My P3 came a couple of weeks ago and went together just fine. The bands have been bad at my QTH for a long time yet every time I go camping they are good. The first thing the P3 showed me was a higher then expected noise level on all the bands. I had a noise level of -90 to maybe -100 at best. I took the K3 and P3 out to the camp ground about 70 miles from home and the noise on the bands ran from -120 to -130 dbm. No wonder all these years my 44 ft camping doublet seemed better than my Hy-Gain Hy tower or my 105 ft doublet fed with window line at home. I also notice on 40 meters at the camp ground that the background noise along with the signals came up at night. That would explain why I sometimes heard signals at home but always with lots of noise. When I got home I found my old MFJ Noise Canceling Signal Enhancer (MFJ-=1026) in my shed and hooked it up. I had never been able to make it work using the S meters of my IC-746PRO or K3. The S-meters just did not have enough resolution and a receiver does not look at enough of the band. I set the P3 to a scale of 30 and band span to 100 khz. I started playing with the 1026. I was able to measure the levels of each antenna on the P3 than match them. The phase knob and switch were set for a null in the noise than the strongest antenna was adjusted for more of a dip until the phase and antenna were adjusted for the minimum noise. I can tune in a signal and adjust to 1026 for best signal to noise. Now I can hear and work stations on 40, 20 and 30 meters. If I turn off the 1026 the stations I hear go away except for the strongest and they even get noisy. A station with 40 db signal to noise on the P3 becomes 5 db signal to noise when I turn off the 1026. When I turn the 1026 back on the band again has many stations and I am able to work them just like I can from the camp ground. North Dakota is getting cold with winter coming so it will be good to camp in my own house and be able to make ham radio contacts this winter. I hope I can make 80 and 160 meters work too but my antennas may be too close together on this small city lot to get enough phase difference. The P3 reminds me of the HP Spectrum analyzer I used on the last generation of digital microwave at the phone company and I always missed using that after I retired. It has already proved it's worth to me and I see the software is only going to get better. Thanks to Elecraft for the K3 and P3 giving me back ham radio in my retirement.
Ken W0CZ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
