Re: [Elecraft] Lightning concerns: Was: K4 Remote: My QTH vs. a friend's, many miles to the north

2024-05-08 Thread Al Lorona
I'm sure a major reason W8JI leaves everything connected is because it would take him about 4 hours to disconnect it all!  :^) Jim, you have chosen to take the risk of leaving everything connected. Good for you; it shows your confidence in your own engineering. But surely you'll agree that it

Re: [Elecraft] Lightning concerns: Was: K4 Remote: My QTH vs. a friend's, many miles to the north

2024-05-07 Thread Al Lorona
Imagine that, somehow, you could know for certain that tonight you were going to get direct-hit by lightning on your antenna. In spite of all the grounding and bonding and spark-gapping and everything else you may have done, are you confident enough that you would trust it all and let the

[Elecraft] {K3} How to run Diversity mode [long]

2023-12-31 Thread Al Lorona
I ran my K3 in diversity mode during the ARRL 160 meter contest for the first time from this side of the country. It was a revelation. If you've never listened in diversity, you must do everything you can-- now that we're in the time of year that's favorable for the low bands-- to experience

[Elecraft] Measurements of a KAT500

2023-12-07 Thread Al Lorona
Now and then, someone accuses the KAT500 of disturbing their impedance match even when it is bypassed. I wanted to see just how much residual mismatch the KAT500 has when it's in bypass mode, so I made a couple of measurements today.  I took measurements at 3.6, 7.1 and 28.3 MHz; in other

[Elecraft] [K3] Spinning VFO B very quickly shuts down K3

2023-11-27 Thread Al Lorona
Here's a problem that I'm curious if anyone else can reproduce it. I'm running K3 firmware 5.66. If I spin the VFO B knob *really* fast in either direction, the radio shuts down. (On rare occasions it will hang and require power supply shutdown to turn it off.) I highly doubt it, but just in

[Elecraft] [OT] Wayne Burdick wins 1st annual Kitchen Homebrew Challenge

2023-09-04 Thread Al Lorona
Wayne Burdick, N6KR, has taken the gold medal at the 1st annual Kitchen Homebrew Challenge held over the weekend. The contest challenged engineers to construct a QRP transmitter using just three transistors and whatever else they could find in their kitchens. Although the designers were

Re: [Elecraft] A dumb question about lightning

2023-08-01 Thread Al Lorona
Hi, Everybody, I greatly apologize for escalating the list traffic with my question on lightning. I merely wanted to get your thoughts on disconnecting equipment in addition to grounding and bonding. And the overwhelming consensus-- in both public and private responses-- is that yes, in fact,

[Elecraft] [OT] A dumb question about lightning

2023-07-28 Thread Al Lorona
Please don't laugh at me; I'm a transplant from a region of the country with essentially no lightning to a region where you have to worry about it quite a bit. We had a doozy of a storm last night, with lots of lightning overhead. I felt like a sitting duck, even though I had grounded both

Re: [Elecraft] Field Day Operation

2023-06-26 Thread Al Lorona
Wow. I can't even imagine working 1532 contacts in 24 hours. If, in fact, you stayed awake for 24 hours straight, that would have meant you maintained a 64 Q per hour rate for the duration. That's an incredible run for *any* contest. Congratulations, sir! Yeah, I let my frustration out on the

Re: [Elecraft] K4 Rx is awesome...

2023-06-25 Thread Al Lorona
> I can hear many many stations but hardly any of them can hear me. The most likely reason for this is operator inexperience, which is a perennial problem on Field Day. It's great that lots of people who don't usually get on the air, get on the air... but the side effect of this is a lot of

Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft CW Net Report

2023-05-24 Thread Al Lorona
Kevin's perseverance is astonishing. Week after week, suffering through poor conditions. He never seems to catch a break. So here is THE KD5ONS CW NET REPORT I HOPE TO READ BEFORE I DIE. "Signals were fantastic. There was no hint of noise nor QSB. At one point, I laid the headphones down and

Re: [Elecraft] Where to put the wattmeter

2023-04-19 Thread Al Lorona
Yes, if you're willing to do the math in your head, or can set up your fancy wattmeter to do the math for you, this'll work. But the main reason why I don't like the idea of putting the wattmeter (or sensor, actually) in a non-50-ohm location is the additional uncertainty due to the

