WOW, I'm impressed. I too am a low tier contestor, and I also turned in the best score I ever had for SS-SSB. My K3 worked flawlessly the entire weekend and the time i spent on the contest was rewareded with mostly easy to make qso's.
The addition of the P3 last week made it even easier. I'm an S & P contester, and before when I left one contact, I would creep up/dn the band until I heard another station. With the P3 set to +/- 10khz, and PEAK HOLD on, I could 'see' the qso's up and down the band and know to stop at the next one, even tho it was quiet at the time. I knew it would come back in a few seconds. This way I picked up a lot of stations I would normally pass by. Even the K3 filters get confused with 3 qso's in 4Khz of bandwidth! But I got some of them. If things were really bad, I'd move on if I had the Section already. Noticed two things with this contest. First, how many stations were occupying as much as 4 kHz of bandwidth. And, did you notice how man were using some form recorded exchanges/calls? And how many sounded absolutely terrible? I'm talking outright lousy distorted audio. Some I had to ask for a repeat item by item to get him to actually speak and not re-play the recording. I think they would be astounded and maybe embarrassed if they heard them selves on the air. I started using my KDVR3 but after hearing some of the others, I quit, not knowing how I really sounded. I know my mic sounds good. Will have to check this out soon with some on air recordings from friends. OK, who's got the Kool-Aid pitcher? Where are the nuts and pretzels? ...bc nr4c Quoting Nate Bargmann <n...@n0nb.us>: > Before I start I should note that I'm not a top tier contester. For > that matter I probably don't even rank very high in the bottom tier, but > I enjoy the operating so I keep at it. Some may even argue that the K3 > is too advanced of a tool for a back bencher like myself, but I think it > is a good tool regardless as I will turn in my best personal score of > SSB SS ever even though I missed the sweep by PR and VI. > > I'll add my voice to the chorus praising Elecraft for doing an > outstanding job with the K3. The receiver meets the hype, IMO, allowing > me to copy stations that would have been unworkable with my previous > equipment or at least much more difficult. My previous FT-920 had a DSP > with Lo and Hi cut so its use on the K3 is natural to me. The > difference is that nothing gets around the K3's filters to bother the > DSP (to be fair, the '920s DSP was audio based and out of the AGC loop > but it could be turned off and one could find many deficiences in the > IF). I was quite pleased to engage the cut in whatever direction needed > and often I had clear copy on an otherwise covered signal. > > An improved 80/160m doublet allowed me to actually run on 80m Sunday > morning and evening. Reports indicated good audio and strong signals. > I was driving the K3 with a Heil Proset Micro with an HC5-5 element. > Watching the PA temp I never saw it rise above 37C and never heard the > fans kick up during my runs. > > For the first time in many years I gave VOX a try and it was equally as > useful as the other aspects of the K3. Once set with the microphone > boom set correctly I was able to operate as smoothly as using the foot > switch. I even ate a pickle during Sunday evening's run and the VOX > did not pick that up! I did not engage the anti-VOX as I had already > set the noise gate. > > I am pleased with my purchase of the K3. It is a powerful and useful > tool no matter one's operating interests, in my opinion. Perhaps I'm > not the ultimate judge as I don't have any large stations locally to > contend with but I found the receiver to be crunch proof this weekend. > The transmitter ran cool and without complaint even when I forgot to > reset the tuner on excursions up the band on 80m. As I've had six weeks > to get familiar to the layout, reaching for a needed function did not > require consulting the manual or delving into the menus (only needed to > get into the menu when setting the VOX). > > I recommend the K3 to anyone looking to improve their station. I expect > mine to be on my desk for a long time to come. > > 73, de Nate, N0NB >> > > K3 S/N 4762 with 4.22 beta > > -- > > "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all > possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." > > Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://n0nb.us/index.html > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ 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 list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
