Secrets Revealed! Welcome the new Elecraft K3S Transceiver

Today at Four Days In May (FDIM) Elecraft's Eric Swartz unveiled their new transceiver, the K3S.  They also released details on the P3 TX monitor upgrade which has been rumored to be in the works for some time now.

The K3S Transceiver features a new USB interface (which includes audio) as well as Ethernet connectivity (sorry the RJ45 connector is for RS232 only) the recently upgraded Synthesizer for best in class receive. See the data and FAQ sheets here:

http://www.elecraft.com/manual/K3S%20Data%20Sheet%20rev%20A1.pdf

http://www.elecraft.com/manual/K3S-FAQ%20rev%20C5%20customer.pdf


Prices start at $2,099 for the 10w kit version and go up to $2,899 for the 100w factory build version.

New: the price increase is about $500 over the previous base K3 model! We'll see how the numbers work out when Sherwood gets one but hopefully the numbers justify the price hike.  Luckily many of the options are available for existing K3s (little S).

What a great way to start the Dayton weekend!  Keep your eyes here for more exciting stuff from the Hamvention!

Dayton Rumors Begin!

Elecraft posted this image teasing their new offering they will be unveiling at Dayton Hamvention this week.  Nobody is quite sure what it is yet but it is clearly some sort of ruggedized K3 looking thing.  With a little kung-fu magic, NT1K determined that the picture was taken by Elecraft engineer Wayne Burdik, N6KR, at his home in California.

A number of the rumors I've seen floating around include a K3S where the S stands for SOTA, with built in APRS and SOTA database, etc.  Or perhaps a K2S, a timely upgrade to the legendary transceiver that launched Elecraft's success.  A fully user built radio with K3 specifications.  A post on the Elecraft reflector posited a handheld K3 but isn't the KX3 already almost hand-held?

Whatever it is, we're all very eager to find out and you can bet I'll be updating the blog when more information is available.

UPDATE: Rockwell, WW1X, posted this "enhanced" teaser on Twitter:
(its a joke!)