Re: [Elecraft] K3 & K3S Options Last Time Buy Update (12/02/2022)

2022-12-03 Thread Al Lorona
The most likely near future, which Elecraft has (have?) apparently chosen, could be the constant grumbling we will all make for years to come as we sit and stare at our K3s with various dead boards. Flex, Yaesu and Icom are all rooting for this status quo to continue. I'd like to suggest a

[Elecraft] RF in the shack ≠ RF overload

2022-11-26 Thread Al Lorona
Here's a statement: "RF in the shack" does not equal "simple RF overload". Let me define my terms. "RF in the shack", which many people have experienced when using "unbalanced" antennas like verticals, off-center fed wires, and others, is caused by radiation from the outside shield of the

[Elecraft] Fluorescent RFI solved

2022-11-26 Thread Al Lorona
I hope this helps anybody facing the same issue. The fluorescent lights in my basement make horrible RFI noise, especially on 40 m but really affecting all bands. They raise the noise floor by about 16 dB on 40. I discovered this during Field Day *last* year when I set up in the back yard.

Re: [Elecraft] Running high power

2022-11-23 Thread Al Lorona
Thank you for all your responses. I did not mean my question to solicit the thousands of ways of solving this problem, but merely a poll of hams' experiences running high power. Based on all of the private and public responses I received, it's about 50% who've had problems with consumer

[Elecraft] Running high power

2022-11-22 Thread Al Lorona
I'm really curious to ask those on this list who run high power: Do you find that you get into all kinds of devices around the house? I ran the KPA-500 in an extended manner for really the first time during the Phone SS and immediately: 1/ interfered with FM broadcast radio. 2/ caused the

Re: [Elecraft] Yamaha Headphones

2022-11-21 Thread Al Lorona
>>> An electret mic has much better fidelity than an inexpensive dynamic mic, >>> so the CM500 is probably a better choice. Is that really true? If you looked inside all of your local AM broadcast stations, all you'd see are dynamic microphones. I'm not sure why most headsets have electret

Re: [Elecraft] QRP and Contesting

2022-11-09 Thread Al Lorona
This issue is a kind of double-edged sword that cuts not only newbies with bad fists, but Big Guns with fists that are, well, *too* good. I noticed this opposite phenomenon as soon as CW SS got started. It seemed that the average CW speed was way up this year. (I hadn't operated the SS in a

Re: [Elecraft] K3S Noise Reduction

2022-11-07 Thread Al Lorona
Good advice from Chuck and Bob below. The thing to remember is that the noise reduction isn't just an on/off button. There are 32 levels of noise reduction to choose from. Some of the levels add just a touch of NR while others almost destroy the signal, adding artifacts and other things in the

[Elecraft] [K3] KIO3 failure mode

2022-08-23 Thread Al Lorona
Ah, lightning. Whoever performs an analysis of the KIO3 failure mode after being struck by lightning might have what's necessary for a very lucrative business.  Actually, I'm surprised that the board hasn't already been reverse engineered in China, enabling an aftermarket for KIO3 replacements.

Re: [Elecraft] K2 versus K3 specs

2022-07-24 Thread Al Lorona
> The K2 is somewhat of a spiritual event. There are many  > who are very attached to their K2's... because we built them,  > got familiar with them, used them in memorable situations,  > and became fondly attached.  So true, Robert! My K2 got soaked in a giant rainstorm in Virginia a few Field

Re: [Elecraft] [OT] Note from a skeptic

2022-06-29 Thread Al Lorona
s. > > 73, > Drew > AF2Z > > > > On 06/29/22 14:57, Al Lorona wrote: > > Late last week, I pulled my two-year-old LiFePO4 battery out for Field > Day prep and found that it had failed. Efforts to reset the battery > management system didn't succeed. I got to use this batter

[Elecraft] [OT] Note from a skeptic

2022-06-29 Thread Al Lorona
Late last week, I pulled my two-year-old LiFePO4 battery out for Field Day prep and found that it had failed. Efforts to reset the battery management system didn't succeed. I got to use this battery on exactly two Field Days, which means it cost me almost $200 per Field Day! Sad, very, very

Re: [Elecraft] P3 as a phase noise measurement tool

2022-06-07 Thread Al Lorona
According to Al, N1AL, "The effective bandwidth of the P3 is approximately one pixel on the display, which is SPAN/468.  So, for example, if the span is 47 kHz, the effective bandwidth is about 100 Hz." To "convert" or "correct" to a 1 Hz bandwidth, use the formula: BW_correction_factor = 10 *

