for! Thank you for commenting and I will use your suggestions for the next video with the K3 and Icom 7610. So thank you again and I hope to hear from you on the next comparison video. This one was impromptu because I just happened to have them side by side and couldn't pass up a short demo. 73 and good DX de Rich K0PIR

@@HamRadioAdventures That will be a fairer test. But you have to really push them to their limits. All rigs today are better than needed for most everything.

The real world performance between these two transceivers is negligible at best, what you are seeing is called specmanship.. Yes in the lab under tightly controlled conditions tests can be set up to maske the K3 look better on paper but under real world operating conditions the deference in performance becomes negligible. Oh and I'm also an RF engineer with over 40 years of experience, My lab makes surewoods look like a museum.. The 7300 has one thing the K3 doesn't have and that is usability, the software and user interface if the K3 is right out of the 1980s manling it clunky to work with When properly setup you won't be able to work more stations on the K3 than just about any other radio, in the end it all comes down to nothing more than Specmanship and bragging rights.. I love to laugh at the morons who have $10K invested in a full elecraft line up all connected to a freaking G55V and then brag about it. Knowable hams know that you are much better off putting your money into a good antenna and a cheap raadio.. I would take an old collins S line connected to a good antenna over a K3 connected to a G5RV or another compromise antenna .. Oh and on the air tests are worthless, average QSB far exceeds the performance deference's of these two radios

@@dannelson8556 it’s nice to hear from you and thank you so much for commenting. Agreed and sorry about the delay in responding. It was an impromptu recording and not scientific by no means. Thank you so much for adding value to these videos. I can only hope others take time to read your comment. Best 73 and good DX!

Yes the k3 is an appliance operator's dream. everything you mentioned is pretty much irrelevant in real world operations. It's called speckmanship. My radio has more features than your radio whether or not those features actually are useful in the real world is a completely different thing. With that said the k3 does have some features that make it stand out. Those features are using a DB connector for the ACC input, having an IF output as well as transverter outputs. Those are very useful features, unlike the nonsense that most k3 owners parrot. In the real world, you know actually using the radio on the air with an S5 noise floor The difference in performance between the k3 and a 7300 is negligible. I would say less than 1% of amateur radio operators, operate in an environment where the k3s superior receivers would benefit them. So it's all about putting your money where it counts and not investing in useless features that 99 percent of hams will never benefit from, the only time this stuff even remotely is demonstratable is in the laboratory under very strict controlled environments. How do I know this, I've been a ham since the 1950s, and I'm an electronics engineer. I have a complete RF electronics lab That would challenge Sherwood's lab. So I get it, testing receivers and transmitters in a controlled environment is actually a lot of fun. It's a great learning experience for people who don't really understand RF technology. Which brings us to another subject, I would say good 90% of newly minted extra class operators actually understand our electronics and could define capacitance versus inductance. Not quite sure if they could actually calculate the resonant frequency of an RLC circuit. But these are the people who would adamantly tell you that the k3 is a superior radio based on the advertising they've read.

It's nice to hear from you and thank you for commenting here. Great info! I have my IC-7610 hooked up now to do a comparison with the K3S. These two should be very close and even on CW. 73 and good DX! de Rich KØPIR

Yes, my thoughts too. The 7300 touchscreen makes a big difference and having the spectrum scope is a big plus. 73 and good DX! de Rich KØPIR

the K3's user interface is right out of the 1980's On the other hand the xverter and IF ports are really nice as is the use of a DB connecter for acc as opposed to that crappy din plug Icom uses , of course this stuff only matters to real hams not appliance operator's

@@dannelson8556 thanks for commenting. 73 and good DX!

Many thanks! 73 and good DX!