Last week I received my long awaited K-POD from QRP-Project in Berlin.
The K-POD now sits left to my computer keyboard. With its 8 programmable function keys, you can quickly recall CW- or Voice-memories or execute any of the K3 macro commands. An with the large tuning knob, you can easily tune the K3.
Reasons, why I bougth the KPOD:
- You can recall memories without reaching over the keyboard to the transceiver
- With the rocker-switch at the lower end, you can select, whether you want to tune VFO-A, VFO-B or RIT - this is handy, because you now have two independent large tuning knobs, when you're operating in split-mode.
I had to do one minor modification on my older K3 - to supply the K-POD directly via the control cable I had to replace a smd resistor inside the front panel unit of the K3. The SMD resistor is supplied with K-POD! With a good lighting, a fine soldering tip, good desoldering braid and a fine solder this was no problem. Basically you can also supply the K-POD with a seperate DC-cable. In my situation this had two disadvantages - an extra cable on the desk and sometimes on power-up of the transceiver the tranceiver simple increases frequency without any chance to stop - only removing the K-POD and toggling the K3 power switch helps. So I decided to go for the K3 modification.
Currently I've assigned the following macros to the keys:
- F1 Send my callsign in CW
- F2 The well know "r 5nn tu"
- F8 CW-Tune to spot - same as the front-panel key "SPOT"
The next idea is, to assign a MUTE/UNMUTE AF-macro to one of the keys - but the UNMUTE seems to be not supported on the K3. If someone has a hint - you're welcome!