[Elecraft] [OT] Specs

2022-05-25 Thread Al Lorona
Several weeks ago, someone here recommended listening to a recent interview with receiver test guru Rob Sherwood. In it, the interviewer pressed Rob for a radio recommendation. At first he resisted but eventually gave three transceivers that he said "anybody would be very happy with". But when

[Elecraft] [OT] The dreaded 400 Hz hump

2022-05-18 Thread Al Lorona
Have you studied how SSB signals look on your panadapter? I believe about 90% of all phone signals have a very pronounced peak at about 400 or 500 Hz. This peak is sometimes 10 dB (or more) higher than the rest of the bandwidth. This is wasted power and, to my ear, makes signals sound muddier.

Re: [Elecraft] K4HD Executive Summary Request -- strong signal performance

2022-01-30 Thread Al Lorona
This page:  https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/1124/what-does-a-noise-blanker-really-do-and-what-are-the-side-effects    contains a pretty good synopsis of why noise blankers mess up on strong signals. Al  W6LX/4 >In the end all I learned  was that NB >levels were mostly unpredictable in

[Elecraft] [OT] Loss in window line [OPINION] [LONG]

2022-01-14 Thread Al Lorona
Whenever somebody mentions "window line" here, one of the first objections raised is that "when it gets wet, it has very high loss".  The landmark paper cited is by Wes Stewart, N7WS, which can be found here:  https://www.sadxa.org/n7ws/Ladder_Line.pdf . I'm not trying to discredit that paper

Re: [Elecraft] Output power being eaten

2021-12-31 Thread Al Lorona
Happy New Year, I think N7WS has shown that when that window transmission line gets wet, its loss goes way up. So some of the change you are seeing in rain/snow conditions could be due to this higher loss. Al  W6LX/4 > > My experience with antenna's changing due to moisture is with my >

Re: [Elecraft] KAT500 Attenuator

2021-12-15 Thread Al Lorona
Have we, in fact, established that this attenuator is enabled at any point of the tune cycle? Because if not, then we're all spun up for nothing. Is it reasonable to believe that the attenuator was one of those design elements that might have been deemed necessary at one time but then the

Re: [Elecraft] HELP! XFINITY SHUT OFF INTERNET DUE TO HAM ANTENNAS

2021-10-21 Thread Al Lorona
Jim beat me to it. I was also going to urge you to transmit as much as possible on 20 meters with the highest power you can. The idea is to become a hair ball that Xfinity can't swallow nor can't cough back up. If anybody comes up to you to complain that you're still causing outages, use the

Re: [Elecraft] A suggested VFO parking place

2021-09-20 Thread Al Lorona
7030.0 - on the peak 7029.7 - a little down the south slope, couldn't make it up the last crag 7028.9 - in the car at the trailhead parking lot Al W6LX/4 On Monday, September 20, 2021, 10:11:55 PM EDT, Wayne Burdick wrote: Gaussian describes the shape of the QRP frequency distribution *and*

Re: [Elecraft] A suggested VFO parking place

2021-09-20 Thread Al Lorona
If you regard QRP ARCI as a de facto authority on QRP in the US, they recommend 7030, and they call it a 'center of activity' rather than a calling frequency. I take that to mean we should imagine a Gaussian distribution of activity above and below this center. I imagine a standard deviation of

Re: [Elecraft] K3S audio quality issue

2021-08-18 Thread Al Lorona
Hi, Mike, This issue comes up regularly here. It sounds like this is a new problem with the K3S? Or has it always been like this? There are so many settings that could have changed. You'd have to list them all for us. I assume that you know about the receive equalizer, AFX, and DSP, all of

Re: [Elecraft] A or B?

