Elecraft K3S firmware v2.80

Elecraft · Released Jan 23, 2009 · First seen Sep 14, 2026

Source: elecraft.com

v2.80 is not the latest firmware for the Elecraft K3S: the current version is v5.67 (January 22, 2019). Go to v5.67

In short — summary by updatemystuff.com

AM power stabilized, transmission improved, and manual ATU settings now saved per-band.

  • AM power drift eliminated
  • AM transmission quality improved
  • Manual ATU L/C adjustments saved per-band

Written from Elecraft's release notes, which are printed in full below.

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What's in this update

MCU 2.80 / DSP 1.99

  • AM POWER LEVEL NO LONGER DRIFTS: AM power setting is now more​ accurate, and doesnt change over time.
  • AM TRANSMIT SIGNAL NO LONGER OVERMODULATED: AM ALC and audio signal levels have been adjusted to provide a very clean transmit signal.
  • DVR TERMINATION VIA PTT: Activating PTT will immediately stop DVR transmit message playback.
  • CWT (CW TUNING AID) ON/OFF STATE SAVED: If you turn CWT on, it will always turn on when you return to the applicable mode (e.g. CW).
  • MANUAL ATU L/C CHANGES ARE SAVED (per-band, per-antenna, just like when doing an auto-tune). Manual ATU adjustment is possible when CONFIG: KAT3 is set to LC SET (see owners manual). Previously, manual L/C changes were lost when the KAT3 mode was returned to AUTO or BYP.
  • ALC METERING AVAILABLE IN FM MODE: Previously, in FM mode the ALC meter scale was fixed at 7 bars.
  • CROSS-MODE SPLIT : When using cross-mode SPLIT (e.g. LSB/USB) with the sub-RX ON, the use of TUNE would sometimes result in an incorrect sub receiver synthesizer frequency.
  • SPOT and PITCH switches work correctly with switch feedback tones enabled.

Switch feedback tones are not used for these switches since a tone is generated an​yway. Previously, the sidetone would sometimes not be heard.

  • XVx MENU ENTRY BEHAVIOR CORRECTED: Previously, adjusting these menu entries would sometimes change the mode or frequency of the VFOs.
  • VFO CTS MENU ENTRY: A change in the VFO counts-per-turn setting now takes effect immediately, rather than requiring a mode change or power cycle.

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