You don't need a fancy antenna to receive lots of signals on HF. A random length of wire should yield plenty that are above S3. My main antenna is a simple 100 ft length of wire 30' high which can often work DX stations in a pileup, let alone receive them well; and this with only 10 watts output.
As a simple test attach a length of wire to the other K3 antenna jack and tune in WWV 10 MHz or W1AW. At one time or another during the day you should definitely get some S9 or better signals. You can compare the reception of the simple wire to that of your vertical. Also, try tuning across some of the DX pileups such as for the CY0 DXpedition or 4A4A. (Google these or look for them on dxwatch.com) There will typically be many, many signals to hear in the pileup and some of them should be quite strong at your location, even with the simplest receiving antenna. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:06:19 -0800, you wrote: >At the risk of exposing what a n00b I am when it comes to HF, I really >need some help. I recently (last month) purchased a K3. First HF >radio I have owned. I got my license 2 years ago and have spent most >of the time since playing with VHF. I have been trying to teach >myself CW and decided that it was time to step into the HF waters. I >studied, ogled, and dreamed of my ideal HF transceiver. I finally >found the K3 and having looked (at least a cursory glance) at all the >others, I was sold. I saved my pennies and purchased. I also got >myself a 43' untuned vertical antenna, balun, and radial wires. > >My setup: K3/100 has 100 feet of low loss 400 coax out to the 43 foot >vertical on the hill in my back yard. It has 8 25 foot radials and a >4:1 balun. The K3 has the KATU3, KPA3, KTCXO3-1, KFL3A-400, and >default 2.8KHz filters. I assembled it and did followed the >calibration instructions as well as I could. I think I got >everything, but obviously I missed something. Or maybe I just need an >elmer to tell me what to do. > >I cannot seem to find any signals that make the S meter go above a 3 >or 4. I have the RF gain turned up a fair ways (mostly to the top), >and I can hear static. As I tune up some of the bands on SSB, I can >hear a tone that changes higher in pitch as I tune up in frequency. I >have tried listening for CW, but I am hearing nothing as I scan >through the bands. I had a 10m horizontal dipole taped to my wall for >a while until I found time to run the coax out to the back yard. I >had hoped that since it was resonant on the 10m band, maybe it would >be able to pick up something, but it was no better (or worse) than my >vertical. > >As far as I can tell, the radio seems to transmit. I can see the >power meter moving and the SWR meter moving. The ATU seems to be able >to find acceptable settings on most of the bands with the vertical. >But I can't hear them. You can't work them if you can't hear them, >right? > >This is a desperate plea for help. Is it the radio or me? Please >have pity on the n00b and walk me through my first HF contact. > >--Vernon N7OH >______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 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