2021-07-21 Thread Al Lorona
The Logikey keyer by Idiom Press lists no less than ten "emulation options", or keyer timing modes. They are numbered "V0" through "V9", including three different Curtis A modes, three Accukeyer modes, and others. "V0" is the best timing I've ever used on a keyer. I don't know whether it's A,

Re: [Elecraft] Question about antenna matching

2021-07-13 Thread Al Lorona
Thanks to Al N1AL, Jack W6FB, and Dave AB7E for great information that helped me a lot. I'm in the circuit simulation business, after all, and I confess that I was just being lazy, so I ran some simulations that confirmed what Dave, in particular, had said. As suggested by Dave, I chose

[Elecraft] Question about antenna matching

2021-07-11 Thread Al Lorona
This question is about how manufacturers spec the matching range of their antenna tuners. If an antenna system presents an impedance of 5 + j0 ohms to the antenna tuner, that's an SWR = 10 to 1. But, an antenna impedance of 50 - j143 ohms is also SWR = 10. So is 110 - j200 ohms. When a

[Elecraft] The next generation KAT500

2021-07-01 Thread Al Lorona
The recent thread on small and inexpensive vector network analyzers made me wonder if and when someone will make either a manual or automatic antenna tuner with something like one of those VNAs used as a front panel display. With the VNA in Smith Chart format, how cool would it be to tune the

[Elecraft] Gurus

2021-06-08 Thread Al Lorona
When this subject appeared last week I had composed a reply but then slept on it and canceled it the next morning, as I probably do 80% of the time. In this my second attempt, let me say that I've always been amazed at the power wielded by Rob Sherwood. Thousands of hams hang on his latest

Re: [Elecraft] Delivery of the K4

2021-01-05 Thread Al Lorona
If by 'most infectious' you mean highest number of cases per 100K residents in the last 7 days, that distinction goes to Arizona.  If you mean most deaths per 100K in the last 7 days, CA isn't even close to Kansas in the top spot. But we Californians know what you meant, and thanks for the

[Elecraft] [OT] Fires

2020-10-14 Thread Al Lorona
So I read not only K6XX's report, but the entire issue of the Jug.   http://nccc.cc/jug/2020/09sep2020.pdf .  I am completely floored by the complete destruction of Bob's place. Bob, I don't know if you're a believer, but I for one am praying for strength for you, my friend. My impression of

[Elecraft] [OT] A Very Quiet Day

2020-09-10 Thread Al Lorona
Power was shut off to my noisy urban neighborhood yesterday while crews replaced a power pole. For a long time, I have wanted to check my HF noise floor when the power is out, and yesterday was my chance.  For days like this is why my station is solar-powered! I expected to be surprised but I

Re: [Elecraft] New antenna works!

2020-08-01 Thread Al Lorona
I'm glad Dave added that to the end of his message, because each time the topic of multiband antennas comes up, we are told, "That's too lofty a goal for one antenna. Just put up a resonant antenna and all your troubles will be gone." All except for the problem of operating on all bands without

Re: [Elecraft] Matching resonant antennas

2020-07-19 Thread Al Lorona
Using AC6LA's Line Loss calculator, and making the following assumptions: Line impedance: 420 ohms,  (1/4" copper pipe spaced 4 inches apart) SWR at antenna:  14.0  (Z = 30 ohms) Line attenuation:  0.0266 dB/100 feet  (Duffy, "RF Two Wire Transmission Line Loss Calculator",

[Elecraft] Fw: [OT] QST Scan

2020-07-17 Thread Al Lorona
I have the volunteer I needed to scan QST for me. Thanks, everybody. Al W6LX - Forwarded Message - From: Al Lorona To: Elecraft Reflector Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020, 01:41:11 PM PDT Subject: [Elecraft] [OT] QST Scan This is a request for a favor... to anybody who's got

[Elecraft] [OT] QST Scan

2020-07-17 Thread Al Lorona
This is a request for a favor... to anybody who's got a complete QST collection... would you be willing to scan 1 page from 1995 and send the scan to me? The low-res scanned copy on the QST Archive at the League's web site doesn't clearly show a detail that I'm interested in. If you're able

[Elecraft] [OT] Failed Day

2020-07-02 Thread Al Lorona
Not many FD reports on the reflector this year; Covid obviously took its toll, so I'll offer this (sad) report. NR6TT's Field Day was a Failed Day this year. Wanna know what it's like to break your slingshot on the very first attempt to use it? Good thing my 14-year-old was there to throw a few

Re: [Elecraft] K3 QSK Timing

2020-06-11 Thread Al Lorona
I have always felt as K9ZTV does. I don't mean to speak heresy here, and I would never deny anybody's right to use full QSK, such as when chasing DX. However, I have never felt the need to hear between dits. Between characters or words seems more than enough for me, especially at the CW speeds

