Excitement in the shack! We’ve had a new addition. I have had my Elecraft K3 for quite a while. Nothing but positive words about it. It has never let me down.
We’ve all heard about the K-Line. I am assuming that the term K-Line is an omage to the Collins S-Line.
Through my research of MARS, I know that the Collins S-Line was the choice of MARS stations. Collins even had a repair shop located at the major air base outside of Saigon.
Although I have never operated any Collins gear, from what I’ve read it was built like a tank but clearly was designed to have aesthetic appeal. Elecraft is aiming to achieve the same.
I’ve started my attempt at building my K-line with the addition of the Elecraft amp and tuner. Both easily interface with each other and the K3. This allows for seamless band switching and tuning.
While only a 500 watt amplifier, I have already noticed an notable increase in my ability to make contacts and get to the top of the pileup. Band conditions helped, I’m sure – but it was still enjoyable making contacts with South Africa, Findland, the Canary Islands, and Aruba. Stateside contacts have also seemed to be easier to make with a little extra punch.
While stationed at Ft.Devens, MA 1965-66, l spent a lot time at the MARS station “K1KBO”.It was a full “S”line equiped station operated by the Army “ASA” training school ” the diddy-bop” training course ( Morse code). I was in the 196th Lt Inf Bde as a supply clerk…didn’t have a ham license then.