Re: [Elecraft] CW rise time setting

2020-06-09 Thread Al Lorona
I used: 1/(1+exp(-x)) where x = the pulse train. I then modulated a 7 MHz carrier with the result (although the results don't care what the RF frequency is, of course). Al  W6LX >>>Which sigmoid function did you model, Al? __

Re: [Elecraft] CW rise time setting

2020-06-09 Thread Al Lorona
I used to think that the rise and fall times of the CW pulse didn't really matter much to the sideband levels; I believed that it was more a function of the waveshaping, especially at the corners of the pulse. But I just ran a quick simulation of a pulse train going through both a raised

Re: [Elecraft] K3 QSK Timing

2020-06-02 Thread Al Lorona
Really interesting, Vic. Here's a minor point: Instead of measuring to the "first whiff" of RF, I'd probably measure to the point of 90% of max RF value. This is because the rise time of a pulse is usually defined as the time to go from 10% to 90% of the final (peak) value.  Congratulations on

Re: [Elecraft] K4???

2020-05-15 Thread Al Lorona
Jim is right. Those of you outside of California would probably have a difficult time imagining how differently we are experiencing the lockdown-- which is an aptly descriptive noun-- here in California. The latest long-term outlook we received from Sacramento earlier this week made most of us

Re: [Elecraft] RX Ant K3 Preamp vs External Preamp

2020-04-26 Thread Al Lorona
Precisely the intended application for a visual aid to show where the sensitivity of the receiver sits relative to the band noise. W3LPL is absolutely correct in asserting that relatively few know how to optimize their settings for a given band condition. Just sayin'. Al  W6LX > wrote:

Re: [Elecraft] K3/K3S receiver and high-precision frequencydetermination?

2020-04-24 Thread Al Lorona
It's a good thing I didn't carry through on my plan to operate the K3 with a paper in the place of the top cover! That was a close call. Seriously, don't *all* DDSs/PLLs/synthesizers/SDRs (and, thus, all modern transceivers) tune in steps? How is the tuning step related to the stability of an

Re: [Elecraft] K4 S-meter characteristics

2020-04-23 Thread Al Lorona
Now that the K4 has exact knowledge of its gains and losses through the preamps, attenuators, splitters, bandpass filters and so forth, could this enable an alternate way of visualizing the receiver's range? This alternate measurement would be quite useful in setting the controls optimally for

Re: [Elecraft] K3 on SSB

2020-03-31 Thread Al Lorona
Jack beat me to the comment I was going to make. Far be it from me to contradict a seasoned contester like W3LPL, nor to dismiss the comments of many others, but I wonder how many "the K3 sounds bad on SSB" comments occur because of operator error in setting the AGC and gain controls

[Elecraft] Results of 'survey'

2020-03-29 Thread Al Lorona
Thanks to all who replied to my question about gap width on your paddles. I got answers ranging from 0.6 mil (15.24 micron) to 30 mil (0.762 mm), a spread of 50x! This obviously comes down to personal preference. I had to smile at the reply from George, W3HBM: "Whatever feels good to you! 

[Elecraft] [OT] Gap Width

2020-03-28 Thread Al Lorona
Hi, Everybody, What do you set your gap width to on the contacts of your paddles? Is there an optimum gap width, or is it totally a personal preference? Because this is an off-topic post, if you reply to me please do it directly. Thanks! Regards, Al  W6LX

[Elecraft] The Phone Call

2019-12-10 Thread Al Lorona
I just read the Elecraft December Newsletter, so I made a quick phone call. It's still morning over there. Big Radio Company: How may I direct your call? Me: Yes, hello, I'd like to speak to your CTO. BRC: Oh, I'm sorry sir, but I can't do that. Me: How about a co-founder? BRC: No... Me: Why

Re: [Elecraft] Center-fed antennas

2019-10-10 Thread Al Lorona
Fair enough, but it kinda goes without saying that in a group FD with 1 station per band they'll use resonant, single-band antennas. If this is our best argument against the 'multiband dipole', then that antenna still holds its own pretty well in a multitude of other situations. I have always

Re: [Elecraft] Center-fed antennas

2019-10-10 Thread Al Lorona
Precisely because of this objection and countless others, is why I expressly stated, "...at the expense of any other possible advantage." I think we all understand that there's no magic antenna. The 'magic' of the antenna we're discussing here is simplicity, all-frequency operation, and high

[Elecraft] Center-fed antennas

2019-10-10 Thread Al Lorona
My experience with single vertical or sloping wires is exactly the same as AB7E's. I have, over almost twice as many Field Days as Dave, come to a similar conclusion, with the slight difference being my preference for an "all-band dipole" fed with balanced line. This obviates the balun and

Re: [Elecraft] KPA-1500 failing on 160...AGAIN!

2019-09-30 Thread Al Lorona
And not just antenna and feedlines, but the AC wiring in your shack, the potential EMI problems, etc. This is why I keep saying that hams badly need a tutorial -- perhaps something named, "What to Expect When You Run High Power".  There are lots of us, including me, that could learn about the

Re: [Elecraft] New K1 Kit

2019-06-06 Thread Al Lorona
1/ It always seemed to me that this method heats up the components much more than using a simple soldering iron, where you can pause between soldering each pad to allow heat to dissipate. 2/ Is that a capacitor standing up at about the 1:12 mark? Not good. Al  W6LX

Re: [Elecraft] portable antennas and rigs going through airport security

2019-06-03 Thread Al Lorona
I am sure there are just as many horror stories as "I've never had a problem" stories. Such as the time I was carrying a small Ten-Tec shortwave receiver and was detained for almost half an hour while the agent stared and actually asked me, "Voices come out of this thing?"  Meanwhile, an

Re: [Elecraft] K4 and Linux Infrastructure

2019-06-03 Thread Al Lorona
You guys have now reached the scenario I was trying to ask about last week, but obviously didn't make myself understood. When I asked if the K4 would be able to 'talk to the outside world', I meant an ability to initiate communications with a web site, a server, or something else. Yes, allowing

Re: [Elecraft] High Resolution K4 JPG/TIF?

2019-05-31 Thread Al Lorona
Thanks for posting that, wunder. It was bound to happen... a radio whose font size will *force* me to wear my glasses while operating it.  >>sigh<<. Here's a really dumb question: Is the Ethernet bi-directional? We know that the radio can be talked to (controlled) by some external thing.

Re: [Elecraft] Level of K3S audio out to digital apps on Mac

2019-05-23 Thread Al Lorona
Adding on to the RF part of the adjustment described by Mr. McGraw below, the idea described in this old post-- I still contend-- would be a very useful graphical way of making the adjustment. Not coincidentally, I wrote it in response to a similar post by Bob almost two years ago:

[Elecraft] Measuring SWR (Long)

2019-04-09 Thread Al Lorona
There's always a lot of discussion about measuring SWR, low SWR values, SWR lights not lighting up, etc. Here's something that might give you a better 'feel' for SWR. Imagine that you measure your forward power at 100 W and your reflected power at only 1 W. You'd probably be very happy about

Re: [Elecraft] The case against touch screens

2019-03-25 Thread Al Lorona
I don't think you guys understood me. I shouldn't have veiled my concern with a tongue-in-cheek post. So I will be direct. I was referring to the physiological event of touching a screen with a finger. It must be just me, because a large percentage of the time a touch screen does not respond

[Elecraft] The case against touch screens

2019-03-24 Thread Al Lorona
Thaddeus sits down at the rig. Today is the day Bouvet is supposed to come on the air, and thousands of hams around the world must be tuning around at this moment trying to be the first to work the DXpedition. He gets a feeling and tunes low in the band, turning the knob as if he were breaking

[Elecraft] 1500 W is a lot of power

2019-03-11 Thread Al Lorona
About two months ago I posted that amateur radio needs a tutorial, 'What to expect when you get an amplifier'. As we see again and again here even basic things like cables, connectors, grounding, and house wiring that work fine at 100 W may be inadequate for 1500 W. We need guidance to study

Re: [Elecraft] KAT 500 and open wire

2019-01-18 Thread Al Lorona
G3TXQ's work here is awesome, as is N7WS's before him. I'm thinking two things: Thing 1 is that, clearly, water really messes up window line's loss. However, I'm guessing that a/ in a place like southern California, where perpetual drought is the new normal; and b/ in an installation where the

Re: [Elecraft] Non-Resonant Antennas and Chokes

2019-01-13 Thread Al Lorona
>>> the feedline is a wire dangling from the antenna  >>> that isn't connected to anything on the other end. That "dangling wire" is actually *two* wires, and the field of one cancels the field of the other for no net radiation or reception -- at least that is the condition we're trying to

Re: [Elecraft] Slightly Unbalanced dipole?

2019-01-13 Thread Al Lorona
You guys keep talking about coax-fed antennas. Yes, although it may be easy to wind coax around a toroid and put it up at the antenna midpoint, that's not so easy with open-wire line. This discussion was very coax-centric and I wanted to open your minds that not everybody feeds their antenna

Re: [Elecraft] Slightly Unbalanced dipole?

2019-01-13 Thread Al Lorona
By the way, whenever Jim says, "...a very good common mode choke at the  feedpoint of an antenna...," he means an antenna fed with coax. For the rest of us, of course, that choke would (should) go at the output of the antenna tuner, whether in the shack or close by. Al  W6LX  

Re: [Elecraft] Sorta OT - assistive technology assistance

2019-01-11 Thread Al Lorona
JR - I have a folder of dozens of replies to Elecraft posts that I've never sent. (I try to exercise discipline so that the moderator doesn't have to slap me on the hand.) But your reply said *exactly* what a draft that I had written said. I'm very happy that you expressed the same idea.

Re: [Elecraft] Tuners and spurious responses

2018-12-22 Thread Al Lorona
No, not a null, but a rolloff. When I quoted -40 dB I didn't mean a notch at one frequency, but the stopband level reached by the time you get well into the broadcast band. So that would be -40 dB on all AM stations below a certain frequency. The K3 is a good receiver, but every receiver has

Re: [Elecraft] Tuners and spurious responses

2018-12-21 Thread Al Lorona
Vic, it may well be your imagination (!) but you may also be hearing the rejection that your tuner gives you, particularly to strong AM stations in the broadcast band. My measurements, as well as circuit simulation, show about a 40 dB rejection of AM stations when the tuner is tuned to 40

[Elecraft] [OT] FT-8 files

2018-08-20 Thread Al Lorona
I'd like to obtain IQ baseband files of an FT-8 signal, either separate I and Q files or combined in one text file. Is that easy for someone to do? Thanks, and please contact me off list. Al  W6LX __ Elecraft mailing list Home:

Re: [Elecraft] Portable Battery tests

2018-08-17 Thread Al Lorona
Howie this is excellent data. Thank you for your work in this area. The table really clearly shows the tradeoffs between cost, weight, volume, capacity and everything else. Alkaline batteries do pretty well for themselves, although I'm not sure why the voltage for 8 cells is listed at only 9.6

Re: [Elecraft] help wiring a mic?

2018-07-06 Thread Al Lorona
The poor guy who started this thread just wanted to know how to wire a mic. It quickly became a discussion of whether he should even use that mic. I don't believe we have that right. The question is about an XLR connector. We should either answer his question or lay out. Al W6LX

Re: [Elecraft] [K3] factory upgrade to K3(s)

2018-06-29 Thread Al Lorona
I'm not sure I agree with the exact numbers, Ian. I'm looking at the review from Nov 2015 QST (from the Product Review archive on www.arrl.org ) and it appears that the difference in phase noise between old and new synths is closer to about 3 dB (difficult to tell from the graph) beginning at

Re: [Elecraft] Field Day Report

2018-06-24 Thread Al Lorona
NR6TT/7, situated 1500 feet above Flaming Gorge in extreme northeastern Utah at 7700 feet, was plagued not primarily by the thunderstorm QRN, dead band conditions, or the incredible windstorm on Saturday night that undid a tautline hitch and knocked down our antenna, but by curious passers-by

Re: [Elecraft] Field Day rig experience

2018-06-10 Thread Al Lorona
If you do take the icom, at 3.5A receive current drain you'd better take two extra batteries, too. Al W6LX >> Take the K3 , leave the IC-7610 at home. It’s to darn heavy to lug around. >> (19 lbs ) >>NS2N __ Elecraft mailing list

Re: [Elecraft] Boldly OT: 6 meter Sporadic-E season and the FT-8 microjuggernaut

2018-06-01 Thread Al Lorona
I wrote an April Fool's article back in like 1999 (I might still be able to find it on dejanews) describing a make-believe ARRL contest which was totally automated; contesters could come home from work and peruse their logs to see what stations their computers had 'worked' that day.  When

Re: [Elecraft] New to Elecraft and my experience

2018-05-23 Thread Al Lorona
Contrast your experience, James, with what happened recently when I purchased a kit on eBay from a seller in a country that now has the NSA observing me closely for collusion. When I emailed to tell the seller that two critical parts were missing from the kit, he replied that that was "rubbish"

Re: [Elecraft] When to use the preamp on the K3/K3S

2018-05-23 Thread Al Lorona
Scott, If the weakest signals are already activating the AGC, that's the exact condition that leads to the many 'my K3 is noisy' complaints that we see here. Plus, that tends to make all signals sound like they're the same strength, another complaint we've heard in the past. In fact, you

Re: [Elecraft] K3 Preamp 2

2018-04-07 Thread Al Lorona
Hi, Barry, It's not the signals that determine whether you need a preamp, it's the noise level. A receiver should have enough gain to put its internal noise floor below the external, atmospheric noise floor, so that it doesn't become the limiting factor in hearing weak signals close to the

Re: [Elecraft] P3 vs LP-Pan / NaP3

2018-03-23 Thread Al Lorona
>>> But who doesn't use a shack >>> computer these days? Me. Al W6LX __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This

[Elecraft] [OT] Measurement of Power

2018-03-19 Thread Al Lorona
I re-named the thread as a courtesy to the members who don't want to read this. We're getting caught in a mathematical war between the linear and logarithmic worlds. ± 20% in Watts, is about ± 1 dB in log. 1 dB accuracy is plenty good enough for us, folks. Especially given that any impedance

Re: [Elecraft] DMM Recommendations -- Fluke 179?

2018-03-19 Thread Al Lorona
If we are to be consistent and follow advice from countless (delighted) Elecraft owners on this list, any buyer of test equipment like the DMM in question is going to ensure that the company will be easy to contact and work with and stand behind its product when necessary. Yes, many times I've

[Elecraft] [OT] The Ultimate List of Hobbies for Men

2018-03-04 Thread Al Lorona
I found it mildly gratifying that our hobby is listed at #2 of these 75: https://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/01/25/the-ultimate-list-of-hobbies-for-men-75-ideas-for-your-free-time/ Certainly, climbing a tower, sticking your hands into the HV compartment of an amplifier, or emergency

Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft KX2 compared with the latest "Ultra Portable" (?)

2018-03-01 Thread Al Lorona
Poor Wayne. No matter how he positions an Elecraft product, a prevailing response is, "Yeah, but Elecraft doesn't do A or B." As consumers, we have been perfectly conditioned to regard more as better. I mean, if Brand X has 'more' than Brand Y, we automatically declare Brand X the winner.

Re: [Elecraft] UHF connectors [was: Array Solutions Lightning Arrestor]

2018-02-11 Thread Al Lorona
Excellent. Thank you, Alan. Data for this particular measurement are very difficult to find on the web -- of course it took an ex-HP guy to do it! Times Microwave (a manufacturer of coaxial cable) says 0.01 dB per UHF connector pair (PL-259-to-SO-239) at HF; I have seen other private

[Elecraft] I would like to get in touch with...

2017-12-27 Thread Al Lorona
... Icom owners who have received a technical response from the president and lead designer of Icom and/or sent in a photograph of their rig from overseas and had Icom service technicans troubleshoot it for them just from the photo. Al W6LX

Re: [Elecraft] IC-7610 added to Sherwood's list

2017-12-24 Thread Al Lorona
Does anybody know if the "dual RX" is full diversity reception? Al W6LX >>> ...to support the "dual RX" capability of the 7610. __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help:

Re: [Elecraft] K3 / RF gain - S meter issue - Similar issue

2017-12-14 Thread Al Lorona
You said, "In my opinion based on inspection of the schematic, the issue resides in the fet post-filter amplifier that is controlled by the "hardware" AGC (and manual "RF" gain control)." You were making a relationship between hardware AGC and the loose spec of the FET in question. By saying

Re: [Elecraft] K3 / RF gain - S meter issue - Similar issue

2017-12-14 Thread Al Lorona
Wes stated that there's a component in the AGC circuit that changes the onset of hardware AGC due to component tolerances. I suggested putting that theory to the test by actually measuring it. Al W6LX __ Elecraft mailing list Home:

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